Microsoft buys DesktopStandard
32099
Keeps financial terms under wraps Microsoft says it is to acquire software developer DesktopStandard for an undisclosed sum.â¦
20976
Windows Vista, Microsoft's new operating system, goes on sale to business customers.
767524
Two desktops and an Inspiron E1505n notebook PC running Ubuntu 7.04 Linux go on sale today.
372296
Wood paneling and chrome made your dad&#39;s station wagon look like a million bucks, and they might also be just the ticket for Microsoft&#39;s fledgling effort to put a Media Center PC in every living room.
536169
Microsoft offers to buy the Norwegian search software company Fast Search & Transfer for $1.2bn (Â£607m).
298938
Microsoft has purchased Giant Company Software, a small anti-spyware software company it hopes will shore up its security defenses.
183815
Blog: The No. 2 PC seller will offer a $899 desktop, a $599 desktop and a $599 laptop with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled.
576569
While dealing logistically and technically with their overlapping online offerings will certainly prove troublesome&#160;if its bid to purchase Yahoo&#160;succeeds, Microsoft will at least have an immediate outlet for bringing more of its traditional desktop portfolio to the Web and to a broader customer base.Microsoft has been trying for more than two years to find a critical mass to adopt new online services beyond search, e-mail, and instant messaging under the Windows Live brand -- with little success. Its early MSN e-mail and IM offerings are popular enough with Web users; however, users of Google and Yahoo online services have been loath to adopt the revamped Windows Live offerings in favor of the ones they&#39;re already using.Not only could that change if the company purchases Yahoo, but Microsoft also will have a ready-made Web front end for rolling out more of its desktop applications as services, said Paul Fox, CIO of Guy Carpenter, a New York-based reinsurance company.&quot;The Yahoo platform is really what they&#39;re buying,&quot; he said. &quot;With Yahoo, they&#39;re tapping into the base culture of the Internet online community that&#39;s matured over the last 10 years. It&#39;s going to make it easier for people to take a look at and try their services, whereas before it had to be a more conscious effort.&quot;Aside from the usual raft of consumer applications&#160;such as&#160;search, e-mail, maps, and the like, Microsoft already has brought some of its many business desktop applications -- such as Office and CRM -- online in hosted, though often scaled-down, versions.Access to Yahoo&#39;s estimated 500 million visitors per month will give it a new channel to deliver what the company now calls its &quot;software plus services&quot; strategy, as well as buy the company time to bring more competitive versions of applications that were originally coded for the desktop to the Web.Indeed, in the conference call discussing the Yahoo bid Friday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a pointed reference to efforts to shed its desktop legacy and move even aspects of its Windows OS to the Web, a trend the company started with some features in the latest version, Windows Vista.&quot;The Windows user wants to be live, the Windows experience needs to increasingly embrace the Internet,&quot; he said. &quot;There will be a Windows Live, there will be an Office Live as we continue to bring out innovations in which Office transforms and is transformed by the Internet.&quot;Ballmer also likely had the rising popularity of Web-hosted productivity software, such as Google Apps, Zoho, and&#160;Yahoo&#39;s Zimbra, in mind when considering how to Web-enable Microsoft&#39;s desktop software. So far, Microsoft&#39;s Office Live has been more of a way for small businesses to get up and running with a Web site and basic hosted business applications&#160;such as&#160;accounting and CRM; however, bringing a full productivity suite to the Web has been Microsoft&#39;s plan for some time.Microsoft also can leverage its own strength among business customers to bundle and technically link applications so that customers buy an all-in-one package rather than individual products. For instance, Microsoft has created tight links between a new unified communications product, Office Communications Server, and its Office and SharePoint collaboration software so that customers must buy them all together to create comprehensive infrastructure. Microsoft can make similar attachments between online versions of its applications -- or just bundle them together in creative ways -- and market them to a broader audience.&quot;If Microsoft does something well, it&#39;s bundling products and services,&quot; said Ned May, director and lead analyst of marketing research firm Outsell. He joked that if Microsoft purchases Yahoo, there might come a day when you start up Windows and &quot;up pops Yahoo, and it takes you three days to remove that functionality.&quot;&quot;Yahoo provides a platform in many regards -- an audience of 500 million people to which you can bundle products and new offerings,&quot; May said.Doing quick math, May figured that at &quot;500 million a month for about $44 billion,&quot; it will cost Microsoft about $86 a head for acquiring each member of its new audience of Web users. &quot;Not a bad deal,&quot; he said.
512201
Microsoft's new keyboard features a fingerprint reader that should have been a handy gizmo. But its price and its unfriendly attitude toward non-Microsoft browsers disappoint. Melissa Kruse reviews the Microsoft Optical Desktop with Fingerprint Reader.
250648
Beleagured company hopes to add a little game power to its PC lineup with its purchase of high-end computer maker.
559884
Microsoft is buying Danger, the mobile software company behind the T-Mobile Sidekick.
161219
By the end of the week, Novell Inc.&#39;s new Linux desktop for enterprise customers, Novell Linux Desktop 9, Powered by SuSE Linux, will be available for purchase through Novell channel partners for a suggested price of $50 per system.
591420
The $1.75 billion deal represents the latest upheaval in an industry in which personal computers and the components that go into them have largely become commodities, parked on desktops everywhere and available at Wal-Mart for under $300.-The Washington Post
650846
Is the desktop dead?  Microsoft can't even make its updates sexy anymore.
210650
Here's what you need to know to get the most desktop for your dollar at any price.
410674
You need secure, reliable desktops that are ready for your business, and you shouldn't have to pay a fortune in upgrade and licensing costs to get them. Before you sign up for more expensive desktop systems from Microsoft, take a look at SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.
307900
Get a close-up look at Microsoft's new consumer server.