Microsoft has this week handed out US$500,000 to four universities doing research into efficient computing, while rival Sun has stepped up its green IT marketing efforts.
Microsoft claims that Australia will benefit from "greater choice" if local standards bodies vote this week to accept the Office Open XML format as an ISO standard.
The IT infrastructure of next year's Olympic Games in Beijing will mainly run Microsoft Windows but some systems will use open-source software -- including Sun's Solaris.
Microsoft announced on Thursday that it landed Quest Software as its first licensee in a protocol technology program formed following action by European antitrust regulators.
The OpenOffice.org community released version 2.2 last week, including updates to OpenOffice's word processor, spreadsheet, presentations and database software.
The idea of getting a robust, scalable operating system for free hasn't clicked with many enterprises -- until now.
What specific move did Sun and Google announce?
To move ahead, big software companies are reaching back to a familiar strategy: offering customers a soup-to-nuts "stack" of software products.
Over a long and distinguished career, Andy Bechtolsheim has earned a reputation as a top-notch engineer. Now that reputation will be put to the test. The task: Invent Sun Microsystems' next "hot box".
Richard Stallman says even if Sun and others follow IBM's lead and started defusing the patent minefield of software development, the battle against software patents must continue.
The next version of Microsoft's Office software will run only on the latest releases of the company's operating systems, leaving older OS users in the dark.
For raw power Sun Microsystem's Sun Fire X4450 is the gutsiest server we've seen, and at 2RU it's compact considering its specs. However, priced at over AU$27,000, this machine will make a dent in your budget.
Microsoft will begin selling its directory technology as a standalone product separate from the Windows operating system.
Sun would like to think it can succeed where others have failedÂÂâ€"in breaking Microsoft's stranglehold on the office productivity marketâ€"by offering a product that's almost as good as Microsoft Office at a much lower price. Do the sums add up?
Commentary: Yes, you do have alternatives. But the differences between WordPerfect, OpenOffice.org's Writer, and MS Word are very minor. Let me explain why you might--or might not--want to switch.
Conroy ducks, Ballmer evades and Android Fails -- Club Builder
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