Microsoft's Ben Fathi has a new job now that Vista has shipped, but the man who led the company's Security Technology Unit is still focused on keeping the bad guys away from your PC.
Fathi is now corporate vice president of development with the Windows Core Operating System Division, and is in charge of building the guts of the OS--things like the kernel, networking, and security. IDG News Service sat down with him recently to discuss the future of Windows security. With the first Vista bugs now being reported, Fathi says it looks like Vista is on track to meet his own stated goal of having half the flaws that plagued XP during its first year.
Microsoft says it has signed up some new mobile-phone makers to offer devices that use its software. LG Electronics and Toshiba will be among the companies making smart phones to run on Microsoft's upcoming Windows Mobile 6 software, the Redmond company says.
Neither company has made a Windows Mobile-based smart phone previously, said Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices business. In addition, Hewlett-Packard will announce its first slim, "candy bar" style phone, based on the Microsoft software. In the past, HP has offered phones as part of larger Pocket PC-style devices.
Microsoft and Novell on Monday fleshed out the technical aspects of their corporate partnership, saying that the two firms are committed to optimizing their respective products in the years to come.
In November, the two companies signed a wide-reaching pact to make Novell's Linux server software work well with Microsoft Windows products. The deal is also meant to shield joint customers from any potential legal liabilities of using open-source software.
In the area of virtualization, Novell and Microsoft on Monday said that Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 will be able to run on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 when a service pack is released in the second quarter of this year.
Microsoft is taking its Live brand of communications services into the mobile handset market in the hopes of gaining a larger share of the search market.
The company announced three new products at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona today: Live Search for Windows Mobile; Live Search for Java; and Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which it has timed to coincide with the global availability of the new Windows Mobile 6 client, announced last week.
The Live Search applications are available on both Windows Mobile, as well as Java devices, and provide mobile search capabilities with a twist: end users will be able to search for business results based on their location, which means they won't have to type any text to get a list of categories of business types with address and telephone details and options for mapping.
Microsoft has taken another step to make it easier for customers and partners to customize its BI software suite.
On Monday, the company announced the general availability of Dynamics CRM Analytics Foundation, a free bundle of customizable
source code and documentation, for users of its CRM software.
Customers and partners can use the tools "as-is" or build on them to create customized BI applications, including dashboards
to run on top of Dynamics CRM 3.0, according to Christian Pederson, senior director for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Microsoft today announced a new contest in the hopes of sparking development of new Web 2.0-type applications for the telecom market.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software behemoth expects that the impetus from this competition will blow fresh wind in the sails of its Connected Services Framework.
CSF is essentially middleware that enables telecommunications service providers like Nortel and British Telecom to aggregate, or mash up, different types of services. Microsoft began shipping CSF to operators three years ago, but according to Andy Chu, group manager for planning and strategy in the Microsoft communications group, its customers have been slow on the uptake.
Microsoft has released the second beta of a new server aimed at giving users a way to connect and manage Windows Vista PCs,
devices, and printers in their homes.
Beta 2 of Windows Home Server, which already has been tested by more than 1,000 Microsoft employees, software and hardware
partners, is now available, Microsoft said. The company soon plans to extend the product's beta program, and those who want
to test beta 2 of the OS can sign up at this Web site.
Microsoft also unveiled the Windows Home Server Blog, which will track the progress of the software's development, oin Monday. Additionally, Charlie Kinder, Microsoft general
manager of Windows Home Server, also maintains a blog where he will post about the product.
It looks like Windows Vista is holding up pretty well so far. Despite widespread fears that Windows Vista would face withering electronic attacks in the days following its consumer launch, nothing major has happened. There are criticisms, of course. People are still in a tizzy over the (necessary) annoyance that is User Account Control (UAC), and there are some reports about BitLocker (a full drive encryption solution) being cracked. Ultimately, however, these stories are just manufactured by people looking for scary headlines. From what I can tell, Vista's launch hasn't been accompanied by any major security problems, at least not yet.
Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system spurred a 67 percent increase in personal computer sales at U.S. retail stores in its first week on the market, according to research firm Current Analysis Inc.
Hewlett-Packard was the top PC seller by units during the week that ended Saturday, with its share rising from about 33 percent to more than 50 percent, according to the report by San Diego-based analyst Samir Bhavnani. Gateway was the No. 2 seller. Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker, wasn't included because the company doesn't sell through stores.
With Vista just out the door, Microsoft is now drawing up plans to deliver its follow-up client operating system by the end
of 2009, according to the executive in charge of building the product's core components.
That would be a much faster turn-around than Vista, which shipped more than five years after Windows XP, but Vista was exceptional. Last year, Microsoft said that the code name for this Vista follow-up is Vienna, but Fathi said he could not disclose the current name. "We've been told not to use it publicly," he said.