Tim Ferro

“How does the current version of OpenOffice.org (OOo) compare with Microsoft Office in its ability to produce slide presentations? The last time I tried to answer that question, two years ago, both OOo Impress and Microsoft PowerPoint had features that the other lacked. To see how the two programs compare now, I installed Microsoft Office 2007 and OpenOffice.org 2.3, and went through the process of designing a slide show from start to finish. To my surprise, the results were more decisive than in my last comparison. They’re not enough to award a knockout victory, but, even based on points, the winner is clear.” – Article

“Microsoft will make the first release candidate for Windows Server 2008 and the first beta for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 available within the next 24 hours, the software maker announced today. Windows Server 2008 is intended to bring new technologies like server and presentation virtualization capabilities, IIS 7, Server Core, PowerShell, Network Access Protection, Server Manager, and enhanced networking and clustering technologies; it has been touted as the most “integrated” Windows to date.

Along with Windows Server 2008, MS will also be releasing the first beta of Vista SP1 to a select group of 12,000 testers. The current plan is to release Vista SP1 to manufacturing in the first quarter of 2008. The beta focuses on specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. Vista SP1 will be very different from Windows XP SP2, which was all about security and broke a large number of applications, including some of Microsoft’s own, as it involved trade-offs around application compatibility and the user experience, David Zipkin, senior product manager for Windows Client, told eWEEK Aug. 28. “That is not our intent with Vista SP1, which we are designing to limit user interface changes as much as possible. Those UI changes that we do make will be quite small and will not require retraining or anything like that,” he said.” – Source

Coverage at ars technica
Coverage at Somasegar’s WebLog
Coverage at eWeek

“Microsoft has released Service Pack 3 for Office 2003. If you haven’t upgraded to Office 2007, there may be a few bug fixes and features in here for you. But beware, the update also shuts off a handful of features.” – Source

“Windows Server® 2008 Beta 3 helps IT professionals to increase the flexibility of their server infrastructure while offering developers a more robust web and applications platform for building connected applications and services.

This time-limited release of Windows Server® 2008 Beta 3 will expire on April 7, 2008. After this time, you will need to uninstall the software or upgrade to a later release or a fully-licensed version of Windows Server® 2008.” – Source

“Microsoft released Silverlight 1.0 on Tuesday and said it has partnered with Novell to deliver a Linux version of the software.” – Source

“We are very excited about being able to bring these to you and look forward to you with a unified value proposition across our platforms, our tools, and our server/infrastructure offerings.  The Silverlight 1.1 Alpha September Preview, which is compatible with Silverlight 1.0, is also available today.” – Source

“A new Microsoft blog aimed at hackers—white hat of course—went up over the weekend, and promises to be “a little different from most other blogs you’ll see on blogs.msdn.com.”  “hackers @ microsoft” is “*especially*” provided “AS IS.” In other words, don’t expect any “white hat hacker” support from hackers @ microsoft.” – Source

“Remote code execution is again the star of the latest Microsoft security bulletin. Eight of the nine patches that will be released Tuesday—and all six of the critical ones—address remote code execution, which seems to be the weapon of choice these days among the bad guys. The lone exception in this round of patches is an “important” fix that addresses the elevation of privileges in Virtual PC and Virtual Server.

Operating systems affected by Tuesday’s security bulletin include Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Server 2003. Other software that will need to be patched includes Internet Explorer, Office, Office 2004 for Mac, Visual Basic and XML Core Services. Enjoy!” – Source

Earlier I reported on the release of Microsoft’s new Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008. Now the development side of the equation is announced officially as betas and RCs.

“Announcing the release of Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, .NET FX 3.5 Beta 2, and Silverlight 1.0 RC” – Source

Microsoft is planning to ship its next major version of Windows–known internally as version “7″–within roughly three years, CNET News.com has learned. – Source (CNet)

More coverage at:
Neowin
Download Squad
Engadget
ZDNet

“Kevin Turner, Micro-soft Corp.’s chief operating officer, said at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver last week that Windows Server 2008 — formerly code-named Longhorn Server — will be launched next February along with upgrades of SQL Server and Visual Studio.” – Source , Second Article

This is going to be a huge launch for Microsoft next year. They are releasing 3 major products at the same time; frankly I can’t wait. Those 3 products make up the best Windows development environment. Throw in Office 2007 and SharePoint 2007 and you’ve got a solid development suite for Windows. Here is ‘Five things to know about Longhorn Server Core‘.