As expected, Microsoft announced a Windows-based “cloud OS” during the first day of PDC. Windows Azure offers virtualized computing, automated service management, and scalable storage and will compete against cloud-based offerings from Amazon and Google.
Microsoft has joined the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) Working Group in an attempt to help contribute toward the development of a powerful, interoperable messaging protocol for businesses. The company says that this is part of its latest interoperability push, although it’s not sure yet whether it will actually implement AMQP specifications.
For Redmond, a nine percent increase in revenue compared to the year ago quarter is good enough for $4.4 billion in profits but, by most measures, profits moved up only slightly from the same quarter a year ago.
Researchers find that attaching numbers—even ones they made up—to a product’s features can influence buyers’ decisions even more than experience with the product. That’s why you want that 512MB of GDDR3, even if you have no idea what it does.
The Linux Foundation has released the results of a study that it conducted in order to estimate the financial value of the Linux platform. They say that the kernel is worth $1.4 billion, and the broader platform is worth $10.8 billion.