Microsoft unveiled new programs and technologies Tuesday to allow partners to prepare products to run on Windows Vista once
it is available.
During his keynote at Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle, Microsoft Senior Vice President
Will Poole unveiled a new Certified for Windows Vista logo program so hardware and software companies can label their products
"certified" to work with Vista.
Poole also announced a new networking standard called Microsoft Windows Rally, which hardware vendors can build into devices
such as digital cameras, wireless access points and other PC peripherals so Vista will immediately recognize them and configure
them to work with a PC.
Windows Vista moved a big step closer to completion today as Microsoft formally released Beta 2 of its next-generation flagship operating system.
"I just came from Redmond and I brought something for you," Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division, brandishing a box of Beta 2 DVDs before attendees at the end of a day-long reviewers' workshop in downtown Seattle on Monday. The workshop was held the day before the start of WinHEC--the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference--an annual gathering of hardware developers involved in products that support Windows.
Microsoft has told about 1,000 technology contract workers to take seven days off the job, without Microsoft pay, in a cost-saving move that came as the company unveiled a series of new perks for its internal staff.
Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos said Monday that Microsoft told vendors who supply the contractors that about 1,000 workers globally would not be needed this week. The vendors, whose workers do software development for Microsoft, also were told to schedule two other days off, Gellos said.
Microsoft released a near-final version of its software for building e-commerce sites and renamed the product Commerce Server
2007, from Commerce Server 2006, although it says it will still ship roughly on time in August.
The company made the "release candidate" for Commerce Server 2007 available for download by developers on Friday, from http://connect.microsoft.com. A release candidate is typically a product that has been well tested and is close to completion.
An earlier version of the software went into beta testing at the start of the year under the name Commerce Server 2006. In
a blog posting on the Microsoft Developer Network Friday, Microsoft developer Ryan Donovan was at pains to emphasize that
the name change does not mean the software is going to be late.
WinFS, Microsoft's next-generation file system, is still churning its way through the beta process. But that isn't stopping Microsoft from building a new information organizer that rides on top of WinFS storage and the Windows Presentation Framework.
It's been quiet on the WinFS front since Microsoft delivered a refreshed version of its beta code in December ? until this week.
On May 16, the WinFS team whetted the appetites of advocates of Microsoft's next-generation file system by sharing information on plans for a new, Microsoft-developed application for WinFS, code-named "Project Orange."
Microsoft is continuing to pursue its vision of 'a PC on every desk in every home.' But it's not going the $100 PC route. Microsoft's latest method for achieving that end, FlexGo, takes a page from cell-phone and cable playbooks.
Cut-rate PC/hardware Windows XP Starter Edition bundles aren't Microsoft's only solution for bringing computing to the masses.
Microsoft unveiled a new financing program designed to make PCs more affordable to emerging-market customers on May 22, the day before the kick-off of its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.
Microsoft on Monday updated its plans for new virtualization software and said it will expand its lineup through an acquisition.
The company will begin testing its hypervisor software, developed under the code name Viridian, by year's end, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Server and Tools business, told CNET News.com. The software will ship within six months of Longhorn Server, the next major release of the company's server operating system, due in the second half of next year.
Microsoft had earlier indicated that Viridian would ship much later than Longhorn Server. Muglia said the software was always intended to ship in the "Longhorn time frame, but nobody knew what that meant. We're now saying within 180 days of Longhorn Server, and we'll know more as it enters beta testing," he said.
As the head of Microsoft's antipiracy program, Michala Alexander has one of the more unenviable posts in the software giant's U.K. operations.
Despite successfully shutting down a prolific trader in unlicensed software last week, Alexander admits that the odds are stacked against her. Microsoft estimates it loses around $467 million annually due to counterfeit and unlicensed software.
But it's not only the sheer amount of fake and unlicensed products that makes Alexander's job a tough one; Microsoft's antipiracy team and its enforcers at the Business Software Alliance are seen by many as the sharp end of the software giant's draconian--and some say outdated--approach to licensing.
Microsoft has signed a deal to help China's Ministry of Information Industry speed economic development in China's rural
areas.
"Microsoft will work closely with MII to reduce the digital divide and increase informatization in China's rural communities,"
said Steve Ballmer, the company's chief executive officer, after signing the memorandum of understanding.
Rapid development has transformed many Chinese cities into showpieces of the country's resurgent economic power. But the futuristic
skylines and sprawling factory complexes are just half of the story. Most Chinese still live in the countryside, where economic development lags behind the cities.
news analysis
When it comes to music, mighty Microsoft is the underdog.
For the company that dominates PC operating systems, desktop software suites and e-mail software and has a darn good business in everything from databases to video games, it's an unaccustomed label.
Can the latest version of Microsoft's music software, Windows Media Player 11, be the first in many steps to dropping that underdog tag? While there's little question that Apple Computer is the company to beat in digital music, technology critics and analysts say Microsoft is starting to get its act together.