Stocks advance on Microsoft, Countrywide

NEW YORK – Wall Street closed an erratic week with strong gains on Friday as strong earnings from Microsoft Corp. and an optimistic outlook from Countrywide Financial Corp. outweighed investor [...]

Microsoft beats Google to Facebook stake

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp beat out Google Inc on Wednesday in a battle to invest in socializing Web site Facebook, agreeing to pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the Web phenomenon.
Microsoft also clinched exclusive rights to sell ads on Facebook outside of the United States as part of the investment that [...]

Core of “Windows 7″ taking shape: meet the “MinWin” kernel

Eric Traut, one of Microsoft’s chief operating system design engineers, gave a fascinating demo (WMV) recently at the University of Illinois, where he talked about where the Windows core is going and ended with a sneak peek at the kernel of the next version of Windows, known by the exciting codename of “Windows 7.” [...]