Development

A panel of IT managers who are running Microsoft Corp.'s CRM applications said last week that the first release was a good start. But some added that they have hit performance and connectivity bumps.

Microsoft Corp. chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates pitched his company's "seamless computing" vision to an audience of software developers on Wednesday.

BEA Systems Inc. bolstered its Java-based development strategy Monday, rolling out new software that allows corporate and third-party developers to create and deploy any Java or service-based application for its WebLogic server.

Building on a grassroots momentum that is starting to develop legs within the enterprise, Sun Microsystems Inc. is beginning to forge a relationship with Really Simple Syndication or RDF Site Summary (RSS).

Can any hour be longer than the one spent watching your company's chief financial officer point at a spreadsheet full of gray, unreadable numbers? Infommersion Inc.'s program Xcelsius can't give your CFO charisma, but it can enliven the presentation.

Representatives from IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. will meet in a week to 10 days time to discuss IBM's proposal for creating an open source version of Sun's Java technology, an IBM executive said Thursday.

A panel of programmers famous for applications such as VisiCalc and Excel and the Apple Computer Inc. Macintosh operating system mused on where programming has been and where it is going during a panel session at the Software Development Conference & Expo West 2004 event in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday.

Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) on Thursday separately announced agreements with the Chinese government to set up software development labs in the country: Microsoft for Windows, HP for Linux.