SQL Server expert Randy Holloway offers up some hints on where Microsoft's going with its next-generation file system. The Windows File System (WinFS) is key to two of Microsoft's biggest next-gen products in the pipeline: Longhorn and Yukon.
While Microsoft released Yukon Beta 1 to testers in July, there have been few analyses of the WinFS-specific portion of it by folks who have actually played with Yukon. So we decided to call on Yukon expert Randy Holloway to get the inside, pre-PDC scoop on WinFS. Holloway is the coauthor - with Andrej Kyselica of an upcoming book "Developing Solutions with Yukon: Beyond Transact-SQL" (Addison Wesley) - on the ins and outs of Yukon. He also is a prolific blogger who writes about Yukon and the Common Language Runtime.
Even developers who are 100 percent committed to the Microsoft platform are complaining that its inherent weaknesses are killing them. There's a love-in coming to California next week, but it won't be grooving along in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Instead, it'll be headquartered in a boxy convention center in downtown Los Angeles.
The event will be Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, where thousands of programmers who create Windows applications and drivers will schmooze, share tips and learn what changes the software company is planning for its next major Windows operating system release. That, of course, will be "Longhorn," which will ship sometime in 2005 or 2006.
A U.S. District Court judge has asked the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate why only nine companies have signed up to license Microsoft's technology for their own software products, an offering that is part of the federal antitrust settlement with Microsoft. During an antitrust settlement oversight hearing Friday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly questioned why more companies had not taken advantage of the licensing portion of the antitrust settlement, approved by Kollar-Kotelly in late 2002.
Kollar-Kotelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asked the DOJ to interview software companies to see if changes are needed in the licensing terms in the antitrust settlement. In a July hearing, Kollar-Kotelly said new licensing terms that Microsoft would later announce should satisfy concerns over royalty rates Microsoft was charging for its communications protocols.
In an interesting interview with MSNBC, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates makes an interesting admission: Jealousy from competitors has been a huge factor in Microsoft's success. "Jealousy has driven more mistakes by my competitors than anything else," he said. "When people focus not on the next breakthrough, but on cutting off Microsoft, it's actually been quite a windfall for us." There are so many examples of competitors killing their companies in order to try and hurt Gates--Novell's Ray Noorda is probably the best one--that it's hard not to chuckle at some of the boneheaded decisions we've seen over the years. And it's an interesting question to examine in light of the Linux phenomenon: As I've often suggested, the Linux community seems more concerned with copying Windows than really working to create a unique and better operating system. Is the Linux movement really driven by hatred of Gates too?
The 7000 PDC attendees will receive Longhorn build 4051 on Monday, so I'll be providing screenshot galleries and a full review as soon as possible. But don't worry about pirating the build: Microsoft will make it available online to one and all in November and ship it to MSDN Universal customers in December. All together, that represents hundreds of thousands of copies of this important pre-Beta 1 release, floating around, and Microsoft wants your feedback. This feedback will dictate the timeline for Beta 1, due vaguely in the first half of 2004, which features change by the final release and, ultimately, when that final release occurs. According to my sources, the oft-delayed PDC build--it was originally due in early October, but held up because of a weird CD drive incompatibility issue--is rock-solid and quite usable, unlike the other alpha builds we've seen. And, as first reported here in WinInfo, no, it doesn't include the Aero user interface that the final Longhorn version will utilize.
Microsoft will offer rebates to corporate customers, is providing free trial editions of some Office applications, and has beefed up the business-oriented content of its Office Online Web site.
Companies which buy the Office Professional, Standard, or Small Business editions and that also sign up for Software Assurance -- a Microsoft program that provides upgrades in exchange for a yearly fee -- are eligible for rebates as high as $38,000. The amount of the rebate varies depending on the Office bundle bought and the number of copies purchased.
The rebate offer is good through the end of April 2004, and is available only through Microsoft's Open Value, Select, and Enterprise Agreement licensing programs.
Microsoft has been trying to drum up support among U.S. lawmakers as part of its effort to fend off antitrust sanctions being considered by European regulators, congressional sources say. With the European Commission weighing a fine and behavioral changes that could go beyond its U.S. antitrust settlement, Microsoft lobbyists have taken their case to key members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, these sources told Reuters.
If code-names for future Microsoft products like "Avalon," "Indigo," "Whidbey" and "Springboard" occasionally draw a blank for you, you're in good company. Even Microsoft's own chief software architect Bill Gates falls behind on the terminology sometimes.
Gates admitted as much during his Office System launch keynote in New York on Tuesday. Demonstrating the new Research Pane functionality for Office programs such as Word, Gates showed how he uses the feature internally at Microsoft to stay up to date.
Microsoft is making the complete version of its new notetaking application, OneNote 2003, available as a free, 60-day evaluation edition in an effort to promote one of the newest members of the Office program family.
With the Office System 2003 launch this week, Microsoft is trying to move the focus beyond the tapped out market for traditional office productivity programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Instead, Microsoft wants customers to concentrate on new collaboration and business integration capabilities enabled by purchasing the latest versions of the desktop productivity programs along with an associated stack of Microsoft servers and services.
Amid stronger-than-expected consumer PC sales, Microsoft on Thursday reported earnings that narrowly topped expectations as sales rose 6 percent from a year ago.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company said it earned $2.6 billion, or 24 cents per share, on revenue of $8.2 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30. That compares with earnings of $2 billion, or 19 cents per share, on revenue of $7.75 billion for the same quarter a year ago. The first-quarter figures include 6 cents per share in charges related to the company's decision to expense the cost of granting stock options to employees, while the year-ago figures include 3 cents per share in asset-impairment charges and 6 cents per share in stock compensation charges.