Microsoft Corp. has agreed to modify its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint that its computer search function put Google Inc. and other potential rivals at a disadvantage, the Justice Department and Microsoft said on Tuesday.
Microsoft is at a crucial point in its expanding efforts in the consumer arena. Company Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates used his keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to unveil the Windows Home Server and announce that major service providers like AT&T would offer the Xbox 360 as a set-top box alternative. These announcements follow the launch of the Zune MP3 player and come right before the late January release of the retail version of Vista.
Microsoft still hopes to strike a Linux pact with Red Hat, similar to its deals with Novell, Xandros and Linspire, according to strategy leaders. "We'd love to do the same deal with Red Hat," said Tom Robertson, general manager of corporate interoperability and standards at Microsoft. "We're always open to talking with them."
That sentiment has not so far been echoed by Red Hat's. The company has said it's not interested in a deal. Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Day said that is still the case.
Microsoft is distributing six security patches as part of its scheduled monthly patching cycle.
For June, there are four “critical” patches, one “important” patch, and one “moderately important” fix.
The SANS Institute is warning of a Fake Microsoft Security Bulletin that leads to the installation of a malicious browser add-on.
Microsoft issues patches on a regular monthly schedule and information is always available from the Microsoft Security site at http://www.microsoft.com/security/. This provides links to the latest security bulletins and to Windows Update.
There's also a page on How to tell whether a security e-mail message is really from Microsoft.
- Bill Gates attended to a bit of unfinished business Thursday.
Gates, who dropped out of Harvard and co-founded Microsoft Corp. to become the world's richest person, stopped off at his former stomping grounds to collect an honorary law degree. "We recognize the most illustrious member of the Harvard College class of 1977 never to have graduated from Harvard," said Harvard University Provost Steven Hyman. "It seems high time that his alma mater hand over the diploma."
Independent security researchers agreed that Google Inc. was on the right track yesterday when it claimed that sites running Microsoft Corp.'s Web server are twice as likely to host hacker code than sites that rely on servers operating open-source software.
But they caution against jumping to conclusions.
Let's all blame Microsoft for the security woes of our computers - come on, it's traditional.
You think everyone has the security problems PCs inflict on their users? Ask someone who toils away as a servant to an IBM mainframe - they haven't been compromised for years.
Embedded systems programmers tinkering away on the chips that run domestic appliances or cars or scientific instruments don't have to worry about security issues - their operating systems generally don't crash and, being cut off from the outside world, are immune to security breaches.
Micoroft’s blocked chipped Xbox 360s from its Live service, but hackers aren’t taking it lying down, they’ve hacked their way in again! Multi-play hungry hackers won’t be slowed by Microsoft’s attempts to lock their chipped consoles out of the Live service – they’ve cooked up a tasty hack to circumvent the big M’s checks.
Dubbed iXtreme firmware, the hack-tastic update “defeats all current and some future Xbox Live detection attempts” its creators say.
It means Microsoft’s once more being taken for a ride by cheeky chippers but we bet this won’t be the last we hear of it.
Microsoft Corp. will unveil a coffee-table-shaped "surface computer" Wednesday in a major step towards co-founder Bill Gates's view of a future where the mouse and keyboard are replaced by more natural interaction using voice, pen and touch.
