Slashdot Mirror

Can I use Express Editions for commercial use?

Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using Visual Studio Express Editions.

I blame, in part, Academic Alliance. I got the full version of VS 2005 Pro for free because I was an Info Systems Major under the CS department. There are a few people that still like VS because they've only used C# or VB .net seriously with it. There are some differences between full and express that people will pay for: mobile device support is not available in the express versions. They give away express editions to get people to use their products and get used to it so they go into college or careers with its awesomeness in mind. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2005/aa700921.aspx

I went away from VS only because I preferred C++ and Java resulting in my gravitation to Netbeans; I'm also a cheapo.

Oh, this was all because I was too general in my statement about what UAC is capable of doing.

I'm glad you finally admitted it. Albeit, not directly. But at least something...

Vista Business DOES HAVE BITLOCKER

You are again wrong. From the official source: "BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature available in Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate". See: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/bitlocker.mspx

Business and Home editions (i.e. the vast majority of Vista users) don't have BitLocker (hence, the need for TrueCrypt). Oh, and I forgot the most important reason: TrueCrypt is open source so anyone can peer review it, whereas BitLocker is a closed-source black box where people can only speculate whether everything is implemented correctly or not.

wrong side of the world for you, but 3 do a usb hsdpa modem free on contract or £50 if its pay as you go. the data charges are the same for either £10 for 1gb £15 for 3gb and theres a 7gb monthly tarrif as well and they don't limit you to web pages only.

works well with eee running ubuntu.

alternately they have a skype phone for £40 (or free on contract)with 5000 minutes skype call time a month provided you top up £10 a month as you can use £5 of this for a months internet access. it works as a bluetooth modem on ubuntu or usb modem on windows. it's only 3g so relatively slow but it works fine on the EEE (windows tested, win2000 in Virtualbox) they even let you use the phone and data allowance on sister networks without roaming charges.

While i'm wary of getting a contract with 3 they are probably the best mobile data service provider in the uk.

However network coverage is quite hit and miss on the train it repeatedly dropped connection away from the stations.

For me with broadband at home the skype phone works good enough for me, for someone else with no regular broadband the hspda modem is better.

The standard battery on the EEE does at least 3 hours 5200mA after market batteries can be twice that capacity but i'm not so keen on the bulky designs.

The small screen size of the EEE 701, causes occasional problems, selecting compiz settings can be tricky, it's better to tab around the gui.

The 900 is an improvement but I still don't regret getting the 701.

I have had bigger laptops for years but only since having the EEE have I really got real mobile use out of a laptop.

If I think i need my extras, usb hard drives, cables, slimline dvd drive i take it about in a little dvd player bag. If I don't I just take it along with me.
in a small leather case.

It almost replaces my pda phone
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C62D54A5-183A-4A1E-A7E2-CC500ED1F19A&displaylang=en
might help it's a microsoft pda emulator and wm5 image. it might be good in wine or a vm.

If this is indeed the case, then I'd go so far as to say that its not anyones fault. While I agree that the router shouldn't crash, router manufacturers can't be held liable for not following specifications that weren't available when the router was manufactured, and Microsoft shouldn't be held liable for using said specifications.

I can't see, what I get is this msg:

"The site that you visited was built for an earlier, beta version of Silverlight - not the current one. Please contact the site owner to let them know"

HttpOnly cookies

I work on the SIlverlight team (on the media side): on10.net/blogs/benwagg/

Really, that Ruby on Rails works in Silverlight is more a nice testament to the flexibility of the Dynamic Language Runtime in Silverlight than any big strategy on our part. Silverlight is an extremely flexible platform, and people can do all kinds of interesting things with it that we never thought of. I expect that the bulk of code written for Silverlight 2 and later will be in C#. But I'm always happy to see the new stuff people are coming up with inside Silverlight.

I think a lot of people start out thinking of it as "just another media player plugin" but the power of fast runtime is opening up a whole lot of neat stuff. I can't wait for 8/8/8 and NBC's Olympics coverage to start. I think it'll really raise the bar for what video on the web should be from both a quality and an interactivity perspective.

Anyway, Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and its associated SDK just launched today as well, for anyone interesting in playing around with it. https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ba7b510d-0646-4d06-9834-cb82d669872a&displaylang=en

Again, a Win32 application written for XP that requires administrator rights anytime during its execution will NOT run on Vista. The function of the program will fail. For example, TrueCrypt. Before it was Vista-ready it did not work, because it required admin privileges. The developers had to IMPLEMENT requests for elevation to invoke the UAC prompts. So what you wrote (that legacy apps will run) is false.

You can keep saying this, but it is not true.

As for simply NOT BEING ABLE TO RUN because of UAC, NO... Any application can obtain elevation or even via compatibility tab be forced to launch with elevation. Also Manifest or internal Vista Application compatibility check can also mark this application and allow what is needed or virtualize as needed. (See Vista Application Compatibility Service, WHICH IS A PART of the UAC system.)

TrueCrypt? OMG...
Additionally, you are citing an application that tries to access areas of the OS that are protected. TrueCrypt was NOT A STANDARD Win32 application if it was elevating itself to access device and non-user driver level features. PERIOD. See (Windows Resource Protection) or (Services Hardening) that are also a part of UAC and Vista.

You are bitching cause an application driver or process that wants full control of the OS doesn't just automatically work. You are arguing something completely different...

It would be easier for to freaking read up on UAC and what and why Vista handles security than to keep repeating crap information because you have nothing better to do.

http://edge.technet.com/Media/Vista-UAC-PM-Interview/
(Silverlight Video explaining UAC - Silverlight runs on Linux, OS X, Windows)

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/00d04415-2b2f-422c-b70e-b18ff918c2811033.mspx?mfr=true
(IT Whitepaper with basic descriptions that explain part of what you are not getting)

http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/05/27/windows-vista-30-rootkits-0.aspx
(Screencast of UAC for freaking idiots)

I excluded any 'technical' links, but feel free to search for more 'technical' references to UAC if you still don't understand all the mechanism that it employs.

Happy reading/watching...

Actually, all of Internet Explorer's scripting support comes via the Windows Script architecture, which is supported by various script language developers. ActivePython is one of them, so it's possible to use Python in IE right now if you want.

The two major problems are lack of sandboxing (at the language feature and library levels), which makes it a security risk for anything from untrusted sources, and lack of widespread use to enable it on the web at large.

One thing Silverlight brings to the table is a security architecture, so things running on top of it -- like the DLR Ruby implementation -- are already sandboxed.

Speaking of 'copyright' issues...*cough*.

Isn't one of the biggest reasons for Vista non-acceptance, the load of *bull* *excrement* that MS put into Vista to degrade the user's equipment or abort recording of 'legal-to-record' shows, that set the ignorable 'broadcast flag'?
As far as I remember, the broadcast flag never passed any final approval stages, but MS went ahead and voluntarily put in code to detect it and disable Windows Media based systems (as happened recently, when NBC tested market penetration of the flag, "accidentally"). On top of that example of DRM-joy, studios publishing Hi-Def format DVD's (ala Blu-Ray), are mostly biding their time before activating the 'Hi-Def' flag, that will require new, encrypted-only, monitors to play the "protected media" -- and will either abort any image (or optionally sound) or degrade the picture, if the user doesn't have a movie-studio approved display or sound reproduction hardware.

Some industry pundits claim customers are waiting for Windows 7 -- but the elephant is already in the room -- not only has it been said that Windows 7 won't be that much different than Vista (I guess they getting rid of some of the fancier desktop features to lower the requirements of their high-end OS), but it seems it is a 'given' that they aren't going to go back to non-DRM compatible drivers from XP.

As near as I can tell -- the major slow-down in Vista was due the required driver and i/o path rewrites to disable or degrade video and/or sound on the fly. So any Windows 7/Vista++ product would still have the same cpu playback requirements -- and still have the general, OS-wide I/O path slowdown(**1). It certainly won't make it easier to accepted on the lower-end machines that linux has dominated in (and XP, has, at least, temporarily been 'green-lighted' for continued availability).

But it's not just the low-end that benefits from XP. It's across the board in terms of CPU usage. 10-15% extra
'slowness' on the CPU path translates to higher overall energy consumption (unless you are using a very low-power, 'Atom-like' CPU) -- making Vista less green than XP(**2).

The crappy user-interface problems with UAL are only part of the Vista experience.

Something that hasn't been given much press, is MS having 6 different platform solutions -- 5 OS versions and an optional 'Desktop Optimization Pack'. Developers of platform-wide solutions need to test up to 6 different delivery platforms for some programs to ensure proper end-user experience. They'll potentially need to 'degrade' their platform-wide solution, 'gracefully' depending upon what OS features are available to them. This would seem to be a nightmare waiting to happen...

I don't know that marginally informed or intelligent customer will want to move down to to the degraded Vista experience -- which appears to be scheduled for inclusion in Windows 7.

Doesn't this indicate the XP issue may be "an issue" for "a while"?

Notes:
**1-Vista fixes a wireless-networking protocol bug that caused unnecessary slowdowns on XP. So far, they've only put the fix in Vista. The result is wireless file-transfers can be faster on Vista than XP, despite the global inefficiencies and slowdowns in the I/O layer.

**2-MS touts Vista as being 'green' because they now allow desktop-power-saving settings to be controlled by network Administrators in companies -- allowing those Admins to 'save power' on their network regardless of users' individual machine settings. This may result some overall saving in a corporate environment -- but doesn't address the additional power consumed by the I/O layer inefficiencies across the board.

It's true that microsoft sells ergonomic keyboards. I think their most famous ones are the "split" or "natural hand" boards (that's the ones I know, and the names I know them under), i.e. the one I linked to.

The problem is that it's not a good keyboard design. If we stick to a (roughly) flat board with buttons on it, you first of all want more space between the hands, since that's how you hold them naturally. Second of all, you want vertically aligned keys (the unaligned keys is a holdover from typewriter manufacturing constraints).

Third of all, you want something that takes the shape and anatomy of the human hand into account. Your fingers don't have equal length. When you rest your palm, you tend to want to let your fingers "hang", being in rest at a lower place than the palm. Your thumb can do useful work besides just hitting the space bar.

Kinesis has made a quite good keyboard, taking the above considerations into account.

If you want to move away from the board-with-buttons, I've heard many good things about the datahand (sorry, couldn't find a picture from the makers).

On top of picking a good keyboard, you may want to pick a good keyboard layout. I'm very happy using dvorak, and I hear that people with RSI can type with less pain (some with no pain at all) on dvorak. Comparison: on qwerty, you move your fingers 15-20 miles per day, compared to 1 mile on dvorak for (I assume) the same workload.

For a longer explanation about dvorak, see dv zine. It's in my experience well worth the time spent learning a new keyboard layout.

So yeah, microsoft sells ergonomic keyboards, but you can get better elsewhere. I've tried both a microsoft ergonomic board and the kinesis, and the kinesis definitely wins any comparison hands down; except when you spill coke into one and not the other.

Correct.
Here is the original article from Microsoft, most of it is an ad for thier products.
One thing to note, Microsoft did not release this as a press release it is just part of the normal "Here is a way Microsoft can help you" marketing.

more people need to buy the Microsoft Natural Keyboard.

As i've said before, obviously it's physically possible to get Linux to do something similar to what Windows AD allows....it's just the effort required to do it.

When it would take 10 minutes to setup these desktop scenarios here for thousands of machines on a network, that's when you'll know it's close.

Yes, if only someone would invent parental controls.

It's true.

Even the most expensive retail version of Windows for PCs (Vista Ultimate) at non-upgrade pricing is at most $320 (directly from Microsoft) and available for as low as $220. The retail version of Vista Home Premium (non-upgrade) is $200-$260. Upgrade and OEM versions are even cheaper.

Microsoft Word 2007 is at most $230 (retail, non-upgrade) or $110 (upgrade) for non-volume business users ($193 and $90 at Amazon). Home users (up to three per household) can get Office 2007 Home & Student (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) for at most $150 ($95 at Amazon).

I agree that many people will be just fine with cheaper (or free) alternatives for their OS and word processor, but exaggerating and bullshitting like O'Reilly or Michael Moore doesn't help make the point.

Nope. Let me introduce you to Conditional Comments: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537512.aspx

Since I expect Windows 7 to be released after June 2009, I'm expecting XP to be available for even longer (for low-cost PCs).

There are many signs that M$ is in trouble and that Vista is a failure. This is going to be a list of those signs. This is what Vista looks like to me. It is such a flop it can take M$ down, which would put an end to their attacks on free software, free software advocates and reasonable standards. Vista's failure is the predicted, practical result of a business model that tries to keep customers helpless and divided.

The six year development was troubled and expensive. There were signs that nothing important had changed. Promissed features evaporated and those that came through were downright creepy.

• January 1, 2004 - Jim Allichin sees the future and does not like it.
• July 9, 2004 - Vista troubles go public, rebuild is promissed but never delivered as is clear from legacy bugs.
• March 26, 2006 - M$ Employees Revolt over delays.
• A buggy launch was insured and hardware doomed because XP driver compatibility was intentionally broken just before RTM.
• January 30, 2007 - Vista is officially released. Jim Allchin retires.

Then came real use and real problems for users: security problems, devices not working, features dropped, competitors run off and high costs.

• An objective study of the Vista UI shows the changes have made things worse, not better for users who make it past install, broken software and hardware.
• Basic operations are broken. File copy, for example, takes forever and may fail because it can consume all of your memory. Memory used this way is not released until reboot. IPv6 does not work.
• M$ considers network degradation for media protection normal, so network performance is about 10% of what you get from XP or anything else.
• Insane anti-piracy harms the innocent. An anti-piracy server accidently disabled the nicer parts and required all XP and Vista users to "reauthenticate". Just a few weeks later, M$ made things even worse with a new BSoD for "pirates". They backpedaled a little and now Vista is nagware instead of deadware. The system remains a booby trap. So much as changing a video card will disable your system without warning. People with cracked coppies laugh but M$ can pull the plug for anyone else anytime for any reason.
• Business as usual has not improved security. New problems have been added to the seemingly endless supply of legacy bugs. There are reports of double extensio

There are many signs that M$ is in trouble and that Vista is a failure. This is going to be a list of those signs. This is what Vista looks like to me. It is such a flop it can take M$ down, which would put an end to their attacks on free software, free software advocates and reasonable standards. Vista's failure is the predicted, practical result of a business model that tries to keep customers helpless and divided.

The six year development was troubled and expensive. There were signs that nothing important had changed. Promissed features evaporated and those that came through were downright creepy.

• January 1, 2004 - Jim Allichin sees the future and does not like it.
• July 9, 2004 - Vista troubles go public, rebuild is promissed but never delivered as is clear from legacy bugs.
• March 26, 2006 - M$ Employees Revolt over delays.
• A buggy launch was insured and hardware doomed because XP driver compatibility was intentionally broken just before RTM.
• January 30, 2007 - Vista is officially released. Jim Allchin retires.

Then came real use and real problems for users: security problems, devices not working, features dropped, competitors run off and high costs.

• An objective study of the Vista UI shows the changes have made things worse, not better for users who make it past install, broken software and hardware.
• Basic operations are broken. File copy, for example, takes forever and may fail because it can consume all of your memory. Memory used this way is not released until reboot. IPv6 does not work.
• M$ considers network degradation for media protection normal, so network performance is about 10% of what you get from XP or anything else.
• Insane anti-piracy harms the innocent. An anti-piracy server accidently disabled the nicer parts and required all XP and Vista users to "reauthenticate". Just a few weeks later, M$ made things even worse with a new BSoD for "pirates". They backpedaled a little and now Vista is nagware instead of deadware. The system remains a booby trap. So much as changing a video card will disable your system without warning. People with cracked coppies laugh but M$ can pull the plug for anyone else anytime for any reason.
• Business as usual has not improved security. New problems have been added to the seemingly endless supply of legacy bugs. There are reports of double extensio

Rebooting in Windows is only done if files needed for patching are in use. So flaws in the shell or GDI for example would almost definitely require a reboot. This is the same in Linux, except that you only "reboot" the particular bit that was patched; the thing is, say you needed to patch X for instance and reboot it, to all intents and purposes that's as good as taking the whole system down (for servers not of course).

Anyway, on the other points, I'm totally aware it's possible in Linux, but it would take a certain amount of setting up to do. In Windows (business versions) this is all hard-coded in. Everything from complete IE configuration, to IPSec profiles, to Wireless network config, to the title-bar in Explorer. Everything. It's an admin dream, it really is - this is a good intro to it - http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/7b33dcd6-0ad2-44e8-82f8-962425b6cf8e1033.mspx?mfr=true

My point is just that I've not seen anything pre-built that allows such instant and flexible management of thousands of workstations in Linux, and actually, I'm interested to know how you would do it.

The model you selected comes with Vista Basic preloaded. Microsoft considers this license equivalent or less than XP home. XP Professional is considered equivalent in value to Vista Business. In fact, if you purchase a retail Vista Business license, you legally have downgrade rights to XP Professional. Of course if you purchase XP pro, you do not have upgrade rights to Vista Business.

Depends which EOL date you're talking about. XP license availability was supposed to be discontinued 6/30/08, but Microsoft extended that to 1/20/09 for System Builders and probably longer than that for UMPCs. XP Home, Pro and MCE are all supported with bugfixes and security updates through 4/8/14. There's another good 6 years left in XP.

Depends which EOL date you're talking about. XP license availability was supposed to be discontinued 6/30/08, but Microsoft extended that to 1/20/09 for System Builders and probably longer than that for UMPCs. XP Home, Pro and MCE are all supported with bugfixes and security updates through 4/8/14. There's another good 6 years left in XP.

Not quite, the money's already been paid in its own form recently for this marketshare (aka bribes:

It's Microsoft's "OnMyWay". Groklaw has coverage. So yeah, the bribes are pretty much out in the open on this. It's just a continuation of the OOXML bribes fiasco for marketshare.

When my kids were younger (5 or so) they liked to play games on Windows like Tonka Power Tools and such - which really were barely designed to run on Windows at all and didn't play all that nice.

But now that they're older and things are moving to the Web, they're past those. I've since decreed that I won't install any more games on our one remaining Windows system. If they want to run games, tell them to save their money and buy a console - you spend way too much money on graphics cards and extra CPU to run games on Windows these days anyway.

I was going to convert our family machine to Ubuntu Hardy when it came out, but unfortunately there's an issue with Flash running on the Firefox beta that causes random browser crashes. As soon as that's taken care of we'll be Windows-free. I can't wait!

If you must stick with Windows, consider looking at Windows SteadyState which can help.

Um, yes I expect it to. I can do it with Linux, why not Windows?

And the problem wasn't with the MBR, we could boot windows fine. This was the problem. Installing GRUB isn't going to fix a fundamental design flaw of the OS.

I'm not dumb, windows is.

For burning ISOs of DVD and CD, you can download the Windows 2003 Resource Kit which includes the command line tools dvdburn.exe and cdburn.exe. This also allows burning of dvd ISOs on Windows XP, which I /think/ cdburnerxp can't do.

I use both firebug and IE development toolbar. I'm not sure which came first but one has clearly ripped the other off. ;)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en

As far as Microsoft is concerned, yes with some limitations:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&x=18&y=10&p1=3071
But driver supply for 3rd party hardware is starting to dry up.

Considering DOD and TS, they run fine on my old P4 under Windows 2000, same patch level. So it could be some unfixed driver issue or maybe a flaw in Windows 2000 that only shows up with a dual core processor.

But I refuse to use a Windows version that requires activation, so it is Windows 2000 or Linux. Linux might win that contest soon...

For those who couldn't sit through the 80-minute video (or don't have Silverlight), Gates said that in the future Microsoft's mega data centers will have many millions of servers". It currently has "hundreds of thousands" of servers, but expects to pack up to 300,000 into its new Chicago container farm. Gates also predicted that only a select number of companies (presumably including Microsoft and Google) will be able to compete on this scale.

No, no, no!

If you're going to play devil's advocate than you have to play up Microsoft's strengths. Say what you will about Office, but it dominates for reasons aside of lock-in.

And what about Surface? I'd like to see the folks at apple come up with something as cool as that. There is a *nix variant, but it's not nearly as cool. And no, the puny widdle scween on the iPhone dosen't count! Sure, the cost of a Surface unit would be prohibitive to average Joe User but people may re-respect Microsoft if they get to play with a Surface coffee-table at their local Starbucks.

Disclaimer: I'm OS agnostic as long as all o' them are contribute to the idea pool.

Fortunately, if the website is large enough and has enough visitors then garbage can be easily rooted out.

Look at craigslist for example, FREE everything except job listings in a couple of cities. Yet, the majority of advertisements posted in the more serious sections (Free Stuff, Automobiles Ect., NOT man looking for woman) are not noise or junk.

All of this is done due to the self moderation buttons at the top of every ad, and the tens of millions of users who hit these buttons. Slashdot itself functions in much the same way, only you must be registered to moderate.

It is a myth that just because something is free, it's not as good as it's costly competitor.

Please reference cbrocious where he says "The DLR and IronRuby are released under the MS-PL which is OSI-approved." MS-PL is essentially like the BSD license meaning even if Microsoft stops supporting IronRuby, the community can continue development just like it does with most open-source projects.

I'm no lawyer but the license is royalty-free, world-wide, and non-exclusive, and seems to be irrevocable based on section 3D.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/licensingbasics/publiclicense.mspx

MS-Public License:

1. Definitions
The terms âoereproduce,â âoereproduction,â âoederivative works,â and âoedistributionâ have the same meaning here as under U.S. copyright law.

A âoecontributionâ is the original software, or any additions or changes to the software.

A âoecontributorâ is any person that distributes its contribution under this license.

âoeLicensed patentsâ are a contributorâ(TM)s patent claims that read directly on its contribution.

2. Grant of Rights
(A) Copyright Grant- Subject to the terms of this license, including the license conditions and limitations in section 3, each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce its contribution, prepare derivative works of its contribution, and distribute its contribution or any derivative works that you create.

(B) Patent Grant- Subject to the terms of this license, including the license conditions and limitations in section 3, each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license under its licensed patents to make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale, import, and/or otherwise dispose of its contribution in the software or derivative works of the contribution in the software.

Top of page
3. Conditions and Limitations
(A) No Trademark License- This license does not grant you rights to use any contributorsâ(TM) name, logo, or trademarks.

(B) If you bring a patent claim against any contributor over patents that you claim are infringed by the software, your patent license from such contributor to the software ends automatically.

(C) If you distribute any portion of the software, you must retain all copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices that are present in the software.

(D) If you distribute any portion of the software in source code form, you may do so only under this license by including a complete copy of this license with your distribution. If you distribute any portion of the software in compiled or object code form, you may only do so under a license that complies with this license.

(E) The software is licensed âoeas-is.â You bear the risk of using it. The contributors give no express warranties, guarantees or conditions. You may have additional consumer rights under your local laws which this license cannot change. To the extent permitted under your local laws, the contributors exclude the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Not any more: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/mobile/default.mspx

I can't imagine why you would have to run IE.

According to http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/install.aspx?v=2.0#sysreq, Silverlight is supported on IE and FireFox on Windows, Safari and FireFox on MacOS. Presumably Moonlight will be good enough to be to Linux what the Linux version of Adobe's Flash plug-in is to Linux.

dom

I believe that most of the major Smartphone players have begun to do things like this. For example, Microsoft Exchange 2007 allows users and administrators to remotely wipe devices. Combining Exchange 2007 with WM6 brings additional security features: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc182299(TechNet.10).aspx. Bottom line: If you Smartphone makers want to reach Enterprises, they need to take both security and device management into consideration.

I went to Silverlight's site:

http://www.microsoft.com/Silverlight/

Allowed the site in no-script.

Hit the "click to install" button.

And it downloaded a file called "silverlight.exe"

I clicked on it, and Firefox asked me to choose an application to open it.

I opened a terminal, and here's the results.

[mike@orion ~]$ l Silverlight.exe
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mike mike 1427520 2008-06-02 18:23 Silverlight.exe
[mike@orion ~]$ chmod 775 Silverlight.exe
[mike@orion ~]$ ./Silverlight.exe
bash: ./Silverlight.exe: cannot execute binary file
[mike@orion ~]$
[mike@orion ~]$

So, what's MSFT's point again?

Here's the support statement: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbrun/ms788708.aspx

Developing software with the "Fluent UI" (ribbon interface in common mouth) is permitted by Microsoft, except when the software directly competes with the Microsoft Office 2007 line of products. This license was most likely written with OOo and the likes in mind. It can be debated whether this interface is similar enough or not though, but there you have it anyway.

Office UI licensing site

Oh, and those "free" versions of yours? They aren't free for corporate use...

7. Can I use Express Editions for commercial use?

Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using Visual Studio Express Editions.