Microsoft holds weirdest press conference ever

IT'S ST ANDREW'S DAY yesterday so what does Microsoft do? It holds a wake at an Irish bar.

Nothing wrong with wakes, but this time Microsoft is celebrating the death of Exchange Server 5.5, an eight year old product which the executives described as a "she".

The event, for British journalists, also involved Microsoft doling out arm bands obviously intended to be the sort of armbands that people wear when someone dies. One of the problems is that they weren't plain black armbands but instead were emblazoned with Microsoft Exchange Server in white. People who wore these armbands didn't look like they were at a wake - they looked like they were at some kind of mass rally.

You'd think that any self respecting member of Her Majesty's Press would eschew wearing such armbands but we are compelled to report that a large percentage of the hacks that were there were not only wearing these things but toasting the faux death of an old Microsoft product.

There wasn't even a coffin or a casket. At 9PM, most of the hacks decamped to a Sony party round the corner. We made our excuses and left, trying to get our head around 21st Century Microsoft. All the Microsoft people and their spinners were very nice, but what was that all about?

Here's the invite. µ