Microsoft is readying a slimmed-down version of Windows XP for users who want to upgrade their Windows operating systems but not their PCs.
The software, code-named Eiger, will be based on Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 and is designed for server-centric computing environments. It can run on a system with a Pentium II processor, 128MB of RAM and a 500MB hard drive, said Barry Goffe, a group product manager at Microsoft.
"There is a set of customers who have old hardware and who want to try to eke a little more value out of that hardware," Goffe said in an interview on Thursday.
Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are working on new specifications that would allow Web single sign-on between
their operating systems.
The companies, whose goal is to help Windows and Java work together, have also inked a licensing deal to allow Windows to run on Sun hardware and teamed up to manage Web services. Plans to make their service-oriented architecture strategies interoperable are also forthcoming, company officials said.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Sun CEO Scott McNealy promised as much during a press event to announce the progress in the companies' 10-year technical agreement, which began a year ago.
If Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hadn't decided to take his college buddy up on a job offer as the software giant's bookkeeper, he figures he probably would have ended up selling car insurance.
That insight was part of a wide-ranging chat Ballmer had with a packed hall of students at Stanford's Graduate School of Business on Thursday. During the discussion, the chief executive also announced his plans beyond Microsoft, saying he planned to retire in about 12 years, after his three sons have all graduated high school.
"I'll be 61," he said. "That seems appropriate."
Allegedly powered by a custom 3.2GHz IBM PowerPC microprocessor with three symmetrical cores, the Xbox 360 will also include 512MB of RAM and a custom ATI video processor with 10MB of embedded DRAM. The Xbox 360's optical drive will support all the current major formats, including DVD video, DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W, CD-ROM/R/RW, Windows Media Audio (WMA) CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD-ROM, and more.
Microsoft has acquired a messaging startup known for a real-time alerting service that taps into instant-messaging networks and RSS feeds.
Microsoft's MSN division has purchased MessageCast Inc., an MSN spokeswoman confirmed. MSN is expected to formally announce the acquisition Wednesday night.
Since 2003, MSN has used MessageCast's technology as part of the MSN Alerts service. MSN Alerts lets users receive notifications from such sources as MSNBC, MSN's sites and Weather.com through MSN Messenger, e-mail and mobile devices.
A Massachusetts state judge yesterday ordered the shutdown of what authorities called one of the world's largest spam e-mail rings, culminating an investigation that had Microsoft working on the same side as one of its fiercest antitrust rivals.
Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly was granted an injunction after filing suit against alleged ringleader Leo Kuvayev and six other people associated with 2K Services Ltd. and Ecash Pay Ltd. Authorities said the ring was responsible for sending millions of unsolicited and deceptive e-mails.
Microsoft and software partner Interwoven have agreed to join forces on product integration, research and development, and sales and marketing.
The partnership, announced on Thursday, is aimed at law firms and other professional-services companies that have complex document and records management requirements.
Interwoven, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., specializes in systems for creating, sharing and archiving documents, e-mail and other business records. Rivals include Stellent, OpenText and EMC, which bolstered its position with the purchase last year of Documentum.
When Microsoft said that Windows XP Starter Edition, the cut-rate version of Windows for emerging markets, was for beginning computer users, the company wasn't kidding.
The operating system will not work on computers running Intel's Pentium 4 processors or the Athlon from Advanced Micro Devices, a public relations representative said on behalf of Microsoft. Instead, it will run on computers containing Intel's Celeron chips, AMD's Duron or Geode chips, or processors from Via Technologies.
In the game industry, there are two significant months in the year--May and December--and they have nothing to do with the weather.
With this latest round of new consoles--which are generally updated as part of the five-year transition cycle--analysts expect the market to be less lopsided in Sony's favor. Microsoft, which is expected to launch Xbox 360 by the holidays, has a slight advantage.
After five years of learning from experience with its original Xbox, Microsoft is expected to make a better showing, with some predicting the Xbox 360 will topple the next-generation PlayStation from its top market share spot.
Supply chain specialist i2 Technologies has signed a deal to build the next generation of its products around Microsoft's technology. Under the deal, i2 will offer its customers the ability to use Microsoft's Office 2003, specifically Excel 2003, as the primary interface into i2's applications.
The companies said that i2 will also design its products using Microsoft's .Net Framework, in addition to incorporating the company's Windows Server 2003, SQL Server, and Office SharePoint Portal Server technologies into its applications.