Microsoft News Tracker

A selection of Microsoft goodies from Santa’s sack:

Visions of sugarplums danced in their heads - Merrill Bets On Yahoo!-AOL Merger, but they don’t rule out Microsoft. Most interesting part:

Merrill also highlights this tidbit: “our understanding is that AOL’s current contract with Google has a change in control clause that would allow either [Microsoft] or Yahoo! to move its traffic onto their platforms.”

And Apple must have been not naughty, but nice this year - Planned Home PC Purchases Surge, Apple Closes On HP. Also IDC says that while 3Q2006 US sales were flat, global sales are rising and laptops now outsell desktops. More on IDC’s report here.

More gifts - Microsoft Teams With Macrovision to Populate Windows Marketplace with over 1,000 games. I’d nearly forgotten about Windows Marketplace, Microsoft’s digital delivery store for PC software and more.

Mom’s Genuine Holiday Surprise - Microsoft no longer thinks Joe Wilcox’s mother is a software pirate.

Finally, a lump of coal for Windows Live Drive which may be DOA.

Wait, there’s more!

First Exploit Of Windows Vista Spotted. It doesn’t seem to be much of an exploit, but it’s notable for being the first admitted exploit for Vista. Microsoft is very precise these days on which security holes are attributable to Vista and which to programs that run on Vista.

Here it comes - Microsoft builds Vista buzz in Tokyo’s Akihabara.

Google edged out Yahoo to become the number 2 Web venue in term of worldwide visitors during November according to comScore. Microsoft is still number 1. Google results did not include YouTube which was 10th.

Microsoft fights Gmail in the workplace - it’s all about mailbox size.

Microsoft made available version 1.2 of the Team Foundation Server MSSCCI (Microsoft Source Code Control Interface) Provider which allows a range of IDEs to access Team Foundation Server, the collaboration component of the Visual Studio 2005 Team System platform.

Microsoft in legal battle over ‘Halo’ game for mobile phones. Follow the link for Todd Bishop’s explanation of why French game maker In-Fusio is suing Microsoft. I’m still trying to figure what playing Halo on a mobile phone could possibly be like.

Microsoft today retroactively extended the Xbox 360 warranty for US and Canadian customers to one year. Unlike most of the rest of the world, it had been 90 days in those countries. Customers who paid for out-of-warranty repairs within the one year period will be reimbursed. Ed Oswald at BetaNews suggests some motivations:

Microsoft is locked in a fierce battle with competitors Sony and Nintendo to maintain its lead in the next-generation console race. While the Wii carries a warranty of 90 days, much like the Xbox 360 originally did, Sony has guaranteed its hardware for a period of one year.

Video game console repairs can sometimes be an expensive endeavor once the console falls out of warranty: depending on what breaks, those repairs can sometimes run into the hundreds of dollars.

Xbox 360’s 90-day warranty has already gotten the company into legal trouble. One frustrated console owned filed suit against the company after an update “bricked” his console and Microsoft refused to repair it without charging the consumer.

It is not clear if these legal issues had anything to do with the warranty extension.

I’m sure they didn’t hurt.

It looks like the Orgami (AKA UMPC) form factor portable PC sponsored by Microsoft and Intel is getting a second chance - Ina Fried at CNET:

Get ready for Origami take two. While Microsoft’s minitablet effort may not be quite where the software maker had hoped, the project is ready for another cameo.

This spring, Microsoft attracted huge buzz for the Origami prior to its launch, but as details emerged and the products hit the market, they were roundly criticized as overpriced and underpowered.

Next month, at CES, Microsoft will be back with another round of the tiny computers. The latest tablets, code-named Vistagami because of their Windows Vista support, also will come in a wider range of looks, including some models with keyboards. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is expected to mention some of the new devices in his CES keynote as part of a broader discussion of the new types of computers that will be enabled with Vista, including new all-in-one PCs and other esoteric designs.

But it’s unclear whether the new crop of devices will do that much to address the two biggest criticisms of the category: price and battery life.

More details by following the link, but adding Vista or a keyboard isn’t enough in my opinion. The good news is that so far a viral marketing campaign hasn’t been spotted.

Microsoft’s Linux deal with Novell is the gift that keeps on giving. The latest: well known developer Jeremy Allison resigned from Novell with the Microsoft Novell agreement as the proximate cause:

The legendary Jeremy Allison (of Samba fame) has resigned from Novell in protest over the Microsoft-Novell patent agreement, which he calls “a mistake” which will be “damaging to Novell’s success in the future.”

His main issue with the deal, though, is “that even if it does not violate the letter of the licence, it violates the intent of the GPL licence the Samba code is released under, which is to treat all recipients of the code equally.” He leaves the company at the end of this month. He explained why in a message sent to several Novell email lists, and the message included his letter to management:

“Whilst the Microsoft patent agreement is in place there is *nothing* we can do to fix community relations. And I really mean nothing,” Allison wrote. “Until the patent provision is revoked, we are pariahs….Unfortunately the time I am willing to wait for this agreement to be changed …has passed, and so I must say goodbye.”

You can read Allison’s full letter by following the link. Mary Jo Foley has a brief email interview with Allison that reveals that he is going to Google.

Meanwhile, Microsoft and Novell continued putting lipstick on the pig with a joint press release ([1], [2]) touting “More Customer Momentum Around the Microsoft-Novell Agreement”:

Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse and AIG Technologies today became some of the first customers to tap the benefits of the recently announced collaboration between Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. on interoperability between Microsoft Windows and Linux. Under three separate customer agreements, Microsoft will deliver to each company SUSE Linux Enterprise subscription certificates, allowing these customers to take advantage of the Microsoft and Novell agreement. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and AIG Technologies, which is a member company of American International Group Inc., highlighted the benefits of interoperability, the patent cooperation agreement and the road map for bidirectional virtualization solutions as the deciding factors in their choice.

Recall that Microsoft paid Novell for the certificates and “Microsoft may use, resell or distribute them over the term of the agreement, allowing customers to redeem a single or multi-year subscription for upgrades, updates and technical support from Novell.” There was no word on the financial details of the arrangements with the three customers.