Microsoft chairman Bill gates announced at the PDC conference a major shift in how users will navigate through the firm’s core applications. The menu and icon bar as we know them today are gone. They are substituted by what Microsoft calls "ribbon" – docks providing more transparent access to the functionality of software.   Lack [...]

There’s a line of sewing machines, an elevator monitoring system, even a brand of detergent used to clean dairy equipment–all bearing the brand name Vista. There are plenty of computer products that claim the Vista trademark, too.  So Microsoft’s choice of Vista as the name for the next version of its Windows operating system has [...]

  According to Paul Thurrott’s sources at Microsoft, the software giant has set its sights on July 27, 2005 as the release date for Longhorn Beta 1, though obviously that date could slip if the company is unable to hit internal bug requirements. The current escrow build for Longhorn Beta 1 is 5101, a few [...]