The next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, is still in the early stages of its journey to the retail corral, but our hands-on look at a preview reveals features we'd love to have now--while raising some intriguing questions.
In addition to the interface revisions, including the new Sidebar, that we saw in our first glimpse of Longhorn (see "Sneak Peek: Windows XP's Successor"), Microsoft has altered Windows Explorer, the program that controls the desktop and its computer- and file-browsing windows.
Version 2.2 has been released. Both PC and PPC versions are compatible with the latest version of .NET Messenger Service. The PC version supports Microsoft Live Communications Server 2003 and other SIP servers. The PPC version supports full-duplex voice on Pocket PC 2003 and Smartphone 2003.
Microsoft Portrait delivers portrait-like video if users are in low bandwidths and displays full-color video if users are in broadband. In low bandwidths, portrait video possesses clearer shape, smoother motion, shorter latency and much cheaper computational cost than do conventional video technologies.
The digital certificate for Internet Explorer's Java 2 Runtime Environment has expired, while several more are set to lapse January 7. Microsoft's expired certificate for Java 2 Runtime Environment won't be renewed. According to a spokesperson at Microsoft's PR firm, as part of Microsoft's settlement with Sun Microsystems in Jan 2001, it is no longer allowed to distribute certain versions of the Microsoft Virtual Machine as of Jan. 2, 2004.
With the beta of Windows XP SP2, Microsoft appears to be shaking a finger, figuratively, at users because they tend not to turn on Automatic Updates--or to limit its ability to do its job by not allowing updates to be installed automatically. The first screen you see after installing SP2 and rebooting is a blue warning page that asks you to turn on Automatic Updates. You have two choices:
- Yes, help me protect my PC by automatically downloading and installing updates (strongly recommended)
- Ask me again later.
Will a Microsoft acquisition of BEA Systems make headlines in 2004? According to a report released Tuesday by The Yankee Group, it's not such a farfetched notion.
In a report titled, "Why Microsoft Should Buy BEA Systems," Dana Gardiner, an analyst at The Yankee Group, said a combination of the two companies would "deliver powerful synergies, give the marketplace more choices for IT software and blunt the competitive threat facing Microsoft." It's clear in the industry that the Microsoft .Net framework and J2EE software, of which BEA is a leading software vendor, are the two dominant platforms solution providers will use to build Web services.
In sports, they call it a rebuilding year, a period when a team works on the fundamentals and prepares for the next season's championship run, doing all it can in the meantime to keep the stadium filled with fans.
It might be tempting to think of Microsoft's 2004 in those terms, sandwiched as it is between major releases of the company's biggest products. New versions of Microsoft Office and Windows Server debuted in 2003. And the next Windows for PCs, code-named Longhorn, isn't due until 2005 or 2006.
Intel and Microsoft are gearing up to move toward the first major overhaul of the innermost workings of the personal computer--the boundary where software and hardware meet--during 2004. The companies will begin promoting a technology specification called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) as a new system for starting up a PC's hardware before its operating system begins loading, a process that kicks in every time a PC is switched on or restarted. News.context What's new: Intel and Microsoft say it's time to ditch the outmoded BIOS, or basic input/output system, which for 23 years has served to start a PC's hardware before the operating system takes over.
Our early peeks at Microsoft's Smartphone platform-the phone-centric operating system that's part of the company's Windows Mobile family-didn't push our buttons. But now that we've had a chance to test the new Motorola MPx200 and the Samsung SCH-i600, we're ready to admit that our first impressions were wrong.
Don't confuse Smartphone-based devices with PDA/phone combos (such as the Treo 600), which are based on either the Palm or Microsoft Pocket PC operating systems. Smartphones are not PDAs but rather very smart phones that happen to play multimedia files, work beautifully with Outlook (retrieving e-mail wirelessly), and more.
With the holidays rushing toward us, it should be a quiet time in the tech industry, but a slew of recent developments in the battle over UNIX and Linux ensures that anyone with a stake in this conflict will have some unsettling news to mull over. This week, computing giant Novell revealed that it has spent the past few months quietly registering for the UNIX copyrights the SCO Group claims to own, copyrights SCO has used as a basis for its attack on Linux, a UNIX clone. SCO, meanwhile, has sent a second threatening letter to Linux and IBM AIX customers, warning them that they face lawsuits if they continue to use operating systems SCO says are based, in part, on UNIX code owned by SCO.
Microsoft agreed Wednesday to pay Imagexpo $60 million to settle a case involving disputed technology used in the Redmond, Wash., giant's NetMeeting product. NetMeeting is an application that let remote users communicate via text, voice or video, and includes collaboration tools to share and edit documents and images.
Microsoft, from the beginning, maintained it independently developed the technology. After the ruling, both parties said certain "unspecified" legal matters needed to be resolved before any money changed hands.