WinInsider

A decade ago, Bill Gates and other executives at Microsoft decided that traditional packaged software was dead--all software would eventually be delivered via the Internet. Microsoft's thinking was premature, but not necessarily incorrect, Gates told CNET News.com last week. "Like many things around the Internet that were predicted to happen quickly, they're not wrong, they're simply things that take more time," Gates said in a recent interview.

Microsoft on Wednesday released its first Community Technology Preview of "Indigo," the code-name for the company's new communications subsystem for Windows, and a second CTP of "Avalon," a new Windows presentation subsystem.

Indigo and Avalon were originally slated to be two of the four pillars of the Windows "Longhorn" operating system release. In August Microsoft decided to make both available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as well.

Also on Wednesday, Microsoft released a new version of the .NET Framework and an SDK for WinFX, a next-generation programming model for Windows. The releases are available to MSDN subscribers.

After a years-long drumbeat of developer complaints, Microsoft may finally be budging on its support for standards and on key missing features in its Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft last month broke with a longstanding pledge and said it would release a new version of IE before its next major Windows upgrade. Security concerns catalyzed the shift in plans, and Microsoft has kept mum about any possible standards or feature upgrades that might accompany the security improvements.

Visual FoxPro 9.0, the latest update to a database technology Microsoft acquired in 1992, is generally available this week and will be supported through 2014.

Visual FoxPro, which can be used to create desktop, client-server and Web service database applications, is an outlier at Microsoft. The FoxPro database engine is one of three supported by Microsoft -- the SQL Server database engine is the flagship, while the JET database engine powers the Access database in Microsoft's widely deployed Office suite.

Despite Microsoft's renewed focus on security, recent research shows that computers running Windows XP and 2000 form the bulk of bot nets.

The study, carried out by the German Honeynet Project, found that more than 80 percent of Web traffic from the networks of compromised computers used four ports designated for resource-sharing by various versions of Windows. The research also indicated that the vulnerabilities behind some of the exploits used to take over a PC can be found by searching for information on Microsoft's security bulletins.

Facing protests from legions of Visual Basic developers, Microsoft is not backing down. But it is taking steps to keep them on friendly terms.

Microsoft remains "firm" in its plans to end free support for Visual Basic 6 at the end of the month, S. "Soma" Somasegar, the corporate vice president of Microsoft's tools division, told CNET News.com.

Somasegar said that Microsoft's intention is to ease the migration of customers to Visual Basic.Net, the current version of the product, which is is designed to quickly build Windows desktop applications that tap into databases.

At the Pharmaceutical Technology Congress this week in Philadelphia, Microsoft announced a full-scale strategy for addressing the IT needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Microsoft originally launched its health care and life sciences group ten years ago.

"Microsoft has stepped up and said we think we can have impact in the pharmaceutical industry," said Microsoft Enterprise Sales and Industry Strategist Paul Mattes. "Microsoft is not dipping into it in a transient way." Dubbed "Digital Pharma," the solutions framework is intended to help pharmaceutical companies to improve productivity, integrate disparate data sources and facilitate collaborationwith all of these processes gaining ground across research, manufacturing, and marketing and sales.

Microsoft appears poised to plunge on its own into one of the most lucrative areas of the Internet.

The company this week will announce plans to come out with its own service for placing sponsored listings beside MSN Search results, Bloomberg News reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the plan.

Such a move could improve revenue for Microsoft's MSN division in the long run by letting it tap directly into a booming market. Search-based advertising -- also known as "paid search" -- has helped fuel the rapid growth of Google Inc. and others in the Internet search business.

When Microsoft formally acquires Groove Networks next quarter, Groove founder Ray Ozzie, an outspoken advocate of peer-to-peer virtual workspaces and a collaboration software pioneer, will join Bill Gates' personal stable of big thinkers. 

Ozzie will become one of three chief technical officers reporting directly to Gates. In his role as chief software architect, Gates now has five direct reports: senior vice president of research Rick Rashid, senior vice president of engineering strategy Jon DeVaan and CTOs Ozzie, Craig Mundie and David Vaskevitch. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also reports to Gates in the Microsoft co-founder's role as Microsoft chairman. All other high-level Microsoft executives report to Ballmer.

Seeking to bolster its business analytics modules, Microsoft has acquired technology from business partner Professional Advantage, the software giant said Monday.

The technology Microsoft has acquired is called Analysis Cubes for Excel. It will be one of several extension modules for Microsoft's Great Plains 8.0. The modules are designed to aid customers in examining and analyzing data from various aspects for a more rounded view of the information.