Microsoft Subnet

So how do you explain a picture of Linus Torvalds giving a thumbs up to Windows 7 in Japan?

Microsoft released nine patches, five labeled critical, as part of its Patch Tuesday monthly release cycle. Of the nine patches, only one does not affect Windows. That patch fixes holes in Office, Visual Studio, ISA Server and BizTalk Server. The nine bulletins in total address 19 vulnerabilities, of which 15 are critical.

Says Eric Schultz, CTO of Shavlik Technologies, "The bulletins cover a gamut of affected products - almost everything in your enterprise will need to be patched today with the exception of Internet Explorer. No IE patches this month!

Critical bug or no critical bug, Windows 7 hit the street yesterday for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Today, IT shops with Volume License Software Assurance contracts can download Windows 7 RTM in English via the Volume License Service Center.

(Ed. – Microsoft officials said this afternoon there is no update to its response to the alleged Windows 7 bug.)

While news reports are circulating today that Microsoft may be building a version of Windows 7 distributed on a thumb drive, the bigger news for enterprises is that Microsoft is releasing a tool that let's you roll your own and that it supports XP-to-Windows 7 migration.

By using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 and the User State Migration Tool (USMT), you can create a USB drive that will install Windows7 while migrating all the user data from an XP or Vista box. The video embedded below (which came from Microsoft and requires Silverlight) features Jeremy Chapman, product manager showing how to do so. (If you don't have Silverlight, you can catch the video on TechNet, using other video file formats.)

"Until the Windows Mobile team gets their act together and at the very least makes IE6 Mobile a downloadable upgrade for all existing WM6 phones, I’m switching browsers to Opera Mobile. IE has been banished from my phone," so declared Microsoft mostly fanboy and blogger Robert McLaws on his Windows Now blog today. "Microsoft may be content to let Mozilla and Apple kick their butt in the mobile space, but that doesn’t mean that I have to be caught in the middle."

Bill Gates is advising President-elect Barack Obama that he should up deficit spending to help the people hardest hit by current economic woes, reports the Washington Post. Gates met with the Post today as part of a trip to D.C. in which he gave the interview, reportedly met with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and spoke at The George Washington University.

This is not a new theme for the capitalist-turned-philanthropist. It is also not surprising that, when speaking to the students at the university, Gates emphasized that he'd like the government expand its investment in education. But he also would like to see economic stimulus that aims to fight disease and poverty around the world. Gates pointed to investments in health, education, and development that have made demonstrable differences during the past decade. He says that America must continue to build on these investments. Gates wants to see that Obama does not trim back on his campaign pledge to double foreign assistance -- that amounts to $50 billion by 2012, and he hopes the American people will stand by Obama as he spends that $50 billion, too. Gates met with the Post today as part of a trip to D.C. in which he gave the interview, reportedly met with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and spoke at The George Washington University.