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Once the dominant Web browser, AOL has discontinued development and active support for the Netscape browser.

An historic name in software will effectively pass into history in February as AOL discontinues development and active support for the Netscape browser, according to an official blog.

Being as there are but a few days until 2008 kicks in, I thought that I would ask the question 'What to expect out of Microsoft in the coming year?', as well.

Now, Microsoft is a company with a multitude of facets, and I mean in no way to offer indisputable predictions. At the same time, the Redmond company has quite a nasty reputation when it comes to delivering its software products in accordance to strict deadlines. But still, there are clear indications of what you should expect from Microsoft in the coming year. Well... where to begin?

When he was chief executive of Intel in the 1990s, Andrew Grove often talked about the "software spiral" -- the interplay between ever-faster microprocessor chips and software that required ever more computing power.

The potential speed of chips is still climbing, but now the software they run is having trouble keeping up. Newer chips with multiple processors require dauntingly complex software that breaks up computing chores into chunks that can be processed at the same time.

iPhone users have it made. They can whip up sports scores or the weather to get up-to-date information wherever they are. Ok, we admit, anyone can do this-but iPhone users just look cool doing it, thanks to their little widget-launching icons. Now, Windows Mobile users can join in on the fun.

Today a company called Zumobi launched a free version of its beta software (also called Zumobi) that brings a similar widget system to Windows Mobile phones, which it calls "tiles." Better yet, Zumobi puts a spin on the whole widget/tile idea by allowing users to send tiles to each other.

The healthcare services company moved 50 of its 70 applications to Linux over the last two years and will complete the process with the remaining 20 within a year or two.

Three years ago, McKesson's Acute Care Solutions offered its hospital and doctors' office applications to run under IBM (NYSE: IBM)'s mainframe AIX or other larger server Unix. But customers were bringing smaller Intel (NSDQ: INTC)-based servers into their hospitals and doctors offices. A small doctor's group had little use for an eight or 12-way Unix server, but a two-way Intel or AMD server was about right.

The current state of software, security, and virus protection is a mixed bag. Amidst questions of Vista's security prowess over Windows XP, a new report set to be released by German computer magazine c't next month says the accuracy of antivirus software is waning. Particularly when it comes to detecting new, unfamiliar attacks, the 17 software packages tested dropped in average effectiveness by nearly 50 percent in 2007.

This project will be known as Weave and it will focus on finding ways to enhance the Firefox user experience, increase user control over personal information, and provide new opportunities for developers to build innovative online experiences.

Just like Mozilla enables massive innovation by making Firefox open on many levels, we will aim to do the same with Weave by developing an open extensible framework for services integration.

Organizing Principles

When everybody you know uses different chat clients, Pidgin will solve your problems. This year saw a new name and interface for Pidgin, and although it has a notable flaw receiving files from Yahoo IM, it's not the resource hog that other third-party IM clients are. Open-source and free, Pidgin accesses multiple IM networks from one window, including AIM, YIM, ICQ, Google Talk, MSN, and MySpaceIM as well as lesser-known protocols such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu.

Miro has been a true breakout app, overcoming serious stability problems in beta and presenting a much-needed piece of freeware that should redefine how people watch videos. It's a player that can subscribe to and download vodcasts while comprehensively managing your saved vids. The sharing component is an essential part of the program.