The single reason enterprises with Windows networks prefer Internet Explorer over Firefox and other browsers: Group Policy.

For those of you who might be new to Group Policy, here is a quick background. Let’s first assume you use an Active Directory environment to administer the computers in your corporate network. If that is the case, Group Policy provides a wide set of policy settings to manage IE8 after you have deployed it to your users' computers. These settings are locked down and cannot be changed by users, as they are always written to a secure tree in the registry.

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"Our prediction, though proved to be correct though in another sense, inasmuch as the push to sell SharePoint as a replacement to ECM systems has to a large degree stopped — a good thing for buyers, for in that direction lay serious disappointment.

The fact is that buyers typically do not replace systems, be they ECM or otherwise. The growth in the data mountain and the ever-changing demands to the business mean that IT adds to and attempts to enhance what is already there, rather than rip and replace."

- Alan Pelz-Sharpe, CMS Watch, "Three Continents, One SharePoint Story", Intelligent Enterprise, October 1, 2008.

Redmond Developer: "Alfresco Software Inc. is taking direct aim at Microsoft SharePoint with the release of the Alfresco Labs 3 open source enterprise content management (ECM) system. The new version adds support for Microsoft Office SharePoint protocols, allowing Alfresco to serve as a fully compatible SharePoint repository.

Any organization using Microsoft Office can directly leverage the native Alfresco repository in the same way SharePoint repositories are used today, the company says. Alfresco President and CEO John Powell says organizations now have a choice of document repositories, even if they want to use SharePoint Server as a front-end."

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Alexandria, VA - September 2, 2008 Microsoft certified and awarded a GOLD PARTNER Status to Bitrix, Inc, a pioneer in developing Content Management Systems and Portal Solutions. Bitrix's Flagship product - Bitrix Site ManagerTM is an industry class content management system with flavors for businesses right from small to enterprise level.

Bitrix, Inc., a leading developer of content management solutions for global markets, today announced it has been awarded the GOLD CERTIFIED PARTNER status as part of the Microsoft Partner Program*, with competencies in ISV/Software Solutions. This highest level of certification further substantiates Bitrix's expertise on portal solutions and content management applications. As a Gold Certified Partner, Bitrix has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and a proven ability to serve the most demanding of customer problems. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Bitrix is eligible to receive an extended set of benefits, including training and support across the Microsoft Platform. This industry recognition gives Bitrix a competitive advantage in the channel, thereby giving customers more faith while purchasing their solutions.

Gadgetopia: "Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have gotten together and actually agreed on extensions to the REP — the Robots Exclusion Protocol, otherwise known as your robots.txt file."

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BusinessWeek: There's been no shortage of opinions on the failed takeover as bloggers offer plenty of advice for CEOs Yang and Ballmer—plus a few laughs.

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Opinion: Microsoft has never said that they would drop support for Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) after the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3. However, I've often wondered if it would be to Microsoft's advantage, as well as beneficial to their customers, if they did drop the IE6 support. With Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) now the status quo for most non-Enterprise users of Windows and IE8 development underway, what better opportunity is there to end support for IE6 than now?

There is no question that Microsoft is supporting IE6 in the next service pack. Jane Maliouta, Microsoft's Deployment Project Manager for IE8, addressed IE6 support with XP SP3 in an IEBlog post on IE and Windows XP SP3.

XPSP3 will continue to ship with IE6 and contains a roll-up of the latest security updates for IE6. If you are still running Internet Explorer 6, then XPSP3 will be offered to you via Windows Update as a high priority update. You can safely install XPSP3 and will have an updated version of IE6 with all your personal preferences, such as home pages and favorites, still intact.

So the question remains, just how long does Microsoft plan to support this 7 year old browser? From as near as I can tell, support for Internet Explorer 6 is tied to the life cycle of the Windows XP operating system. Mainstream support for Windows XP is currently dated to end in April 14, 2009. So that means Internet Explorer 6 will have been on the desktop for more than eight years! While enterprises may take comfort that product support for Windows XP and IE6 has lasted so long, consumers and the rest of the world have since moved on with the changing world.

InfoWorld: Apple's .Mac comes close to offering professionals secure shared data
and remote desktop access without the hassle of VPN. Microsoft Live
Mesh hopes to take it all the way.

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