There’s nothing like trashing the competition. And that’s exactly what the Free Software Foundation plans to do on Wednesday, staging a demonstration in Boston where it will encourage businesses to throw away Microsoft Windows in favor of free alternatives.

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I’m not sure “spell check this” has the same ring as “I’ll be back,” but I have enjoyed the series of promo videos for Office 2010 that try to cast the software as the plot of an action movie.

The latest installment shows the grave of Clippy, the oft-mocked help tool that has been absent from recent versions of the productivity software.

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Microsoft (MSFT) plans to stop selling Microsoft Money, its venerable, but not market-leading personal finance program, CNET News has learned.

The software maker has been notifying financial institutions and plans to announce the move to customers over the next 24 hours via a posting on its Web site and a notification in the software.

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Microsoft’s (MSFT) challenge to grow its share of the search business isn’t just a global issue. It’s also a challenge within its own walls.

Despite investing five years and hundreds of millions of dollars on its search product, Microsoft has struggled to get people to use its service, even those whom it employs.

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You’ve heard of BYOB, now get ready for Bring Your Own Laptop. There’s a small but growing trend in which companies are choosing to give employees money toward their personal laptop, rather than providing a company-issued portable. British Petroleum is among the companies trying the approach.

One of the technologies making that possible is desktop virtualization, which allows companies to put their software or even an entire corporate image onto a device without having to worry about the fact that it doesn’t control the entire laptop. Basically, the corporate stuff can run in a sandbox, with personal data and programs running alongside–but not intermingling with–the business processes.

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Microsoft says its offer for Yahoo is off the table, but could this be just a negotiating ploy?

It’s a natural question to ask. I mean, if Microsoft has had the hots for Yahoo for two years, can it really be so sure that it is no longer interested?

My take is that Microsoft has ruled out two options, but that one possibility for Yahoo remains out there.

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