In an unusual partnership, old foes Microsoft and Novell have joined forces to work on harmonizing their products. The companies said Thursday they will collaborate on development of specific technologies, for example to help Microsoft’s Windows, a proprietary operating system, work with Novell’s Suse Linux, which is based on open-source code. On the business side, they will promote each other’s products. In addition, the software makers have struck a deal on patents designed to give customers peace of mind about using Novell’s open-source products.

Reversing a licensing change announced two weeks ago, Microsoft said on Thursday that it will not limit the number of times that retail customers can transfer their Windows Vista license to a different computer. On Oct. 16, Microsoft issued the new user license for Vista, including terms that would have limited the ability of those who buy a boxed copy of the operating system to transfer that license. Under the proposed terms, users could have made such a switch only one time. However, the new restriction prompted an outcry among hardware enthusiasts and others. Microsoft is returning the licensing terms to basically what they were in Windows XP–users can transfer their license to a new PC an unlimited number of times, provided they uninstall and stop using it on the prior machine.

Search engine company Google wants Microsoft to make sure users can easily choose Internet search engines in future products. But Google won’t say if changes Microsoft has already made to its upcoming operating system, Vista, have gone far enough. David C. Drummond–Google’s senior vice president of corporate development–spoke to reporters after meeting with European Union antitrust regulators but refused to give details on those talks.

The spam epidemic keeps on trucking along, according to researchers, with a seemingly never-ending variety of attacks helping to serve up more unwanted email to users than ever. Researchers at security software maker McAfee are highlighting a new trend in spam delivery, which the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has labeled "island hopping," that involves the use of Internet domains from far-off nations to disguise the mass email campaigns.

The office might be far from the playground, but it’s not off limits to bullies. From a screaming boss to snubbing colleagues, bullies can create a "war zone" in the workplace. In a recent study, bullied employees likened their experiences to a battle, water torture, a nightmare or a noxious substance. Understanding the seriousness of workplace bullying and what it feels like to get bullied could help managers put the brakes on the behavior, shown to afflict 25 to 30 percent of employees sometime during their careers.

Microsoft’s corporate customers may have another reason to take their time upgrading to Vista. The latest one is that the current version, Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1, released in April 2006, won’t work with Vista or with the related Longhorn server. These two operating systems will only support SQL Server 2005 SP2 "or later when it becomes available," according to Microsoft’s SQL Server support Web pages. But there is no indication on these sites of how soon it will deliver SP2 or whether it will deliver the service pack at about the same time Vista and Longhorn are released.

Netcraft, an Internet monitoring company that has tracked Web growth since 1995, says a mammoth milestone was reached during the month of October. "There are now 100 million Web sites with domain names and content on them," said Netcraft’s Rich Miller. "Within that, there are some that are busy and updated more often, and that represents the active sites, which are at about 47 or 48 million," he said.

A vulnerability in Visual Studio 2005 could let an attacker execute code on a targeted Windows machine, Microsoft said Wednesday. Danish security vendor Secunia rated the vulnerability as "extremely critical" since it hasn’t been patched and there are unconfirmed reports it’s being exploited, said Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer for Secunia. Microsoft said proof-of-concept attack code has been published, and the company could eventually issue a patch after its investigation.

Detailed exploit code for a Windows XP security vulnerability has been published on the Internet, offering a roadmap for hackers to disable the firewall embedded in the operating system. Microsoft confirmed it is investigating the issue, which targets ICS (Internet Connection Sharing), a feature in Windows XP that lets users share a dial-up or broadband connection with other users on a home network.

A bill of rights for the Internet age has been proposed at a United Nations’ conference in Athens. The bill would update and restate rights that have been enshrined for centuries, said Robin Gross of civil liberties group IP Justice. The proposal was made at the Internet Governance Forum, at which the future of the Net is being discussed.