Stories by Chris Kanaracus

CONVERGENCE - Can Microsoft make users 'love' its software?

End-user adoption is often cited as a key stumbling block in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) implementations. But Microsoft is asserting that improvements in its Dynamics line of software will have users swooning with passion, not seething with frustration.

CONVERGENCE - Ballmer outlines Microsoft's enterprise ambitions

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used his opening keynote at Microsoft's Convergence user conference to not only preview a number of updates to the company's Dynamics line of business software, but also to make a firm declaration of the software giant's enterprise market plans.

CEBIT - Novell execs talk Microsoft interop announcement

A pair of Novell executives Wednesday touted the company's recent financial performance, but questions during the press conference at Cebit in Hanover, Germany, focused more on Microsoft's recent, high-profile pledge to improve interoperability and shore up its relationship with the open-source community.

Supported Drupal distribution on the way

A startup company will release the first commercially supported distribution of Drupal, an increasingly popular open-source Web site builder/content management system, in the second half of this year.

NetSuite courts more verticals with 'NS-BOS'

On-demand ERP vendor NetSuite is rolling out the NetSuite Business Operating System (NS-BOS), a package of existing and new tools, in the hopes of enticing more ISVs to build vertical offerings on top of its core platform.

Schwartz talks up MySQL buy as deal closes

Sun announced Tuesday that its US$1 billion deal to buy open-source database vendor MySQL has closed, and with the news came a bold proclamation from Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.

Some open sourcers keeping open mind about Microsoft pledges

Microsoft made a mountainous down payment on its high-profile pledge Thursday to improve interoperability and warm up its relationship with the open-source community, releasing some 30,000 pages of documentation for Windows client and server protocols. After digesting the news and at least some of the documentation, the reaction within the open-source community was varied, ranging from cautious praise to outright scorn.

Web pioneer quits OpenSolaris project

A high-profile figure in Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris community has quit, accusing Sun of retaining too much control over the open-source counterpart to its Solaris operating system.

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