WinInsider

Microsoft's acquisition of Connectix's assets is beginning to bear fruit on the Windows side of the market. The software giant Monday plans to announce the release to manufacturing of its newly branded and enhanced Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, formerly known as Connectix Virtual PC.

The desktop software, expected to be available within the next 90 days, will allow customers to run multiple versions of Windows on the same desktop, as well as Mac and Linux on virtual machines.

It's been a year since Microsoft Corp. launched Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and declared a new chapter in the history of personal computing to be starting. The platform hasn't caught on as fast as its biggest cheerleader was perhaps hoping, but despite a quiet first year few are willing to dismiss the platform just yet.

It's tempting to write off the Tablet PC as a failure. After all, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates predicted at Comdex 2001 that "a lot of people in the audience will be taking notes with those Tablet PCs" during the 2002 event. Not only was the launch of Tablet PC delayed, thus causing his prediction to fall flat on its face, but it looks unlikely to come true this year either.

Microsoft has heaped a lot on its small/mid-size business (SMB) plate for the next few years. Here's the to-do list. The Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division has set itself an ambitious roadmap, running through calendar 2006. And company officials detailed a number of its upcoming milestones at its worldwide partner conference last month. Much of MBS' work will involve stitching together products from Great Plains, Navision, FRx Software and bCentral - all of which are now under the MBS umbrella.

Microsoft said on Tuesday it would expand its Asian research center to shorten the time needed for ideas to become viable products as the firm fights off growing competition from Linux-based rivals. The world's largest software maker, which is trying to move its business beyond desktop computers into devices, plans to add another 80 developers and engineers to its Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia center. But there will be no additional infrastructure investment.

Top developers at Microsoft are working on a new graphics and animation toolset for Longhorn (the next generation of Windows) that could spell trouble for Macromedia's popular Flash MX and Director MX animation tools, sources familiar with the situation told internetnews.com.

Code-named "Sparkle," the tools under development would be integrated with Microsoft's .NET runtime environment. That would ultimately mean developers could have Flash- and Director-like animation and graphics tools ready-built for them soon after Longhorn hits the marketplace.

Software released by Microsoft yesterday will give computer users new control over the fate of the files they create -- preventing unauthorized viewing, forwarding, printing and modification of documents.

Critics worry that it also may reduce the free flow of information, make it tougher for corporate watchdogs to blow the whistle on wrongdoing, and tighten Microsoft's grip on the software market by further locking customers into its products.

Microsoft has set a target to sell 100 million personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones running Windows in the year 2007, a Microsoft official said Monday. The goal was set by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer for the company's Windows Mobile unit and shows that Microsoft is serious about this market, said Douglas Dedo, marketing manager for Windows Mobile at Microsoft. A large percentage of the Windows Mobile device shipments will be smart phones, not PDAs, Dedo said.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday returned once again to the long-running Microsoft antitrust case, which may be nearing an end after six years of high-profile injunctions, hearings and testimony.

Judge David Sentelle replied by suggesting that the consent decree, which Microsoft is already following, was no more ambiguous than any similar document. "Some find ambiguity in a 'No Smoking' sign," Sentelle said.

CCIA and SIIA had unsuccessfully tried to convince the courts to carve Microsoft up into three parts responsible for operating systems, software applications and Internet products, respectively. CCIA's members include AOL, Sun, Red Hat, and Oracle, and it distributed a recent study that said Microsoft software was a hazard to the economy and to national security.

Microsoft will announce on Wednesday that it will offer two $250,000 bounties for information that leads to the arrest of the people who released the MSBlast worm and the SoBig virus, CNET News.com has learned.

The two programs attacked computers that run Microsoft's Windows operating system, causing havoc among companies and home users in August and September. The reward, confirmed by sources in both the security industry and in law enforcement, will be announced in a joint press conference with the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service and Interpol that's scheduled for 10 a.m. EST Wednesday.

The game clock has almost expired for Massachusetts and a handful of other holdouts who continue to insist that Microsoft's landmark antitrust settlement with the federal government isn't working.

The San Jose Mercury News says the "appeals filed by Massachusetts and the industry trade groups -- the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the Software and Information Industry Association -- face steep odds. 'This is kind of like when you bet on a long shot at the track. It could have a huge payout,' but it's unlikely, said Palo Alto antitrust attorney Mark Ostrau. 'It's easy for an appellate court to say you went too far, but it's rare for an appellate court to say you didn't go far enough.'"