WinInsider

Microsoft will not get involved in any potential acquisition of Disney and is focused on what the software maker expects to be a groundbreaking new product, Chairman Bill Gates said late on Wednesday.

"We're not going to be involved in it, because we're very focused on software," said Gates in an interview aired late on Wednesday. "We're not part of the bid or anything," Gates said, confirming analyst skepticism that Microsoft would become involved in a Disney deal.

Regardless of the lawsuit's merits, however, Microsoft's opposition is only one of a remarkable string of hardships faced by RealNetworks. The Seattle-based Internet pioneer has endured years of internal and external challenges, including new technologies, strategic mistakes and old-fashioned bad luck, that weren't caused by its crosstown rival.

At least part of RealNetworks' miscalculation in music may be attributed to its emphasis on Internet video, a medium that remains practically dormant in comparison.

Microsoft's instant messaging architect Paul Haverstock stated the case for messaging interoperability at the opening keynote address of the Instant Messaging Planet Spring 2004 Conference and Expo here Wednesday.

Haverstock, one of the original developers and former general manager for the Lotus Sametime IM product, said messaging would become as ubiquitous as e-mail is today and would enhance most business applications once a common standard of interoperability between the various corporate and public networks was reached.

Office productivity software, sure. Computer operating systems, you bet. But who knew anyone at Microsoft was working on technology to help in the fight against HIV?

Researchers at the company, working with the University of Washington, have come up with a computer program that uses machine learning to create a model showing the different forms that the virus can take. The hope is to help craft an effective AIDS vaccine.

"We do have some quantitative results that show us, under a particular measure, we have a better diversity model than some of the traditional techniques," said Nebojsa Jojic, a Microsoft researcher working on the project with his brother, Vladimir Jojic, a Microsoft Research intern.

The SCO Group is targeting lawsuits at auto parts retailer AutoZone and automaker DaimlerChrysler in its continuing legal battle over the Unix and Linux operating systems.

Suing companies that use Linux makes strategic sense for SCO, said Mark Radcliffe, an intellectual-property attorney not involved in the case.

"They needed to start suing users, because they're the ones that are going to be the least desirous of spending money to defend this. They're going to scream for their distributors to 'Come and save me,'" he said. "It will produce increased pressure to IBM to produce indemnity," a form of legal protection for customers.

If Redmond could get 'out-of-band' features out to users in a quicker and easier way, it would go a long way to solving one of its biggest problems. From a marketing standpoint, Microsoft's worst nightmare, re: Windows XP, has come to pass. Just when the Redmond software giant looked like it might be building some momentum for Windows XP, word leaked of a possible interim release between XP and Longhorn.

Ted Kummert, Microsoft's corporate vice president of e-business servers, presided over the BizTalk 2004 launch in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday afternoon. Just before he took to the podium he talked with CRN Industry Editor Barbara Darrow about his new gig. A 14-year veteran with the company, he has worked on Windows NT and Windows CE development, and most recently spent four years with MSN.

CRN: How will your MSN experience help you with e-business servers?
Kummert: Part of my work with MSN was to figure out what the whole software-as-a-service thing was about. We built a subscription business [and] an Internet access business. I did figure out a lot of things about being in the services business and having a 24x7 globally available operation, a lot about infrastructure software and what it can enable for businesses. An infrastructure that helps you run your business more efficiently can give you a competitive advantage, reduce cycle times and [help you] implement decisions better.

We asked David Treadwell, Microsoft's general manager of the .NET Platform Developer Division, to comment on key issues that arose while researching .Net's performance. Treadwell's answers were surprisingly frank and shed light on Microsoft's Longhorn future.

IW: When Windows .NET Server was renamed Windows Server 2003, it raised questions about Microsoft's commitment to .Net as a platform.
Treadwell: We realized that both .Net and Windows were platform initiatives, and in branding Windows server, we chose Windows. WinFX [the collection of Longhorn technologies] is a superset of the .Net platform, but we're now including it as part of the Windows brand. We're trying to move the .Net label more toward Web services, rather than apply it broadly to the whole platform.

It's keeping mum, but the giant has already introduced software that could turn into the killer phone application. On Feb. 12, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that a voice communication between two people using PCs is more like an e-mail than a phone call. This decision on a petition brought by Jeff Pulver, the entrepreneur behind the Free World Dialup Internet phone service, meant that the hundreds of thousands of people who now use broadband connections for voice conversations can continue to do so unmolested by the tariffs that are levied on traditional phone calls to support 911 service and universal access to the phone network.

Despite growing competition, slimmer technology budgets and an ongoing antitrust battle, Microsoft continues to dominate the software industry. But Bill Gates, the company's chairman and chief software architect, sees a new challenge on the horizon: a dwindling pool of computer science students.

Last week, Gates embarked on a recruiting tour of sorts. He visited five colleges steeped in computing history to deliver hour-long talks: the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. His message was in part a history lesson for those too young to remember the industry's roots and in part a call to action for the nation's best and brightest students.