WinInsider

Microsoft is planning a number of new features for its Xbox Live online gaming service this year, including limited data storage on its network, the company said on Friday. Code-named "Tsunami," the new set of features is still in the planning stage and are expected to roll out gradually over the course of the year, Microsoft said. But the list of services in development gives a preview as to what the company has planned for its Live service, which has more than 750,000 subscribers worldwide.

Microsoft is revving up to release its packaged speech-enablement server product next month. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will launch Microsoft Speech Server 2004 on March 24 at a technology conference in San Francisco, Microsoft announced on Thursday. The server will come in a Standard Edition for single-server configurations and an Enterprise Edition for more scalable and distributed configurations.

In an effort to keep its customers secure following the recent Windows source code leaks, Microsoft has turned to the lessons it learned while taking a two month hiatus in early 2002 to clean house and eliminate insecure code from Windows.

Microsoft engineers are busy making the most of knowledge gained by that experience, and are performing a security audit on the wayward Windows source code materials using today's security processes.

Microsoft has expanded its legal battle against Linux seller Lindows, suing the software maker for trademark infringement in Canada. A Microsoft representative confirmed that the suit was filed late Wednesday in the Federal Court of Canada in Ottawa. The suit makes trademark claims similar to previous cases filed in the United States and Europe and seeks an injunction barring Lindows from doing business under that name.

This must be a major blow in the face for Linux. This is not the first time that Linux Kernel, the core of OS, have been know to have a flaw.

Security researchers are warning of potentially serious vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel that could allow malicious hackers to gain full super-user privileges. The vulnerability affects the 2.6.x branch prior to version 2.6.3 and the Linux kernel memory management code. Experts note that the latest bug is unrelated to a previous vulnerability in the same internal kernel function code.

In a snapshot of Windows Server 2003 deployment patterns, Web researchers at Netcraft this month found that the number of hostnames found on Web servers running Windows Server 2003 just passed the number running Windows NT. Both appear to be just under 1.5 million hostnames each, far below the nearly 8 million hostnames on Windows 2000, according to Netcraft.

Interestingly, migrations from Windows NT 4.0 don't appear to be a major source of Windows Server 2003 systems. And that's although Microsoft plans to discontinue support for Windows NT 4.0 at the end of 2004, and is in the midst of a campaign to encourage Windows NT 4.0 users to skip ahead to Windows Server 2003.

Microsoft said it will unveil the hardware requirements needed to run Longhorn--the next version of Windows--at a May developer conference. In an e-mail, the software maker said it will outline the required specifications for computers to run Windows at WinHEC (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), which takes place May 4 to May 7 in Seattle.

In a promotional e-mail for the conference, Microsoft said hardware and driver developers could "get the first close look" at Longhorn. In addition to the system requirements, the Redmond, Wash., company said it will detail how to write the drivers needed to connect hardware in Longhorn, along with "future directions for mobile computing and Tablet PCs, Media Center Edition, 64-bit Windows" and embedded versions of Windows.

In an effort to protect its intellectual property, Microsoft is warning Internet users not to download the Windows source code that appeared online last week. Microsoft is sending warnings to users who search for the source code on peer-to-peer (P-to-P) file-swapping services and is mailing legal warnings to those who have already downloaded the secret programming code, Tom Pilla, a spokesman for the Redmond, Washington-based software maker said Wednesday.

Microsoft has also sent out hundreds of letters to people who have already downloaded the source code, Pilla said. Many have already responded by agreeing not to distribute the code and deleting it from their systems, he said.

Microsoft is moving ahead with plans to deliver its XML programming language to programmers inside and outside the company. By mid-year, Microsoft plans to make its XML programming language - currently code-named "Xen," and soon to be renamed "C Omega" -- available to researchers and academics. At the same time, Microsoft's Research division is making the new language available to product teams inside the company for possible use or inclusion in forthcoming products.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2004 entered the private beta testing stage on Wednesday, and Microsoft says the product will be generally available in the first half of the year. Virtual Server 2004 is based on unreleased technology that Microsoft acquired from Connectix Corp. in February 2003. Microsoft has since released its own branded versions of two Connectix virtualization products that were shipping at the time of the acquisition: Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac.