ReadWriteWeb

If you are looking for a way to move your .NET app into the cloud, then you probably have heard of Apprenda by now. We covered their launch earlier this year, and today they have v3 available.

New features included in Apprenda 3.0 are support for nearly any .NET web or SOA application by way of its software layer that enterprises can use quickly and easily. Apprenda has beefed up its APIs and included ones for distributed caching, publish/subscribe systems, message brokering, and application metering. All to make building more complex apps easier.

The next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system will include an app store and offer a consistent experience across desktops, tablets and smartphones.

Windows 8 is being developed in two flavors: one for desktop computers and one for tablets and phones, with consistencies across both versions. This brings Windows closer to the model that Apple has adopted with its Mac OS X operating system, the desktop version of which has slowly been adopting similarities with the experience iOS offers on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Think Windows 7 meets Windows Phone 7.

Back in the days when Microsoft could just behave as a monopolist without the legal consequences thereof, the acronym FUD was tossed around (meaning fear, uncertainty and doubt): Merely by intimating that their competitors' products were sub-par, they could lock folks into their own regardless of the technical merits or even that newer versions of their products had yet to be created. As Wikipedia cites, an IT department would buy technically inferior software because upper management was more likely to recognize the brand.

This week at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference the company made its tablet strategy more clear. As reported by Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Windows Phone President Andy Lees said: "We view a tablet as a sort of PC. We want people to be able to do the sorts of things that they expect on a PC on a tablet, things like networking to be able to connect to networks, and utilize networking tools, to get USB drives and plot them into the tablet."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said in the past that tablets won't run Windows Phone 7. The reasoning is now more clear: Microsoft wants the full version of Windows on tablets, not the Phone version. This might not be the only reason - the company might also be worried about cannibalizing Windows license sales with tablets.

Is the decision to focus on putting one version of Windows everywhere a mistake?

I've been picking on Microsoft a bit lately, so here's a pointer to something cool that it's doing: helping port Node.js to Windows. Joyent competitor Rackspace is pitching in as well.

Earlier this year at NodeConf, Node.js creator Ryan Dahl said that Windows support was a high priority for the 1.0 release. It's good to see him getting some help.

According to a new report from Forrester, Windows 7 is now in use on 20% of corporate desktops as of March 2011. Windows XP still holds on to 59.9% of the enterprise desktop world (down from 67.5% a year go). Apple now has an 11% share of the corporate desktop (up from 9.1%). Linux has only 1.4% (it was 1.3% a year before this study).

Meanwhile, Internet Explorer use is declining slightly while Chrome and Safari are on the rise.

Last week Microsoft officially announced the next version of its operating system, currently codenamed Windows 8. We took a look at many of the features here. The announcement has generated a lot of buzz, but also a lot of uncertainty. How will support for legacy applications be handled? Should your company invest in Windows 7, or wait until Windows 8 is released? Although our readers have been clear they're not worried about Silverlight's future, others are not so confident.

What do you think about the Windows 8 announcement? Are you more excited or more irritated by the move?

Today at the D9 Conference Microsoft previewed the next version of Windows. It also officially confirmed that Windows 8 is the code-name for the next version of Windows.

The new version, optimized for touch, presents a radically different interface similar to Windows Phone 7. You can view a video of the new version on YouTube (embedded below).

Virtualization promises many things: more efficiency, more cost-savings, easier IT management. And now BlueStacks, a startup emerging from stealth today wants to add to that list the ability to run Android applications on Windows devices. That should be a pretty compelling offer for many businesses and consumers that are already familiar with (and/or committed to) Windows but who want to be able to take advantage of Android apps.

Yesterday we told you about some details about the ARM version of Windows 8 that an Intel manager shared on an investor call. Now The Register, which originally broke the news, reports that Microosoft is denying the accuracy of Intel's claims.

But Redmond isn't saying which parts of Intel's statements are true.