Intel said Tuesday that a pre-release version of the Microsoft .Net Framework is available for the Itanium 2 micro-architecture. The latest release adds to a broad portfolio of tools available for building applications for Itanium 2-based platforms running on 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows, officials with Santa Clara, Calif.-based, company said.
"The Itanium 2 micro-architecture now has a full complement of production and beta tools for Windows developers, bolstering our 'port of choice' objective for high-performance, mission critical servers," Will Swope, vice president and general manager for Intel's Software and Solutions Group, said in a statement.
A busy lawyer using the next version of Windows would be able to set a computer to automatically pick up an incoming call and use an electronic calendar to tell the caller when to expect a response -- after it checks a database of client billings to make sure the person really warrants a return call.
It's not the most altruistic application ever conceived for the personal computer, at least under those circumstances, but it's one example of the advances to come in the next Windows.
Microsoft let loose early bits of Longhorn at its Professional Developer Conference (PDC) here and for the first time provided more extensive details around the key components of its next Windows operating system expected out in 2006.
Longhorn is build up of three components on top of a layer of "fundamentals" that includes security and technology to make sure applications and drivers don't conflict. On top of those fundamentals sit Avalon, WinFS and Indigo, the codenames that with the Longhorn name itself have fed the rumor mills for the past years.
Microsoft officials, visibly happy that they could now talk about what they have been working on in secrecy, provided lengthy and deeply technical explanations of the technology behind the codenames. To be brief, Longhorn promises to give users a secure operating system with a new way to store files, revamped graphics and tight links to the Web.
For software developers, the operating system, though bringing a myriad of changes, should be easier to develop for and it will also run existing applications, dating all the way back to the days of DOS, the disk operating system.
Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed that there will be a server version of Longhorn, the next major version of Windows. While the server version of Longhorn is part of Microsoft's plan, the company has said little about what it will offer and when it will arrive. The product was listed without a ship date during a presentation Tuesday by Microsoft server and tools boss Eric Rudder at the company's Professional Developer Conference here.
Even after all his triumphs, Bill Gates is still a gambling man.
In some of the most difficult economic periods in high technology's history, the chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft appears undeterred in doing what he has done best: selling Windows.
This week, Microsoft launched a developer version of Longhorn, its next operating system. Gates says Longhorn, which is expected to be released in 2006, will spawn an array of new applications not possible with previous generations of Windows while making entire infrastructures work better.
Details have leaked onto the Web about a new Microsoft application that will add voice recognition to handheld computers that use the company's Pocket PC software. Microsoft began soliciting beta testers in September for Voice Command, a software add-on for Pocket PC handhelds and Smartphones. According to information sent to beta testers, the software would enable them to control all basic functions of a device by talking into its microphone.
Microsoft reportedly plans to announce the software at next month's Comdex trade show. But Handango, a Web site that specializes in software for handhelds, posted details of the application and a price late last week.
Microsoft in the "Whidbey" version of the Visual Studio tool, due in 2004, will feature a set of design tools called "Whitehorse," to enable building of services-oriented systems. Whitehorse enables visualization of relationships between services, according to Rick LaPlante, a general manager in the Microsoft developer division. He spoke during a presentation at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2003 here on Tuesday.
LaPlante showed a three-step demonstration in which information is communicated to an engineering team, a view of the datacenter is presented, and a service is validated to conform to policies. Web services can be incorporated or restricted via Whitehorse.
Microsoft techies spent a lot of their stage time on Monday trying to show that Longhorn will not only spark a wave of new development but will preserve investments in existing applications.
"Barring security issues," programs built to Win 32 specifications will also run in Longhorn, said Jim Allchin, group vice president of Microsoft, Redmond, Wash. Programs built atop the .Net Framework will also run in Longhorn, although they will not be able to take full advantage of its perks, Allchin said at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.
Microsoft has reached settlements in some state class-action lawsuits it has been defending, the company said Tuesday. Details about the settlements will be released later in the day, Microsoft said. Ever since a federal judge ruled in April 2000 that Microsoft enjoyed a monopoly and violated antitrust laws, the world's largest software company has found itself fighting off a swarm of lawsuits.
Back when Windows XP was still known by the code name Whistler, the most exciting thing about Microsoft's client OS in progress was that it wasn't Windows 9x. But now that Windows users can take for granted such basics as real multiuser support and relative freedom from blue screens of death, it will take a lot more than making Windows a less-hated part of one's workday to spur enthusiasm for Longhorn, the code name for Microsoft's next client OS release.
At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles yesterday, we got our first look at Longhorn: With its dramatically remade presentation, storage and communications systems, Longhorn should give Windows users and developers plenty to be excited about.