Channel Insider Staff

Microsoft still isn’t ready to talk publicly about Office 12, its next major release of its information-worker family of products. But the company is briefing selected partners and customers about the forthcoming family of Office desktop and server products. According to partner sources who requested anonymity, Microsoft has established an internal Office 12 ship calendar […]

While they are bullish about Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2), PC makers aren’t putting all of their security eggs in the Microsoft basket. PC vendors are well on their way toward getting SP2, Microsoft Corp.’s most recent operating-system update, preloaded on all of their new machines. But many PC vendors are complementing—and in some […]

Microsoft wants to deliver its Windows Server 2003 update, known as “R2,” in 2005. To make sure it will be able to do so, the company is prioritizing its feature list and moving some R2 features into later releases. Microsoft officials updated the company’s Windows Server roadmap and made the changes public on Monday, in […]

PayPal’s international Columbus Day weekend meltdown appears to be over. The site is up and responding to most visitors. Money is flowing and shipments are rolling again. But like Mount St. Helens in 1980, the fallout from PayPal’s cratering will continue for a long time. Sellers are still digging themselves out from the ashes, seeking […]

Microsoft has been holding its Office 12 cards close to the vest. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that there will be some new Office Server products in the company’s next-generation Office suite lineup. Sources close to Microsoft say the company is well on its way to developing a server version of its desktop Excel spreadsheet […]

eBay is wooing the IT channel. The drums of the tech press corps have been beating ever louder since March. The crescendo peaked Monday at TechXNY.There, with considerable fanfare and a half-day seminar for resellers, eBay unveiled its idea of how VARs can turn used equipment into profits. The centerpiece of the long-heralded plan is […]

Many U. S. Web hosting companies are discouraged by the flow of business to cheap foreign service providers, mostly based in Asia. But not Stephan R. May Jr., chief cook and bottle washer of InKeeper Co. He gets most of his business from Europe and Canada, with very little effort and an eminently satisfactory ROI. […]

Numerous applications, including some of Microsoft’s own, have encountered compatibility problems with Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2). But one application in particular wreaked an inordinate amount of havoc until Microsoft created a removal tool, and now a patch, for it. That application—which many industry watchers consider to fall more into the adware/spware category—was Total […]

While Microsoft’s Live Communications Server (LCS) is first and foremost an enterprise instant-messaging server, Microsoft is expected to position its 2005 version as its entrée into the telephony market. LCS 2005, code-named “Vienna,” went to beta this summer. Microsoft announced that it had delivered to testers the near-final “release candidate” beta in mid-September. Microsoft is […]

Just as it is doing with its Windows client software, Microsoft is developing customized variants of its Windows Embedded operating system for specific markets. The first of what could be a full line of Windows Embedded variants will be Windows Embedded for Point of Service, company officials said Monday. Microsoft is currently testing the new […]

Microsoft has been reticent to commit publicly on how, when and whether it would make the browser-specific security fixes that it delivered as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2 available to users of older versions of Windows. But this week, the Redmond software vendor issued a definitive statement regarding its back-porting intentions. The decision: […]

Sun Microsystems Inc. executives will take the stage in New York this week to display Solaris 10, the next version of that operating environment; clarify the vision for the product; and define the rationale for moving it to open source. John Loiacono, the Santa Clara, Calif., company’s executive vice president for software, spoke to eWEEK […]