Best of the blogs: Much like Nietzsche before them, some reporters are declaring Microsoft to be dead. That’s not to say its breath has ceased; rather, just that Microsoft is no longer as scary as it once was. “It’s not the Nemesis du Jour, but it’s still a credible company with enough of a hold on 20th Century desktops to have pull on the 21st Century Internet,” explains Matt Asay. “Or would, if it would stop clinging so tightly to the old world.” Who’s afraid of Microsoft?Columnist’s corner: Editor-in-chief Steve Fox welcomes readers to a print-free InfoWorld. “We’re changing the tires while the vehicle is still moving,” Fox explains in his first all electronic version of the Editor’s Letter. He goes on to discuss reader reaction, and points out some changes of which you’ll want to be aware. From the Test Center: The data deluge is “forcing ordinary end-users to get up to speed on the complexities of databases and working with data,” explains Sean McCown, in Altovo DatabaseSpy makes DB’s user-friendly. The software “does a pretty good job of lowering the learning curve for a lot of common database tasks so that employees can concentrate on their jobs instead of becoming DBAs.” McCown explains that it does fall a bit short in terms of tools DBAs might want. Related: Prepare for the upcoming data deluge. The news beat: The Linux Foundation updates its Linux Standard base specs with automated testing toolkits. AMD says it will restructure and warns investors that it expects revenues to be down. BEA Systems aligns with AmberPoint for SOA runtime governance. And former Microsoft chief architect Charles Simonyi blasts into orbit, thereby becoming the fifth such space tourist. Software Development