Microsoft is moving into the world of high-performance computing with a new version of Windows that aims to make the ultrapowerful systems far more common in businesses and research institutions.
This morning at SC/05, an international supercomputing conference in downtown Seattle, Bill Gates will lay out Microsoft's strategy for entering the high-performance computing market with a program called Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.
The program increases the competition between Windows and open-source rival Linux, which currently leads the high-performance computing market. But rather than simply trying to take market share from Linux, Microsoft says it will try to expand its potential market by increasing the use of high-performance computing overall.
The Microsoft executive who oversaw the company's acquisitions and investments group for the past two years is leaving to join a New York-based financial advisory firm.
Brian Roberts, corporate vice president of the company's Corporate Development group, will become a managing director at Evercore Partners, the Redmond company confirmed Friday. At the firm, Roberts will join Richard Emerson -- a former Microsoft senior vice president who preceded Roberts as head of acquisitions and investments.
Microsoft is teaming with The Associated Press to offer an advertising-supported online video news network in the first quarter of 2006, the companies announced Wednesday.
Microsoft will supply the technology, video player and advertising support to the network, while AP's broadcast division will provide the video, which will feature about 50 stories per day. AP, the world's oldest and largest news-gathering organization, originally announced plans to develop the venture after a board meeting in July.
Microsoft's executives touted the company's prospects for growth, and a crowd of attentive shareholders clearly wanted to believe, but many of them took a wait-and-see approach after their annual meeting Wednesday.
Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer pointed to a wave of upcoming products, including a new Windows version and a second Xbox console. Ballmer also predicted that Microsoft's renewed push into online services would create "a major new revenue stream" for the company in the long run.
Microsoft is taking bigger steps into the licensing consulting space thats served by many large-account resellers.
The Redmond, Wash., company on Monday unveiled an early version of Microsoft Product Licensing Advisor, a new online service designed to help IT users make product selections, find the most cost-effective license, and configure and price solutions.
In phase one of the service, slated to go live this month in the United States only, customers will have access to a U.S. call center, licensing program comparison and guidance, a License Trainer wizard and a product selection service, including a downloadable configuration and list price estimate, Microsoft said.
Microsoft is encouraging other U.S. companies to lobby the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved in the European Commission's antitrust ruling against the giant software vendor.
Microsoft, in a memo published by the Financial Times Monday, is asking U.S. companies to contact the DOJ to say they support the software company's position in regard to a March 2004 European Commission ruling.
The Commission ruling said Microsoft had abused its monopoly power by withholding information that would allow other vendors to develop OS software compatible with Microsoft's server OS. Microsoft, in the memo, argues that the Commission ruling would force the company to divulge trade secrets.
Microsoft is set to announce a new version of its desktop search feature meant for use in corporate computer networks, as it tries to keep pace with rivals such as Google.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant says the new facet searches for information stored on individual PCs, or among clusters of computers typically found in offices. File sharing and a single starting point for any search are two features of note, according to Microsoft.
Additional details are to be released on Tuesday at the IT Forum, a Microsoft-hosted event in Barcelona, Spain. A spokeswoman for Microsoft didn't respond to an e-mail seeking additional details.
Microsoft on Monday formally unveiled the lineup of titles that will be ready for the launch of its next-generation Xbox 360 video game console.
Calling the lineup the "strongest launch in the history of video game consoles," Microsoft said there would be 18 games ready for the plannedNov. 22 release of the Xbox.
Among them are many of the latest iterations in proven franchises, including Electronic Arts' Madden NFL '06, "NBA LIVE '06" and "Need for Speed Most Wanted," as well as Activision's "Call of Duty 2" and "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland." Related story Taking Xbox 360 for a spin Reporter gets hands-on lookat next-generation console.
Even as Microsoft readies a host of new ad-supported online services to battle rivals, the software maker has been mulling a plan to offer free, ad-supported versions of some of its desktop products, CNET News.com has learned.
Although no specific plans have been made, executives within Microsoft are examining whether it makes sense to release ad-supported versions of products such as Works, Money, or even the Windows operating system itself, according to internal documents seen by CNET News.com.
Microsoft will start deleting the rootkit component of the controversial DRM scheme used by Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
The software giant's Windows AntiSpyware application will be updated to add a detection and removal signature for the rootkit features used in the XCP digital rights management technology.
According to Jason Garms, group product manager in Microsoft's Anti-Malware Technology Team, the rootkit removal signature will be pushed out at Windows users through the anti-spyware application's weekly signature update process.