Microsoft Sets Licensing Policy for New Chips
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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday agreed to require only a single license for server software that runs on computers powered by a new generation of chips
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With today's expected announcement, hardware vendors will get access to the BladeCenter specifications by signing a seven-page licensing agreement, which grants users the right to license the specifications for certain types of products.
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(InfoWorld) - At its partner conference this week MicrosoftÂ released new tools to help partners navigate two of the company's more complicated offerings: product licensing and the Windows Vista client OS. The licensing tool, called Microsoft LicenseWise, builds upon a previously released tool for Microsoft customers, Product License Advisor. Product License Advisor helps customers configure an IT environment and generate a report online that would tell them what licenses they would need and the cost, Mike Oldham, general manager for Microsoft's worldwide licensing and pricing, said in an interview at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver. LicenseWise picks up for Microsoft's business partners where that tool leaves off, he said. It allows a partner to access a quote a customer generated in Product License Advisor, build its own pricing into it, and then generate a proposal back to the customer for how much it would cost to license those products through the partner. Microsoft's complicated licensing schemes have long been a headache for partners and customers, but the company has made a concerted effort in the past several years to simplify the process, Oldham said. For instance, just two years ago, Microsoft had 74 licensing models customers could choose from; now they have nine, he said. More information about LicenseWise can be found on Microsoft's partner Web site. The new Vista tool also is an extension of software that is already available, called Windows Vista Hardware Assessment, said Mike Sievert, corporate vice president of the Windows business group. That application helps business users see how much effort it will take to migrate desktops in a company to Vista by testing the hardware and device-driver capability of PCs against the OS and issuing reports about those results The new tool, Windows Vista Business Value Assessment, allows partners to sit down with customers to not only assess how Vista will impact their network, but also figure out how to improve the TCO (total cost of ownership) of the installation, Sievert said. TCO is "front and center on the minds of our customers" when it comes to Vista, he said. Sievert acknowledged that business customers are still in the early stages of deploying the OS, which was released to business customers last November, so it's important Microsoft articulate how to upgrade to Vista in the most cost-effective way possible.
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Microsoft and LG Electronics sign cross-licensing patent agreement that covers Linux-based embedded devices.
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That's Systems Management Server to you Microsoft is beefing up policing for Windows licensing after going back to the drawing board on its asset management strategy.â¦
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Software giant Microsoft Corp. will for the first time be forced by antitrust regulators to change how it designs and sells its widely used Windows operating system, after a European Union
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Ziff Davis - The company says it will offer the same per-processir software licensing model for hardware containing dual-core and multicore technology.
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Upcoming chip set will include built-in security features for your PC.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has signed another Linux distributor to a patent-licensing and collaboration deal similar to theÂ one it struck with NovellÂ last year. Xandros, which offers desktop and server versions of Linux, has agreed to license Microsoft intellectual property (IP), said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. He dropped the news in the middle of a keynote Monday at the company's TechEd 2007 conference in Orlando. Muglia shed little light on specific details of the agreement, saying only that it follows the same model as the Linux and Windows interoperability and licensing deal Microsoft struck with Novell last year. "Xandros has taken a license to our intellectual property," he said. "They've taken the position of helping customers to ensure that when they use open-source software, that the IP the industry has created is a part of that." A news release the companies made available Monday had more details, confirming that the deal includes "covenants" to protect customers using Xandros software from anyÂ potential patent-infringement claimsÂ from Microsoft. Microsoft said recently it would aggressively seek royalties for patents it says it holds in open-source technologies such as Linux. The company acknowledged thatÂ instead of going to courtÂ it would rather sign back-room patent and cross-licensing deals with open-source distributors. Muglia acknowledged that in the past year Microsoft has stepped up efforts to ensure its products are interoperable with competitive offerings, and working with the open-source community has been a big part of that. "Over the last year, you've seen Microsoft take a number of steps that ... demonstrate a change of approach for us," he said. "You've seen partnerships you might not have expected Microsoft to be a part of." Muglia mentioned partnerships with Xensource, Novell and JBoss as examples of the company's new attitude. In addition to the licensing component, the five-year deal between Xandros and Microsoft also will include collaboration between the companies to make their Microsoft System Center and Xandros Systems Management products more interoperable. Xandros also will join the efforts to standardize and use Web Services (WS)-Management protocols, which Microsoft supports. As part of the deal, Xandros will license Microsoft server communications protocols so Xandros Server will work better with Windows Server in IT systems. The company also will join the effort to build translators between rival document formats Open Document Format, an international standard favored by open-source companies, and Open XML, Microsoft's default format in Office 2007. Finally, Microsoft will endorse Xandros desktop and server Linux OSes as the "preferred" distribution for its customers, and company engineers will be trained to support the software to help channel partners offer both Microsoft and Xandros software. Â
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Chipmaker announces new chipset and reference design for consumer devices and PCs.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft has clarified how licensing for its current version of Windows Server works when paired with virtualization software. However, customers may face a whole new set of licensing rules once the next version, Windows Server 2008, is released later this year.
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Microsoft will support only x86 processors with 64-bit extensions when it releases a special version of Windows Server for high-performance computing next year, leaving support for Intel&#39;s Itanium 2 chip to a later, unspecified date.
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Flexible friend Microsoft has updated the licensing terms and conditions of its popular database for the benefit of virtualized computing environments.â¦
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Siding with chip makers, Microsoft said it won't charge double for its per-processor licenses when dual-core chips come to market next year.
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Blog: The graphics chipmaker has a new lineup of chips that can be plugged into servers or workstations to boost the performance of scientific computing applications.
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Low-end love Oracle has tossed customers a Microsoft-like bone by loosening up its software licensing restrictions for low-end servers running on multi-core chips.â¦
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Microsoft Corp.  unveiled plans  on Sunday to work with hardware manufacturers to deliver on the  company&#039;s ambitions to use its software to simplify how workers  communicate with one another.