Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday that lines between on-premise software and Internet-delivered services are blurring, an industry shift the company is embracing. Ballmer was interviewed Tuesday by Gartner analysts David Smith and Yvonne Genovese at the corporate technology research company’s Symposium/ITxpo.

Antivirus and security software provider McAfee said it fired President Kevin Weiss, and announced that CEO and Chairman George Samenuk will retire after a stock options investigation found accounting problems that will require financial restatements. The company said board member Dale Fuller will serve as interim CEO and president in the wake of the management shakeup. Fuller joined McAfee’s board in January and has previously served as president and CEO of Borland Software.

Microsoft released six patches to fix software flaws that carry its highest threat rating, including three for defects that attackers were already trying to exploit. The company said all six of the critical flaws could allow an attacker to obtain some access to other people’s computers. The Redmond software maker also released four other patches to fix vulnerabilities that the company deemed less severe.

Google is making its word processing and spreadsheet programs available for free to all comers on its Web site, marking the Internet search leader’s latest effort to provide an alternative to Microsoft’s dominant software applications. The software package, expected to be available Wednesday, combines a spreadsheet application that Google introduced in June with a word processing program called Writely that the Mountain View-based company bought for an undisclosed amount in March. As part of the expansion, the Writely name will disappear. The new package will be called Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

We’re in the midst of a work force sea change, as the vast crop of Baby Boomers, now dominant among the IT work force, retires, to be replaced by tech-savvy twenty-somethings over the next decade. That was the message voiced by several Gartner analysts Oct. 9 at the consultancy’s annual Symposium and IT Expo. As technology-minded youngsters take their place in corporate America, including the nation’s IT departments, they will bring with them a passion and an expectation for the latest and greatest in technology.

Remote workers continue to expose their employers to a wide range of IT threats by using poor laptop etiquette and connecting to corporate systems using non-trusted wireless connections, according to a new report sponsored by Cisco Systems. In a study conducted by InsightExpress, researchers interviewed 1,000 remote workers in 10 countries and found that many people continue to use poor judgment in adhering to security policies, despite having been warned of threats lurking on the Web and wireless networks.

Google has agreed to purchase online video phenomenon YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. The deal, which had been rumored for days, will dramatically improve Google’s video-sharing service with one of the Internet’s hottest properties in YouTube, which allows Net users to upload video clips and share them with the world.

Symantec announced the availability of Norton Confidential, a new product designed to protect consumers as they do business online. Norton Confidential includes technologies to shield against data-thieving phishing Web sites and eavesdropping malicious software such as keystroke loggers and screen scrapers.

For searching video on the Web, Blinkx.tv is emerging as the way consumers on a range of Web sites and media properties find what is available. Microsoft has agreed to use Blinkx technology to power the video search on some parts of its MSN Internet sites and Live.com.

The release of 2X ApplicationServer v.4 provides a Citrix alternative at a fraction of the price. 2X ApplicationServer v.4 allows seamless publishing of Windows applications on remote desktops, significantly reducing administration overheads and security risks. The new version adds integrated load balancing, Linux & Mac client support, support for server farms, SSL tunneling and more.