Some customers privy to an early kick of the tires on the refashioned database say the product is a major leap forward in terms of enhanced business intelligence tools, application development integration, and management visibility from its previous SQL Server 2000 incarnation.
Currently running SQL Server 2005 and taking advantage of its new 64-bit support, Kirk Pothos, software development manager for Xerox Corp., based in Rochester, N.Y., said the new database server has made leaps and bounds in terms of its management tools in areas such as online indexing, tuning wizards and best practices.
Microsoft will tout its version of Windows for high-performance computing at the Supercomputing 2005 show next week in Seattle, but observers said the company faces a considerable challenge in selling the OS for compute-intensive environments already dominated by Unix.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will keynote at the show on Tuesday to reinforce Windows' position as a platform for large compute clusters. Microsoft is planning to ship an OS tuned for high-performance environments, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, as soon as January, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.
If you look up the term "Microsoft settles" on Google, you'll get 1.3 million hits. Well, today, you can make it 1.3 million and one: Microsoft just settled a South Korean trade rules lawsuit for $30 million, pacifying a company named Daum and ending yet another legal dispute. How do they do it? Well, they have bucketloads of cash, of course, and they can spend it on whatever they want. Next up: A chain of islands in the South Pacific. Why? Because they can.
Microsoft has notified potential testers that it expects to release the first beta version of Office 12 in the next few weeks.
"You will be provided with access to the Office '12' Beta software, documentation, and support within the next two to three weeks," Microsoft wrote in a letter to those accepted to take part in the technical beta testing. "But we wanted to let you know now that you have been accepted, so that you can make any preparations that you need."
The letter, sent this week, also outlined system requirements for the beta version, though Microsoft cautioned that the final requirements might vary. The software calls for a machine with Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003, as well as a 512MHz processor, 256MB of memory and an 800-by-600-pixel screen or better.
Big, rich and smart. That's Microsoft.
In fact, Microsoft may be too big, rich and smart for its own good. With a wealth of ideas and inventions constantly being churned out by its talented engineers, it seems to have difficulty identifying the projects that will wow users.
Microsoft isn't cool.
Case in point: Sidebar. The desktop tool, expected -- at this point -- to ship with Windows Vista, lets users insert Web-enabled mini-applications called gadgets. Gadgets are easy to program using JavaScript, and Vista users will be able to select from a gallery of gadgets from Microsoft or third parties.
The countdown toward the release of Office 12 Beta 1 is on. Code is expected to begin shipping to technical beta testers any day now. But which versions of Office will Microsoft make available in the first round? That's less clear.
Microsoft is expected to announce the commencement of the long-awaited Office 12 beta program possibly as soon as next week, according to testers. But for now, it's not clear which Office products including a new "Office 12 for Windows Mobile" SKU will be part of the initial test round.
Though the powers that be at Microsoft seem to have finally grasped the impact of the Internet on the future of packaged software, industry observers and a key rival said the company still must prove that its plan to compete in the Web 2.0 marketplace is more than just hype.
Web 2.0 is a name given to the Web's transition from a collection of static Web sites to a computing platform providing Internet-based applications, or services, to end users. Richard MacManus, a freelance Web analyst and writer, acknowledged that Microsoft may always lag behind in its move to embrace this new era of the Internet. But now, with its Live Software plan and executive memos that herald the adoption of new services model to combat Google, the company at least is talking the talk when it comes to the new wave of Internet-based services, he said.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cuts the ribbon on the three products at the heart of Microsoft's application platform with a commitment to speed up Microsoft's development and delivery of its core developer deliverables.
Will Monday's official launch of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2005 be one of Microsoft's last big launches?
That's a definite possibility, given the multiple mentions by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his keynote address here of Microsoft's need to develop and release its products in a more timely fashion.
Microsoft this week made available an updated beta release of its Windows Workflow Foundation technology. The beta version is built to work with the general release of the Visual Studio 2005 toolset, which was unveiled Monday.
The new beta also will function with a beta release of the Office 12 applications suite, to be released in a few weeks.
Windows Workflow Foundation is for building workflow-enabled applications on Windows. It provides the programming model, engine, and tools to quickly build workflow applications, according to Microsoft.
Sources at the company told me this week that Microsoft will soon delay the release of Windows Vista Beta 2 from December 7, 2005 to sometime in January or February 2006. However, because the Vista development schedule is extremely time constrained, the company will try and make up lost time by eliminating one of the planned release candidate milestones that were planned for later in the process.
A Microsoft representative told me that the company remains on track for shipping Windows Vista in the second half of 2006. "We are on schedule and committed to shipping on time and ensuring a high-quality product," I was told. "Microsoft sets internal targets for the development team around milestones, but these are not commitments to specific dates.