Microsoft Posts BizTalk, Maestro Betas; But What's Up In China?

First of all, a venerable ex-Loti wrote in response to the Death Of OS/2 column with a fond remembrance. "Don't forget to mention how IBM [expletived] Lotus and ultimately had to marry her. That's how it happened, right?", she wrote.

For you young 'uns, a history lesson: In the days of the DOS decline, Lotus bet big on OS/2 early on, forsaking Windows. The rest, as well as Lotus 1-2-3, is history.

Microsoft Posts Betas Of Maestro, BizTalk Aught-Six

On the Microsoft front, the company today plans to post the first beta of BizTalk Server 2006. GA is slated for first quarter of next year.

Earlier this week it put out beta 2 of Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 (formerly and better known as "Maestro"). That free download can be had for the taking at this Microsoft site.

In broader, more political news, check out this interesting column in The Washington Post regarding Microsoft's apparent kow-towing to the Chinese government over internet filtering.

Columnist Anne Applebaum is not alone in thinking that Microsoft, the self-proclaimed ultimate capitalist, is bending in an attempt to win entry into the potentially lucrative market.

Writes Applebaum: China's Internet filtering system "involves the censorship of Web logs, search engines, chat rooms and e-mail by 'thousands of public and private personnel.' It also involves Microsoft Inc., as Chinese bloggers discovered last month. Since early June, Chinese bloggers who post messages containing a forbidden word -- "Dalai Lama," for example, or "democracy" -- receive a warning: "This message contains a banned expression, please delete." It seems Microsoft has altered the Chinese version of its blog tool, MSN Spaces, at the behest of Chinese government. Bill Gates, so eloquent on the subject of African poverty, is less worried about Chinese free speech."