WinInsider

Microsoft is launching new initiatives intended to make the Windows operating system a more attractive target for software developers. The company on Sunday launched a new support program and detailed a number of ways it is trying to better connect with the thousands of software makers who develop products that complement Microsoft's offerings. Microsoft made the announcement at a worldwide partner conference taking place in Toronto this week.

Is Microsoft taking the blame? How is the world's largest software maker working to improve PC security? Will Windows always be so vulnerable to viruses, worms, and malicious spyware? To find out, PC Magazine editor-in-chief Michael J. Miller spoke to Mike Nash, head of Microsoft's security business and technology unit.

Q: There's a perception in the marketplace that Microsoft is somehow to blame for our recent security woes, for the ever-growing number of virus and spyware attacks. How do you react to that?
A: I think that if you look at the relative security of Microsoft versus anything else that's out there, the evidence shows that there are fewer vulnerabilities in Windows than in other platforms.

Microsoft's channel partners here grilled Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) chieftain Doug Burgum more pointedly than did lawyers in the Oracle/PeopleSoft antitrust trial. Burgum kicked off the opening day of Microsoft's annual worldwide partner conference with an open, hour-and-a-half question and answer session. And questioners were not shy about expressing their concerns about Microsoft's partner-program directions involving MBS.

A number of partners voiced publicly their disenchantment with Microsoft's efforts over the past year to bring MBS under the auspices of its "classic" partner program.

Microsoft plans to invest $850 million over the next year in sales, marketing and research and development programs dedicated to beefing up its Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division.

And as part of the renewed MBS focus, Microsoft is considering creating an MBS Global Services plan, via which the division will offer more consulting services around Microsoft's MBS wares.

Microsoft Senior Vice President Orlando Ayala highlighted Microsoft's plans to focus heavily on its small/mid-size business (SMB) unit during the opening day of Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference here. Microsoft is expecting 5,000 of its channel partners to attend its four-day conference.

As it faces a more serious threat from Linux on the desktop, Microsoft will invest $50 million during its next fiscal year to accelerate more corporate deployment of Windows XP and Office 2003.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will announce at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto a revamped "Desktop Deployment Initiative" that provides partners with more business investment funds, resources and personnel to help get customers upgraded to Microsoft's latest fleet of desktop software.

The term Window shopping may take on a whole new meaning.

Microsoft on Sunday will role out a planned "Windows Marketplace" that will list and offer for sale a wide range of Windows-related hardware, software, and accessories. The online mart will be accessible via the ubiquitous Windows "Start button."

The vendor insists that in the Marketplace, all transactions -- including sales of its own software -- will be fulfilled via reseller partners. Executives also said the vendor will not be able to peek into what goes on there. "We will be transaction-neutral," said Allison Watson, vice president of Microsoft Partner Sales and Market Group.

U.S. antitrust enforcers have started to track Microsoft's development work on Longhorn, the successor to Windows XP, in a move to ensure that the vendor won't violate the final judgment in the government's antitrust case.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and several U.S. states involved in the case are particularly interested in any changes that Microsoft might make in Longhorn related to default settings and "middleware," or applications associated with the operating system, such as Web browser and media player software, according to a legal filing on Friday.

You think the next big version of Microsoft Office is for Longhorn? Wrong!

Office 12, the next release of the powerhouse productivity suite, is slated to support Windows XP, Windows 2000 and oh, yeah, Longhorn when it ships, company insiders say.

That comes as news to many who thought they knew Microsoft's game plan. But according to Microsoft, that's not really news at all. "We have said as we look forward that we will look at going on in Windows and will take advantage of the platform that is out there," said Dan Leach, group product manager of Office.

And if I could beat this topic to death a bit (what the heck, it's Friday), I should also mention a bizarre public chat that the recently reconstituted IE team had with users. I'm mentioning it only because the IE said so little, and was so utterly incapable of specifying what, if anything, it would add to future IE versions. Yes, they're aware that a lot of people want tabbed browsing and better standards support. Yes, they promised a more comprehensive fix for the Download.Ject issue. But specifics? No, we'll have none of that. So what can we expect of future IE versions? Not much, in my opinion, and not anytime soon. This is a huge opportunity for Mozilla, and for any other company that makes browser products that compete with IE. Step it up, guys.

Microsoft is announcing today that the first Portable Media Center - its handheld device that can play video and audio files - will go on sale next month for $499.

A model made by Singapore-based Creative is scheduled to become available in late August, and a version by Samsung is expected a month later. Both players will have 20 gigabytes of storage, which Microsoft says is enough to play 80 hours of video or 5,000 songs.

Microsoft also said that Major League Baseball has agreed to make its game footage available to download onto the devices, either on a pay-per-view basis or via subscription. The pricing for the games has not been announced.