Microsoft News Tracker

There seems to be a shortage of real Microsoft news today, but there’s no shortage of rumors:

The Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo rumor is back again. Or is it Yahoo buying AOL? Or merging with eBay or buying Facebook or…? The variants are seemingly as endless as Yahoo’s perceived problems.

For a brief while Windows Vista RTM was imminent today, but the definitive rumor remains Paul Thurrott’s prediction of a just in time delivery on November 8. For humor there’s also the cyclical theory of Microsoft operating system quality which indicates that Vista may be doomed from the start (via Enterprise OpenSource Magazine).

Windows Live and MSN Reorg:

News is filtering out that Steve Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering, is orchestrating another reorg at MSN and Windows Live.

Zune European Launch May Be Delayed Until 2008 (via Zune News Site):

One reason for the delay is that Microsoft doesn’t yet have a European product czar for the Zune to coordinate a launch. And the recently appointed figurehead for Zune International is just now working to build up relationships in region. Even more telling is that fact that Microsoft’s doesn’t yet have an infrastructure in place in Europe to provide music online. “We haven’t yet selected a music store provider to build marketplace in the UK, which means we’re way off launch,” said Dene Schonknecht, media and entertainment alliance manager for Microsoft.

and via the same source since no list of rumors is complete without one involving Apple, Apple iPhone Speculation Reaches Fever Pitch. It’s supposedly coming in January.