I caught up with Zach Skyles Owens, a PHP Evangelist at Microsoft. If you missed the embed, watch the video. I have some sparse notes below.

I learned some new things:

• Microsoft spends time working with the PHP community
• They are porting applications to work with an SQL Server backend
• They are ensuring that the language should “just work”, with the IIS and SQL Server stack. This is quite different from the usual AMP (Apache = server, MySQL = database, PHP = language) stack that we’re quite accustomed to.
• There is a Microsoft Web Platform, and there’s a Web Application Gallery, that brings in …

Three great beta deliveries in one week!

MySQL Connector/.Net 6.0.2 beta, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL.

MySQL Connector/C++ 1.0.4 beta, a new release providing  C++ API for connecting client applications to the MySQL Server. If you know JDBC, this should be familiar to you.

MySQL Connector/C 6.0.0 beta, a new version of the C API for accessing MySQL database servers

Use them and let us know what you think.

Learn more about Connector/C++ here.

Learn more about Connector/C …

Three great beta deliveries in one week!

MySQL Connector/.Net 6.0.2 beta, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL.

MySQL Connector/C++ 1.0.4 beta, a new release providing  C++ API for connecting client applications to the MySQL Server. If you know JDBC, this should be familiar to you.

MySQL Connector/C 6.0.0 beta, a new version of the C API for accessing MySQL database servers

Use them and let us know what you think.

Learn more about Connector/C++ here.

Learn more about Connector/C …

Three great beta deliveries in one week!

MySQL Connector/.Net 6.0.2 beta, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL.

MySQL Connector/C++ 1.0.4 beta, a new release providing  C++ API for connecting client applications to the MySQL Server. If you know JDBC, this should be familiar to you.

MySQL Connector/C 6.0.0 beta, a new version of the C API for accessing MySQL database servers

Use them and let us know what you think.

Learn more about Connector/C++ here.

Learn more about Connector/C …

Microsoft and TomTom settle patent claims. Alfresco makes progress and shifts its strategy. The Open Cloud Manifesto is published. Support for free software. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory

Quietening the patent drums
Cnet’s Ina Fried had the scoop on the news that Microsoft and TomTom had reached a settlement in their patent dispute. The news story was quickly followed by Microsoft’s official statement, as well as a note from the Software Freedom Law Center that the situation is not completely dealt with. Jay Lyman delivered the 451 CAOS …

IBM to acquire Sun? TomTom countersues Microsoft. Sun unveils Open Cloud Platform. Oracle’s contributions to the Linux kernel. SpringSource updates Tool Suite. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory

IBM to acquire Sun?
No prizes for guessing the big story this week as the Wall Street Journal reported that IBM was in talks to buy Sun for $6.5bn, according to “people familiar with the matter”. Raising the game, the New York Times reported that the purchase price was nearer $7bn citing “a person with knowledge of the negotiations”.

The media exploded with …

One might have thought Microsoft was back rattling the patented software sabres against Linux and open source this week, reading some of the recent reports regarding Redmond’s patent infringement suit against automotive navigation and GPS player TomTom. However, upon further review, it seems that Microsoft is making a point to say that these suits are not aimed at the Linux OS or open source. In response to my own query, the company offered this:

First, to answer your earlier question on how the suit with TomTom involves the Linux Operating System, three of the infringed patents read on the Linux kernel as implemented by TomTom. However, open source software is not the focal point of this action. …

Sun reports second quarter results. Compiere reports 216% quarterly revenue growth. EnterpriseDB grows customers accounts. Hyperic and JasperSoft team up on BI for IT. Microsoft embraces Apache but resists GPL. And more.

Sun up or Sun down?
There was some comparatively good news from Sun, which reported a net loss of $209m on revenue down 10.9% at $3.2bn. As Sam Diaz at ZDnet notes, however, “after excluding one-time costs related to recent layoffs and other costs, the company posted a profit of 15 cents per share, beating analysts’ expectations of a 10 cent loss”. In regular trading, shares of Sun were up more than 5%.

Matt Asay noted the impact open …

I’ve had about enough of Microsoft and its approach to help small businesses develop application. The .NET platform is FAR FAR from ‘working everywhere’ and being compatible to everything. Let me write down some points to what I mean.

Windows Applications that are developed in Visual Studio.NET by SMBs usually (almost always):

• Do not work on other machines, even when its .NET. Don’t assume a .NET application will work on every machine. You need an installation of visual studio for each machine you want your application to work on.
• Do not work with Crystal Reports. It might work “ok” on your computer, but if/when it doesn’t print on someone else’s machine, try to find some support.
  
• Stop working when you update …

Yahoo! in cloud OR Hadoop? (Яху в облаках) by Alexander & Natalie

tl;dr: Yahoo adds SmugMug support to Profiles. Windows Live coming. Lots of other services, too.

Wow, what a pleasant surprise! Woke up this morning to this story on TechCrunch about 20 new services they’d added to Yahoo Profiles (here’s mine). Lo and behold, SmugMug is one of them! …