WinInsider

After years of silence and doubts, Microsoft's Windows Vista project is finally moving ahead with confidence. In September, Microsoft released its first Community Technical Preview (CTP) version of Windows Vista (see my review), a post-Beta 1 (or, depending on your perspective, a pre-Beta 2) interim build of the next Windows version. But the company also announced that it would be releasing monthly CTP builds going forward. Today, Microsoft delivered the second CTP build, also called the October 2005 CTP, or build 5231.

Little more than a month remains until the launch of the Xbox 360 video-game console, the product on which Microsoft is pinning much of its hopes as it tries to expand beyond its core Windows and Office products.

At events in New York and San Francisco last week, Microsoft sought to answer one of the biggest questions surrounding the console -- what the actual gaming experience will be like. The company let journalists, analysts and a few gaming enthusiasts spend the day playing some of the initial Xbox 360 titles.

I can't imagine that this is going to be a huge surprise to anyone, but Microsoft's eagerly-anticipated Xbox 360 video game console will be in extremely short supply through the holidays. Set for a November 22 global launch, Xbox 360 will likely be disappointing hopeful owners ... worldwide. "We're going to have some disappointment in terms of what we can provide to retail and ultimately to the consumers this year," said Microsoft corporate VP J Allard this week. "We're going to take a little bit of heat on allocations, frankly, in all the territories." It's only a matter of time before people start camping out in front of local CompUSA and Best Buy stores.

Microsoft is poised to release to testers the second Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of Windows Vista, paving the way for a second full-fledged beta, which is now expected in December.

Among the new features which could find their way into the updated build are a number of Internet Explorer 7.0 enhancements; the resurrected "Sidebar" task pane; Windows Media Player 11.0; and new networking functionality.

Microsoft's current plan is to release a mid-October CTP, followed by a mid-November CTP. In December, the company is looking to deliver the full-fledged Vista Beta 2 release in December, according to partner sources close to the company.

Microsoft's emerging strategy around establishing its Xbox 360 video game console as a central element of consumers' home entertainment systems found favor with many observers at the DigitalLife conference here on Friday.

The software giant showed off the next-generation console to a packed room of media members, industry watchers and teenage gamers.

It also previewed everything from new gaming software that takes advantage of the device's more powerful video and audio processing capabilities to its expanded interfaces for integrating directly with handheld digital media players.

Microsoft needs students interested in computer science to program the IT innovations of tomorrow, including Tablet PCs that users can write on with a pen and wireless camera phones that interpret foreign street signs, Bill Gates said Friday.

"It's key for young people coming into the field to come in with an open mind," said Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, speaking at Howard University, a historically African-American university in Washington, D.C. "It's really your generation, and many of you specifically, who will have a chance to drive this forward."

Microsoft is reporting a big increase in sales of its Windows version for home-entertainment computers -- indicating progress in an area of the market where Apple Computer soon will pose a new competitive threat.

The Redmond company plans to announce today that it has sold a cumulative total of more than 4 million copies of Windows XP Media Center Edition since the operating system was launched three years ago. The number has doubled since April.

Microsoft's announcement, to be made at the DigitalLife conference in New York, coincides with an update of the Media Center operating system. The program, a key part of Microsoft's effort to play a bigger role in the living room, is designed for viewing and accessing media on a computer using a remote control.

A judge in San Jose, California, heard arguments in Google's suit against Microsoft Friday, but did not make a final decision as to whether a tentative ruling made the previous day in the case would stick, according to lawyers from both companies.

Thursday, Judge Ronald Whyte issued a tentative ruling in a U.S. District Court in San Jose to grant Microsoft's motion to stay, or put on hold, Google's case in California. The suit was filed in response to an earlier suit by Microsoft against Google and a former Microsoft employee, Kai-Fu Lee, over charges that Lee violated a noncompetition clause between him and Microsoft when he took a position at Google.

Real Networks, which is getting enough money from Microsoft to wipe out all its losses, not bad for a company that's been in business for a decade and has made a profit in only one of those years. And a tiny profit at that.

The amount of Microsoft's settlement is also more than double Real's annual revenue and more than half its market cap. Not a bad deal for such a perennial struggler. Spread the money over a decade of operation and Real's financials actually look pretty good.

Of course, this Real deal is a one-time event. And it's not even all cash, as $301 million will be paid in marketing services that Microsoft will provide over the next 18 months.

Some might consider VSLive in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., a bit of foreplay for the major launch of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 on Nov. 7 in San Francisco. But hey, it was still fun.

During his keynote at VSLive Wednesday, Richard Turner, a product manager of Web services strategy at Microsoft, said the term SOA, or service-oriented architecture, is misused and overused, especially when it is splashed all over white papers and presentations from competitors.

"Service orientation is the industry's biggest buzzword," Turner proclaimed. "The term SOA is myth. If you read whitepapers from many of our competitors who shall remain nameless, or marketing and product releases from many of our competitors, you'll see the term SOA liberally splashed across those articles."