PCM2 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Microsoft licenses Office UI

Submitted by

PCM2

on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @10:23PM

PCM2 writes: "Old-time Mac OS programmers will remember when Apple first released its groundbreaking Human Interface Guidelines, which described how developers could give a consistent UI to their Mac software. Fast-forward to today and Microsoft is doing something similar with its much-touted new UI for Office. Only in Redmond's case, the UI must be licensed to each developer. Among the terms of the license: 'The Design Guidelines are Microsoft's confidential information. As long as they remain confidential, you cannot disclose them to anyone else without Microsoft's prior written approval ... This license contains no sub-license rights.' Apparently the UI is valuable Microsoft intellectual property."

Submission + - Novell CEO addresses patent concerns

Submitted by

PCM2

on Monday November 20, 2006 @07:38PM

PCM2 writes: "Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian has issued an open letter to the press and Linux community addressing some of the concerns about his company's recent deal with Microsoft. From the letter: "We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents. Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. When we entered the patent cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.""

Submission + - Oracle to Compete Wth Red Hat for Linux Support

Submitted by

PCM2

on Wednesday October 25, 2006 @06:37PM

PCM2 writes: "It's not Oracle Linux, but Larry Ellison has announced that Oracle will be providing full enterprise support for Linux. This means not just phone calls but also patches, security fixes, and backports, in addition to indemnification from lawsuits like SCO's. This puts Oracle in direct competition with its erstwhile partner, Red Hat, whose entire business is based on providing similar support for its Linux distro and related software."

Submission + - Dell unveils first Opteron servers

Submitted by PCM2 on Monday October 23, 2006 @05:17PM

PCM2 writes: At the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco today, Dell unveiled its first servers running AMD Opteron CPUs. Both a two-socket and four-socket model were introduced. The announcement had been preceded, earlier in the day, by a keynote address from AMD's CEO, Hector Ruiz.

Submission + - allofmp3 Against the World

Submitted by

PCM2

on Wednesday October 18, 2006 @03:37PM

PCM2 writes: "Russian MP3 site allofmp3.com has announced that it plans to make thousands of albums available for free, in defiance of growing pressure from international governments and recording industry associations that want the site shut down. Meanwhile, Visa has announced that it has suspended service for allofmp3, and that the service can no longer accept Visa cards. The allofmp3 story seems to be coming to a conclusion."

Submission + - A Week Trapped in the Browser

Submitted by

PCM2

on Saturday October 07, 2006 @04:12PM

PCM2 writes: "Over at InfoWorld, Oliver Rist recently accepted the challenge to use nothing but Web-based apps for one week. The goal was to do everything he does normally — which mostly involved office-productivity apps, including word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software — without ever touching Microsoft Office, or any other desktop software. After looking at Writely, JotSpot, iRows, Zoho, and a bunch of others, his verdict is about what you suspect ... though there were some stand-outs among the pack. His whole adventure is also available as a PDF."

Submission + - How much is Vista worth?

Submitted by

PCM2

on Wednesday September 06, 2006 @02:19PM

PCM2 writes: "Chris Null at Yahoo breaks down the advertised new features of Windows Vista, line by line, and comes up with an estimated value of each (based on what they are replacing or what it might cost to buy third-party software to do the same thing in XP). Windows Sidebar scores a net value of zero, as does Windows Calendar and Windows DVD Maker. Media Player 11 scores a buck. Nonetheless, Null's final estimation is that Windows Vista is worth about $133."

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