The ONE thing M$ is very good at is propaganda, more commonly know as FUD. People like belonging to things and the Windows 7 launch parties make it cool so that people want to belong. Certain sections of the media also take this so that M$ now does not even have to pay for their marketing.

If we have a Linux release party and “Two techies from the area teamed up to highlight ******* *’* key features and answer questions”, people will most likely say or at least think that is because nobody else understands Linux. Insert Linux distro of choice in the appropriate space.

To promote Linux and in this writers case, UBUNTU, we have to give it a cool factor so that general users WANT to belong to the group of Linux users. Make it a cool, fun, easy “club”  to belong to.

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Apologies to all here and at Ubuntu-ZA for not being active the last 3 weeks.

Microsoft said on Monday that it will open up the data format behind its Outlook program, CNet reports.

In a blog posting, Microsoft group manager Paul Lorimer said the company was working to publish the specifications behind Outlook’s .pst files.

The move, he said, would “allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice.”

Lorimer said the documentation effort was still in its early stages. “We are engaging directly with industry experts and interested customers to gather feedback on the quality of the technical documentation to ensure that it is clear and useful.”

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Microsoft is ramping up its buzz machine for the launch of Windows 7 on October 22 and, as part of its effort to get word-of-mouth marketing going, is urging users to host Windows 7 “launch parties”. And just to make sure that users get it right the company has released a video giving party-hosts tips for throwing the best party. The video is a mix of good demographics, bad acting and disturbingly cheerful people so you have been warned.

The open source community regularly throws launch parties to mark new releases of their favourite distribution. Somehow Microsoft has tried the same thing but misses the point horribly.

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The Register reports that Intel and Microsoft have announced a new port of Silverlight to Linux, specifically for the Intel-sponsored Moblin operating system running on Atom-powered devices such as netbooks. The port enables Intel to include Silverlight as a supported runtime in the Atom Developer Program, which will feed an iPhone-like App Store.

Microsoft has already provided Intel with Silverlight source code and test suites. Intel will build an optimized Moblin version of Silverlight, which Microsoft will supply to OEMs.

The decision to port Silverlight for Atom-powered devices rather than use the existing open source Moonlight version is an interesting one. Microsoft’s director of the Developer Platform Group Brian Goldfarb says that this is part of the company’s strategy to make Silverlight available for as many platforms as possible.

Full story at The Register

Last Microsoft Internet Explorer posted its largest market share loss since November 2008, while Firefox reaped nearly all the benefit, gaining almost 1% according to Web metrics company Net Applications. Meanwhile, Google’s Chrome continued to gain on Apple’s Safari, closing to within 1.25%. At Chrome’s current pace, it will replace Safari as the number 3 browser within the year.

But it was the biggest browser by share, Internet Explorer (IE), that saw its numbers change the most in August, when it dropped 1.1% to 66.6%. The slide was IE’s steepest since last November, said Net Applications, when Microsoft’s browser plunged by 2%.

Full story at Computer World