New data from Microsoft suggests that at least 8 million Windows computers have been infected by the MSBlast, or Blaster, worm since last August--many times more than previously thought.
The latest data comes from the software giant's ability to track the usage of an online tool that its engineers created to clean systems infected with the worm. Since the January release of the tool, more than 16 million of the systems that connected to Microsoft's Windows Update service were found to be infected with MSBlast and were offered a patch and the use of the disinfecting tool, the software giant told CNET News.com. During the same period, about 8 million systems actually called on Update to patch them and prevent reinfection and used the special tool to remove the worm.
The highly anticipated release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 looms on the horizon, leaving many to wonder if operating system update will be a cure for many of the security ills surrounding Windows XP. Months in the making, Microsoft promises the new service pack--set to ship by the end of the second quarter--promises to better secure Windows XP from attacks, such as the Blaster worm and buffer overruns, while also reducing pop-up advertisements and spam annoyances.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Sun Chairman and Chief Executive Scott McNealy on Friday spoke with the press about the landmark, ten-year technology sharing pact the two companies signed, ending a long-standing technology and legal feud. Below are excerpts from the question and answer session with the press.
Q: What were the patent issues between the two companies? Are we going to see a merged version of Java and C Sharp?
Ballmer: We haven't any kind of patent regime between our two companies. We are both big developers of intellectual property. We both own lots of patents. In a sense, it seems it was impossible to create a technical collaboration framework without having some framework in which both companies could be assured that they have got the right protections looking back and forward with respect to the other's intellectual property.
Will the Sun-Microsoft settlement really change the competitive landscape? Or is it just a last-ditch Sun bailout? The initial shock is over. Sun Microsystems and Microsoft agreed on Friday to settle all outstanding antitrust and patent issues between the two, in exchange for Microsoft shelling out $1.6 billion-plus to Sun.
Now the real questions begin: Will this agreement really change the competitive landscape? Or is it simply a way for Sun - which, incidentally announced the same day that it expects a hefty loss in its fiscal third quarter and is cutting 3,300 jobs to help offset it - to get some quick cash? (Not to mention a strategy via which Microsoft effectively will hush one of the main proponents of the European Union antitrust case against the Redmond software giant?)
Microsoft has added more storage-related capabilities to Windows Server 2003 to makes SANs less complex to deploy and manage. Among the new features that will be unveiled at next week's Storage Networking World tradeshow is Microsoft's Fibre Channel Information Tool. The tool identifies storage components and gathers component information across multiple storage fabrics and from multiple vendors, according to Claude Lorenson, Microsoft's technical product manager for storage technologies for Windows Server 2003. The tool gets information about drivers and firmware in use, and reduces the need for third-party tools, he added.
Microsoft will make part of its new enterprise reporting technology available as a Visual Studio control that can be embedded in applications. Although the technology comes out of SQL Server Reporting Services, reports developed for the Visual Studio control won't require a connection to a SQL Server, or a license for one. Microsoft plans to deliver the tool in 2005 when it releases SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005.
Microsoft won't be shipping XP Reloaded as an interim OS release but is instead still wrestling with how to market and package an operating system--Windows XP--that has changed dramatically in the three years since it was first released. Like Windows Server 2003, Windows XP has seen numerous excellent free (and nearly free) "out of band" updates in the past three years. By late 2004, this will include two service packs, two major updates to Windows Media Player, several major security enhancements and changes to wireless networking, several instant messaging updates, and much more.
Microsoft has some good arguments on the media player issue. Downloading a small application like Microsoft's Media Player, Real's Network player, or Apple's QuickTime takes the blink of an eye with a decent broadband connection, which undercuts the impact of its bundle with Windows. The company also bent over backwards in its proposed settlement by offering to make it even easier for its competitors.
"The ridiculous thing is that Microsoft offered to install at least three extra media players, two selected by the Commission, the third chosen by the OEM, plus even more on a CD and a DVD with the system--but Monti turned it down," said Microsoft's lawyer.
Can Microsoft's MSN Web portal become all things to all people? Talking to Yusuf Mehdi, the Microsoft executive in charge of figuring out the company's portal strategy, you get the feeling that's certainly no stretch.
Mehdi, who recently launched MSN Video and MSN Premium Internet access, also has plans to incorporate a next-generation search engine, a music download application service similar to Apple Computer's iTunes and a social-networking service. And that's just what we know for now.
Sun Microsystems announced Friday that it has moved to a new phase of legal and technical cooperation with longtime foe Microsoft that will involve a payment of $1.95 billion to Sun. Sun also said Friday that it plans to cut 3,300 jobs after it issued an earnings warning.
Under the 10-year pact with Microsoft, the software company will pay Sun $700 million to resolve antitrust issues and $900 million to resolve patent issues, the companies said. The companies will pay royalties to use each other's technology; Microsoft is paying $350 million now, with Sun to make payments when it incorporates technology later.