Microsoft News Tracker

With Neelie Kroes looking over their shoulders and the entreaties of Web developers ringing in their ears, Microsoft is promising that the default mode for Internet Explorer 8 will follow the latest Web standards:

Consistent with its efforts to promote further interoperability across the Web, Microsoft Corp. is now configuring the settings in Internet Explorer 8, the upcoming version of its browser, to render content — by default — using methods that give top priority to Web standards interoperability.

The progressive evolution of the Web has necessitated that browsers such as Internet Explorer include multiple content-rendering modes – both supporting strict interpretation of certain Web standards and also supporting behaviors designed to maintain compatibility with existing Web sites. Web site designers generally have the ability to specify which mode they are designing for; in the absence of specific instructions from a Web site, browsers are pre-set to use one of the modes by default.

Internet Explorer 8 has been designed to include three rendering modes: one that reflects Microsoft’s implementation of current Web standards, a second reflecting Microsoft’s implementation of Web standards at the time of the release of Internet Explorer 7 in 2006, and a third based on rendering methods dating back to the early Web. The newest rendering mode is forward-looking and preferred by Web designers, while the others are present to enable compatibility with the myriad sites across the Web that are currently optimized for previous versions of Internet Explorer.

Originally, the plan had been to make the IE7 compatible mode the default. The first beta of IE8 is expected in 1H2008. I also hope that the second thing on Microsoft’s IE8 list is to spiff up the incredibly sluggish performance of IE7.

Update: No sooner mentioned than the first beta of IE8 arrived on March 5, but there still are problems with IE8 passing the ACID2 test.

A variety of Microsoft news items from this week that did not find a post of their own.

EU Asks Microsoft Rivals About Word, Excel Dominance:

European regulators are questioning Microsoft Corp.’s competitors on whether the company is using its dominance in word processing and spreadsheets to thwart rivals, weighing whether to open a new front in the antitrust dispute.

Danger, Will Robinson! Related: EU Extends Microsoft’s Deadline to April 23 to Answer New EU Charges on Licenses.

Yahoo ups the ante for free email with unlimited storage offer. Maybe they make it up on volume? Perhaps more importantly, they also opened up the Yahoo mail APIs to third party developers.

Microsoft warns of zero-day Windows bug. Even worse, it’s a drive-by for all Windows versions including Vista with tainted Web sites or email causing an immediate infection. The problem is due to a glitch in animated cursor handling and third parties are already releasing their own fixes while waiting for Microsoft. A fake IE7 download email is also making the rounds. I got one and was flattered that admin@microsoft.com wrote to personally ask me to download IE7 when I have been avoiding it like the plague.

Microsoft’s announcement of the Xbox 360 Elite was rather an anticlimax after all the leaks. The key point is that the targets for the Elite are the upscale gamers and home entertainment users courted by Sony with the PS3 while Microsoft disdains those “childish” gamers buying the Nintendo Wii. (That’s Nintendo you hear laughing all the way to the bank.) There’s also another opinion that the primary target is really Wall Street, but I digress.  Meanwhile, Sony’s PS3 looks to be getting a new 80GB hard drive and apparently sold well after its European launch.

Zune finally got its 1.3 update and Zune market share slipped again in February.

BizTalk 2006 R2 Beta 2 will be available on Monday.

Microsoft added Netflix founder Reed Hastings to the board of directors and maintained the dividend at $0.10.

Microsoft beta tests Tahiti, yet another collaboration application, this one apparently destined for Office Live.

SoftGrid roadmap: SP1 for 4.1 expected in April/May and along with a tech preview of 4.2. 4.2 RTM and availability “some time around July.”

The PowerShell admin scripting language will ship in Windows Server Longhorn.

Some Microsoft news items that didn’t find a post of their own last week.

Microsoft tells SEC advertising is not “a separate product or service,” but will nonetheless report more financial details in the future. So what is it then? Office?

Zune fire sale at OfficeMax and Office Depot? Maybe, but not in the online stores that I can find. Also, a use finally found for Zune’s wireless feature.

Microsoft Office Open XML gets fast-tracked to ISO standard.

Microsoft scores more points in third round of Alcatel-Lucent patent bout.

Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack Service Pack 1 (SP1) released.

Windows Vista EULA Modified for Windows Anytime Upgrades. You can now move your upgraded retail copy of Vista unlimited times.

The winners in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Add-on Contest for IE7 were announced. The good news is that they are plenty useful. The bad news is that they are mostly the same add-ons that were most useful for IE6. Couldn’t IE7 at least have added inline search?

In-Fusio lawsuit settled, terms not divulged. Filed in December, it concerned development of a mobile phone version of Halo.

And in competitive news:

Viacom Sues Google for $1 Billion. Big Whoop. and Viacom vs. Google: Who’s The Daddy? No one negotiates better than the studios, but their style will be hampered by the sparse audience actually watching their stuff on YouTube.

Oracle mimics Microsoft’s per socket pricing. They used to price per core on multicore processor chips.

Some Microsoft news items from this week that did not find a post of their own.

An Open Letter to Microsoft: Re-Release Windows XP:

Dear Mr. Gates, Mr. Ballmer, and the many good folks at Microsoft Corp.,

It’s time to sober up on Windows Vista. This just isn’t working out, and your users are getting frustrated to the point where they’re souring on Windows altogether. In case you haven’t seen some of the more noteworthy blog posts on this topic, I refer you to Chris Pirillo, Scot’s Newsletter, or Spend Matters. Or check out the recent bug reports regarding product activation and security flaws. This is all stuff I managed to dredge up that was written yesterday.

Related complaints in When life sucks to be an IT manager. Yes, there are some compatibility problems with Vista, IE7, and Office 2007, but despite all the complaining, Vista is still going to be on over 95% of all PCs sold and IE7 and Office 2007 will remain the premier Web browser and office suite. The only question is how much of a PR black eye Microsoft receives.

Speaking of PR black eyes, head over to Ed Bott’s blog for the latest on Vista validation snafus. Meanwhile, Windows XP got a new “maybe pirate” category in the Windows Genuine Advantage pirate trapper.

Microsoft, others suffer as Google’s web search share grows. No matter whose numbers you prefer, Microsoft’s share is definitely down from a year ago although there’s a hint of a minor uptick in the last month.

Latest Zune stats: 10% of hard drive MP3 player market at North American big box retail according to NPD. Also Microsoft fix to keep Zune from skipping a beat coming in March.

Warner Buys Halo Soundtrack and Other Microsoft Game Music. Maybe it’ll be on iTunes?

Open source Exchange competitor Open-Xchange wins deal with giant web hoster 1&1 Internet.

California may adopt OpenDocument. Er, not quite. There’s enough wiggle room in the definition that Microsoft’s Open Office XML (OOXML) may get through.

Windows OneCare last in AV test and Windows Defender misses 47% of malware. Concerning the latter, Defender nonetheless tried to eat my Alexa toolbar this morning. Alexa may be many things but it’s not adware.

The Windows Live Product Search beta was updated to provide better performance.

Linux fans ask Steve Ballmer to Show Us the Code that Mr. Ballmer loves to suggest infringes on Microsoft intellectual property.

Microsoft, GM, Schwab, Halliburton Sued Over Network Security Technology.

Today, Bill Gates and Craig Mundie keynoted the RSA Conference 2007 and announced a variety of security related Microsoft initiatives. Perhaps the biggest news was announced in detail on the blog of Microsoft’s Kim Cameron where Microsoft pledged interoperability between its CardSpace identity technolgy and the emerging open standard, OpenID:

JanRain, Microsoft, Sxip, and VeriSign will collaborate on interoperability between OpenID and Windows CardSpace™ to make the Internet safer and easier to use. Specifically (excerpted - ed.):

• Microsoft recognizes the growth of the OpenID community and believes OpenID plays a significant role in the Internet identity infrastructure.  Kim Cameron, Chief Architect of Identity at Microsoft, will work with the OpenID community on authentication and anti-phishing.
• JanRain, Sxip, and VeriSign recognize that Information Cards provide significant anti-phishing, privacy, and convenience benefits to users.  Information Cards, based on the open WS-Trust standard, are available though Windows CardSpace™.
• JanRain, Sxip and VeriSign plan to add Information Card support to future identity solutions.
• Microsoft plans to support OpenID in future Identity server products
• The four companies have agreed to work together on a “Using Information Cards with OpenID” profile that will make it possible for other developers and service providers to take advantage of these technology advancements.

The OpenID connection wasn’t surprising given Microsoft’s past failed attempt to go it alone in the identity business with Passport.

Other Microsoft announcements:

• Microsoft announced Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007. Available to customers in May, ILM 2007 is a new solution that builds on Microsoft’s metadirectory and user provisioning capabilities by adding support for managing strong credentials such as certificates and smart cards. ILM provides an integrated and comprehensive solution for managing the entire life cycle of a user identity. Microsoft also unveiled a comprehensive strategy and road map for identity life-cycle management, including planned availability of ILM “2,” the next version of ILM, in late 2008.

…

• Microsoft launched the public beta of the new Forefront Server Security Management Console, a centralized, Web-based management solution for onsite or remote administration of Microsoft messaging and collaboration security solutions.

• Microsoft announced that it has enabled support for Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates in Internet Explorer 7, which is the first browser to fully support EV SSL Certificates. When a user visits a site with a valid EV Certificate, Internet Explorer 7 will alert the user to the available identity information by turning the background of the address bar green and displaying identity information. Twelve certificate authorities, including VeriSign Inc., Cybertrust and Entrust, are already issuing EV SSL Certificates.

• Microsoft has added four new data providers to the Microsoft Phishing Filter service: the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT), BrandProtect, MySpace.com and Netcraft Ltd., whose own broad set of Internet Explorer and Firefox toolbar anti-phishing data sources will be included as data feeds into the service. These new providers join Microsoft’s current anti-phishing data providers, which include Cyveillance, Digital Resolve, Internet Identity, MarkMonitor Inc., and RSA Security, the security division of EMC Corp.

More details here and specifically on the IE7 phishing toolbar here.