Elizabeth Montalbano

Microsoft Corp. last month unwrapped a Windows software and licensing promotion aimed at making it easier for midmarket companies to implement basic Microsoft infrastructure software. The new software bundle, called the Windows Server System Offer for Midsized Companies, was debuted at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2005, held in Minneapolis this month.

Microsoft Corp. stepped its rivalry with Google Inc. up a notch, filing a lawsuit against the search company over Google's hiring of a former Microsoft employee. In a complaint filed Tuesday in the King County Superior Court in Washington, Microsoft alleges that Kai-Fu Lee, who joined Google Tuesday to spearhead new research and development efforts in China, is violating a noncompetition agreement signed when he was hired at Microsoft.

Microsoft Corp. Tuesday unveiled a new version of its Windows platform for building applications for the automotive industry. At the Microsoft Windows Automotive Conference 2005 in Yokohama, Japan, the vendor released Windows Automotive 5.0, which is based on Microsoft's embedded Windows CE 5.0 operating system, according to the company.

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer Sunday sounded the rallying cry that echoed throughout the vendor's annual partner conference this week, encouraging partners to take particular aim at legacy groupware and networking packages such as IBM's Lotus Notes and Novell NetWare.

Microsoft Corp. is expected to unwrap a Windows software and licensing promotion aimed at making it easier for midmarket companies to implement basic Microsoft infrastructure software, according to a Microsoft executive. The new software bundle, called the Windows Server System Offer for Midsized Companies, will debut at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2005, which will be held in Minneapolis.

Microsoft Corp. dribbled out more details of the planned Nov. 7 launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 at its TechEd 2005 Europe conference in Amsterdam. The kickoff event will be Nov. 7 in San Francisco, followed by more than 90 events in 50 countries through the rest of the month.

Sun Microsystems Inc. may be warming up to the idea of selling Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system (OS) on its servers. Tom Goguen, vice president of operating platform marketing for Sun, said this week that while Sun currently has no definite plan to strike a deal with Microsoft to sell Windows, the vendor will consider it if customers and partners think it's a good idea.

Microsoft Corp. plans to add broad support for the Web publishing standard RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, the company is expected to announce Friday at the Gnomedex 5.0 conference in Seattle.