Excerpt from the Sharepoint Developers’ Blog:

Today Microsoft announced the naming and packaging for the next release of the Office system products including Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Designer 2007. Please check out the press release materials.

Most of the stuff in the materials is self-explanatory, but I thought I'd talk about the evolution from "Office SharePoint Portal Server" to "Office SharePoint Server" as people might wonder about it. First, we thought simpler was better - it is one less word! Second, the features above WSS are expanding so much - the new CMS \ SPS integration and other portal, content mangmenet, collaboration, search, business process and intelligence features - that we thought "portal" was a little narrow to be the umbrella name. We also made the investments I talked about the Light-Up Not Just Roll-Up post to make sure these features applied to all the sites in your organization not just top-level portals.

I do want to make sure though that the support for portals does not get lost in the change. In particular, I would particularly highlight the new CMS features (err Office SharePoint Server Web Publishing features - gotta get used to that), personalization and MySite capabilities, LOB integration and enhanced internet and extranet support (things like pluggable authentication) that expand SharePoint's value is the leading enterprise portal solution.

The other thing that I get asked about a lot is the difference between SPS and WSS. There is a good overview here but I think think this gets simpler in the next release with all the extra features and light-up support. We did think about not using "SharePoint" in both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server but we felt that would caused confusion because Office SharePoint Server is so clearly built on WSS.

Lastly, since it is a common question, Beta 2 will be available in the first half of 2006 - please register for that at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview - with final release by the end of 2006.

 

 

The patent–issued on Valentine’s Day–covers all rich-media technology implementations, including Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, and XAML, when the rich-media application is accessed on any device over the Internet, according to the patent holders.

A patent has been granted to a relatively unknown California Web-design firm for an invention its creator says covers the design and creation of most rich-media applications used over the Internet. The patent holder, Balthaser Online Inc., says it could license nearly any rich-media Internet application across a broad range of devices and networks.

Potentially tens of thousands of businesses–not only software makers employing its business processes but companies offering rich-media on their Websites–could be subject to licensing fees when they use rich-media technology over the Internet.

The patent–issued on Valentine’s Day–covers all rich-media technology implementations, including Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, and XAML, when the rich-media application is accessed on any device over the Internet, including desktops, mobile devices, set-top boxes, and video game consoles, says inventor Neil Balthaser, CEO of Balthaser Online, which he owns with his father Ken. “You can consider it a pioneering or umbrella patent. The broader claim is one that basically says that if you got a rich Internet application, it is covered by this patent.”

“It’s kind of unbelievable that [the patent] has such a wide ranging use because it covers so many technologies,” says Bola Rotibi, a senior analyst at Ovum, an IT advisory firm in London. If the patent is enforced broadly, she says, “anybody who does anything with rich applications will have to pay royalties to the company.”

The patent, No. 7,000,180 or 180 for short, is entitled Methods, Systems, And Processes For The Design And Creation Of Rich-Media Applications Via The Internet. It contains 83 claims that encompass a wide range of rich-media Net application methods, systems, and processes.

How broad is the patent? Here’s what the patent abstract says it covers: A host computer, containing processes for creating rich-media applications, is accessed from a remote user computer system via an Internet connection. User account information and rich-media component specifications are uploaded over the Internet for a specific user account. Rich-media applications are created, deleted, or modified in a user account, with rich-media components added to, modified in, or deleted from the rich-media application based on information contained in a user request. After creation, the rich-media application is viewed or saved on the host computer system, or downloaded to the user computer system over the Internet.

Because he began developing the methods and processes more than a half decade ago, he believes he can prove his invention is novel and nonobvious, two requirements to get a patent, and can fend off any patent challenges from potential licensees who might contend the invention is neither new nor obscure. “Are we ready to defend our patent?” Balthaser asks. “Absolutely. We’re ready to defend it vigorously if we have to. But [litigation is] not the approach we’re taking in terms of licensing.”

Source: informationweek

 

Microsoft Corp. is set to release a feature-complete test version of Windows Vista on Wednesday, an offering the company will encourage enterprises to deploy in preparation for the general availability of the operating systems later this year.

Microsoft planned to discuss the Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of Vista on a conference call at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday. According to the company, the CTP to be released Wednesday includes a host of new and enhanced tools for enterprises to plan, test, build and deploy Vista.

Vista includes management features and improvements to the ability to set group policies that should make the OS easier to manage across enterprise desktops, the company said.

According to Microsoft, manual deployments of an OS across enterprise desktops can cost as much as US$1,000 per PC. Microsoft is eager for enterprises to update to Windows Vista, and so plans to simplify the deployment process with a host of tools and resources aimed at making it more cost-effective and easier to manage. The sum of these efforts is to reduce the cost of per-desktop deployment to below $100, according to Microsoft.

In addition to these tools, new features in the CTP include Windows Sidebar, a desktop bar that provides access to Gadgets -- miniapplications on the desktop that give users quick access to information such as time, stock prices and IT infrastructure status, either via the Web or over a company's own network. Microsoft has demonstrated this feature OS before, but it has not been a part of any previous test version. Vista's programming interface also allows developers to build their own Gadgets.

The OS's Welcome Center interface, which allows for adding user accounts and provides tutorials, also appears in the new test version. OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) also can customize Welcome Center, accessible from the All Programs and Control Panel functions of the Start Menu, to offer add-on products to customers.

Windows Vista is now feature-complete, but the company said features could change and evolve as the product continues to go through testing. However, Microsoft's primary focus for Vista now is to fine tune the OS as much as possible.

Wednesday's release of Windows Vista will be distributed to testers in the Windows Vista Technical Beta Program, as well as made available to Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet subscribers.

 

 

Microsoft has announced plans to deliver the beta version of its Commerce Server 2006 .Net-based e-commerce offering.

The software giant said that Commerce Server 2006 will allow customers to link e-commerce systems to existing line-of-business applications and trading partners through integration with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006.

The application also supports integration with back-end systems from SAP and Oracle.

In addition, Commerce Server 2006 will offer a new production-ready starter site to help customers build e-commerce systems based on web services and service-oriented architectures.

Capabilities include catalogue browsing, searching, shopping cart, checking out, profile management and personalisation.

The starter site also includes multilingual and multicurrency support to enable customers to create a global presence.

New tools such as Customer and Order Manager, Catalog Manager, Marketing Manager and Reports and Analytics will help business users interact with their e-commerce sites.

"By providing tighter integration with BizTalk Server 2006, SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005, Commerce Server 2006 enables customers to reduce costs and accelerate revenue growth through automated delivery of online services and products," said Steven Martin, director of the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft.

Commerce Server 2006 Beta is available on Microsoft Connect. Sign-up instructions are available online here. 

The software is scheduled for release in July 2006. Pricing and licensing details will be available at a later date.

 

 

The January CTP build of Atlas was made available today and can be downloaded from http://atlas.asp.net.  This is a pretty big release of Atlas that has a number of new and improved goodies.

In particular, the Atlas team has spent a lot of time enhancing and fleshing out a number of the core scenarios around the new <atlas:updatepanel> server control -- including adding progress message support, error handling, support for Response.Redirects, and the ability to have some controls on a page perform regular full-page post-backs while others cause incremental Ajax updates of content.

The beauty of the <atlas:updatepanel> control is that it enables you to take an existing ASP.NET page with controls and Ajax enable it in under 5 minutes or less (including error handling + progress message UI, etc), without having to write a single line of javascript (note: Atlas also provides a very, very rich client javascript library if you want to use that as well -- but you don't need to write to it at all unless you want to). 

Read More at Scott Guthries’ Blog

 

This Thursday, Tom Hollander and I will be presenting a web cast on building your own application block using Enterprise Library January 2006. The talk will discuss how to take a piece of functionality that you have built and plug it into the configuration system, so that it can be constructed using the provider-based factories.

The topics will include:

1. Building the simplest Application Block possible
   
2. Attaching configuration to the block
   
3. Allowing for variability through custom providers
   
4. Creating your own configuration objects for your providers

Register Here

 

There’s a new LINQ preview from the Visual Basic team. The new CTP updates the samples and bits that were first showcased and discussed at PDC last year. Now is your chance to download the samples, take them for a spin, and provide some feedback to shape the future of Visual Studio.