After carrying out a number of benchmarks, Microsoft concluded that .NET offers better performance and cost-performance ratio than WebSphere. IBM rebutted Microsoft’s findings and carried out other tests proving that WebSphere is superior to .NET. Microsoft responded by rejecting some of IBM’s claims as false and repeating the tests on different hardware with different results.
Microsoft System Center Advisor is a new cloud-based service that analyzes installations of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 (and later versions). It tracks configuration changes and upgrades, and reports on potential issues due to missing security patches, incompatibilities, or deviations from best practices.
Microsoft has announced the public availability of Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Vista SP2 Customer Preview Program (CPP) starting Thursday December 4th on TechNet which is already loaded with information about the CPP. Besides fixes, Vista SP2 includes better searching, Bluetooth 2.1 and Blu-Ray support, an extension to the FAT file system to support UTC time stamps.
In his new whitepaper, David Chappell takes a first look at the latest Microsoft technologies - WF 4.0, Dublin, and Oslo, explaining what these technologies are and more importantly, how they can be used together to create and run workflow-based, service-oriented, and model-driven applications.
Though released nearly a decade ago, Visual Basic 6 still remains a cornerstone for the IT department of many companies. With so many line of business applications, many no longer with source code, in use, upgrade paths to Windows Vista and Server 2008 needs to be considered carefully. The make the upgrade somewhat easier, Microsoft has committed to an "It Just Works" policy for VB 6 applications.
