Microsoft's James Plamondon's: "It is our job to ensure that those choosing [software] are presented with an overwhelming abundance of evidence and reasoned argument in favor of our standards."

Microsoft partners think it's great that the vendor has been aggressively battling software piracy. But some partners say the task of ensuring that their clients are in compliance with Microsoft's Byzantine software licensing structure is steadily growing more difficult.

We shall see. Vista is no where near ready for deployment and adopters should—as always—wait until there are several service packs for and the server variant of the OS before upgrading. In the meantime, let me recommend an alternative or two.

This article is one of the worst pieces of fud I have ever seen. It's not bad because it works. It's bad because it's so poorly thought out. The author's ignorance borders on mind boggling. Feel free to bury the story, but consider visiting the site and posting some feedback to the author. While I doubt he will care, anyone reading it will at least see the responses.

Okay, I'm not seriously suggesting Microsoft is paying off Netcraft to produce positive survey results (although this is certainly a standard operating procedure for Microsoft). But something is odd, if not rotten, in the state of Netcraft.

Making server decisions? This site shows head-to-head comparisons of Microsoft's server OS vs. Red Hat's server OS. The old "We're way better than everyone else, and here's why" approach. Interesting, yes. Accurate? ...

With a bid underway to obtain the blessing of the Open Source Initiative for two of its software licenses, Microsoft is working to burnish its open source credentials.