Joris Evers

In one of his first public presentations on the issue, Gates is slated to expand on what has thus far been an abstract vision of software and hardware with built-in manageability.

A Silicon Valley startup aiming to catapult wikis into the mainstream and transform the editable Web sites into an application development platform has attracted a flood of interest for its product beta.

The new Microsoft Office for small-business management product bundle will include the familiar Office 2003 applications along with a new financial management product called Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting and an updated version of Outlook 2003.

Users who hired Symantec to manage their security infrastructures will now also be able to get extensive information on threats particular to their IT systems as well as global cyberthreats

"Microsoft is trying to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt in the market place with incomplete arguments," says one Novell executive.

Benefiting from high-profile security vulnerabilities in the Microsoft browser and recommendations by experts to switch, the Mozilla Foundation saw its market share rise.

Nearly 3,000 companies, small and large, have signed up for free beta test accounts with JotSpot Inc. of Palo Alto, California. "A lot more than we expected, it shows there is a real interest in the category," said the company's CEO.

Oracle Corp. plans to finally ship the next version of its E-Business Suite of enterprise applications on Monday Nov. 8, company executives said Thursday.