WinInsider

Underscoring their shared commitment to integrated Web services, SAP AG and Microsoft have released details of how the two software companies plan to integrate their respective NetWeaver and .NET strategic platforms. The cooperation agreement is aimed at reducing friction for customers who have to work with both .NET and NetWeaver but don't want to work with bridges, SAP board member Shai Agassi said Wednesday, speaking at the Sapphire international customer conference here in New Orleans.

Beta testing is underway for the first service pack for Systems Management Server 2003, Microsoft's enterprise product for change and configuration management. SP1 is part of a multi-step plan by Microsoft to continue adding features and functionality to the six-month-old SMS 2003 product through service packs and feature packs. Microsoft is using SP1 to tighten security, increase reliability and improve scalability.

Security enhancements in SP1 include inventory encryption and client authentication; client certificate provisioning; and critical patch management. To improve the reliability of SMS 2003, Microsoft has now built in "Watson" support for server diagnostics.

Cooperation between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft probably won't drastically alter the information technology landscape, analysts and IT professionals say, but it should eliminate some integration headaches. Last month's historic agreement between the two computing giants is most likely to create near-term progress in two areas: identification and directory services, and Web services.

Microsoft says it will give away Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, which is currently available for download as a 200MB Release Candidate 1, but remains coy about the exact nature of "XP Reloaded."

By the time the software becomes more formally available later in the summer, it will have slimmed down to around 80MB, and the company plans to make it available at no charge on CD in stores. It will also be obtainable by mail, although the company has yet to decide whether to pay for postage and packing. Microsoft says that "smart downloading" techniques will minimize the time spent online for those using dial-up services to obtain the upgrade.

Microsoft on Monday said it will offer a lineup of arcade, puzzle and card games on its Xbox Live online service, targeted at infrequent video game players. The move was aimed squarely at broadening its audience for the Xbox by bringing in older adults and women, many of whom would not usually spend much time in front of a gaming console and are looking for a simpler diversion than the types of games typically available today.

Just a year ago, the biggest video-game developer teamed up exclusively with Sony's best-selling game system to develop online sports titles - dealing Microsoft's Xbox a very public snub.

But now it appears Electronic Arts (EA) has learned a thing or two from Xbox's new marketing slogan: It's good to play together.

The game developer and Microsoft announced yesterday they have made peace and plan to release about 15 titles, including several sports games, that are compatible with the Xbox online gaming service, called Xbox Live.

Despite reports indicating that Microsoft was planning to allow users with pirated copies of Windows XP to install Service Pack 2, the company has confirmed to eWEEK.com that this will not be the case.

"Recent press reports indicating Windows XP Service Pack 2 will install on pirated or illegal copies of Windows XP are not entirely true," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "Instead, prior to installing, SP2 will check the OS' product ID [PID] against a list of known pirated PIDs. If a PID is found to be invalid, SP2 will not install." This behavior is essentially similar to that of Windows XP SP1.

The international trademark battle between Microsoft Corp. and Lindows Inc. continues to generate work for lawyers and the courts, with the software giant once again asking a Dutch court to fine Lindows _100,000 ($118,570) a day, the open source software vendor said Tuesday.

According to the San Diego company, Microsoft is charging that even though it has changed the name of its operating system product and corresponding Web site to Linspire, users accessing the Web site are becoming confused by the Lindows company name in some of the pages on its site. A hearing concerning the request will be held later in the day, Lindows said.

Despite quickly becoming one of the leading sellers of wireless networking products, Microsoft has decided to discontinue its entire line of Wi-Fi gear, CNET News.com has learned.

A source close to the company said Microsoft entered the Wi-Fi field with hopes of "raising the bar" on security, ease-of-use and performance and now feels it has accomplished those goals.

Microsoft confirmed the move late Monday.

"After careful evaluation, the Microsoft hardware group has decided to scale back its broadband hardware and networking business," a representative said. "Instead, the plan is to apply the knowledge we have gained in that category to future products and services."

Microsoft confirmed on Monday that German authorities had arrested a man suspected of writing and releasing a program widely used to compromise and surreptitiously control computers on the Internet.

The program, known as Agobot, has caused concern among many security experts because it allows a single individual to control a vast network of computers, potentially as a means to attack Internet sites. The coder was captured Friday, the same day that an 18-year-old man, also a resident of Germany, was arrested for creating all five versions of the Sasser worm.