A recent blog post from Sarah Parez tries to answer some "want-to-know" questions on the upcoming Microsoft Office Web Applications.  With software as a service becoming more popular, Google has quickly become a competitor of Microsoft's Office Suite with its Google Docs.  Microsoft is aggressively fighting back by making its Office software available via the Web browser.

According to Perez's post, Microsoft's Office Web Applications will not only be available in Internet Explorer, but also Safari and Firefox.  Office Web will also be compatible on the Linux and Mac platforms.  Some of the specific answers Sarah Parez gives in her blog post:

Q: Do the Office Web Applications require Internet Explorer?

A: No! Office Web applications will work across multiple platforms and browsers including Safari and Firefox, too.

Q: Will the Office Web Applications work on the iPhone?

A: Yes, in the Safari web browser.

Q : Is Silverlight required in order to use the Office Web Applications?

It is estimated that there are nearly 1,700 applications in the content management system (CMS) market. In an ideal world, I would love to cover all of them here at CMS Report.  Since your time and my time is finite, I have instead chosen to limit the number of CMS applications focused here to no more than 30 applications. Since the list of applications included under "CMS Focus" is meant to include today's content management systems, it is logical to assume the list will change over time in order to stay relevant.

CMS Focus: CMS Report's List of Top 30 Web Applications

TroubleshootingWiki.org is a new website designed to provide users with comprehensive, free guides on software troubleshooting. This site intends to help users eliminate the potential problems that might arise while working with various applications.

It is often difficult finding a resource that is focused on providing quality, relevant, and free information on software troubleshooting at one central location. Launched initially with over 20 tutorials covering different Content Management Systems and other software, TroubleshootingWiki.org is expected to grow into an exhaustive troubleshooting resource where users are able to add their own tips and tricks.

TroubleshootingWiki.org is part of an ongoing initiative at Packt to develop unique methods of contributing to the Open Source community. Notable other initiatives include the Wiki on Web Themes and Templates, www.ThemesWiki.org and the annual Open Source CMS Award that has a total prize package of $20,000, divided amongst winning projects. Packt also operates a unique Open Source Project Royalty Scheme, which sees them donate a percentage of their Open Source book sales directly to the projects they were written on. To date, they have donated over $100,000 to Open Source projects.

"Adobe
today announced the availability of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
cross-operating system for taking rich Internet applications (RIA) to
the desktop.

Adobe also released Flex 3, an open-source development tool set aimed at helping developers build RIAs."

Complete Story at ComputerWorld

"Frameworks are all the rage these days. If someone says lets build a web application there is usually a developer nearby saying let's use a framework to build that. Sure, there are times when using a framework isn't the way to go. But, for 99% of the new web applications that need to be built there are great benefits from using a framework. Let's take a look at 7 of them."

Complete Story (Corrected the bad link...sorry about that!)

"Recently there has been a flurry of activity around a concept called
“Office 2.0” - another offshoot of the term “Web 2.0” - in which all
traditional office applications can be replaced by online services
accessible through a generic web browser. What’s making this possible
is a set of new technologies including AJAX, RSS and web services, a
set of actual applications such as Google Gmail and Zoho Writer, a web-based word processor, and a great deal of unbridled enthusiasm."

Complete Story

"The new Flash Player could run faster, but its high definition support will ensure that it will be a winner.

On the plus side, Adobe Flash Player 9 Update 3, version identifier 9.0.115.0
was made available for Linux at the same time as Mac and Windows
versions. It's nice to see Linux not being treated as the little
brother who only gets the older, hand-me down programs by a major
software vendor. An even bigger win for Flash Player users, regardless
of their operating system, is that its supports H.264."

Complete Story