"Windows XP rocks!" said Jim Allchin, group vice president of Windows at Microsoft. "Windows XP is the PC experience both home and business users have been looking for with the reliability and stability they have always wanted as well as end-to-end experiences with digital photos, digital music and communication. This is the operating system I have always wanted to build."
"Simply put, Windows XP is the best operating system Microsoft has ever built," said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect at Microsoft. "The performance improvements and advanced features of Windows XP are the culmination of more than 15 years of research, development and customer feedback. For customers, computer manufacturers and industry partners, Windows XP truly underscores the excitement and potential of the digital decade ahead."
Microsoft on Friday will host a celebration marking the release of Windows XP to PC manufacturers, but the big question is how much interest the company can generate for the software. At a lavish ceremony at the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Jim Allchin, group vice president and head of the Windows effort, are expected to present each PC maker representative with a Windows XP-branded briefcase containing a master disc with the operating system's final - or gold - code. The group then is supposed to board a helicopter and fly off while the two Microsoft executives wave.
More at WinInfo & MS has changed WinXP web site design.
Amazon.com has resumed taking advance orders for the business version of Windows XP, giving another preview of pricing for Microsoft's new operating system. This is the second time Amazon has started taking preorders for XP. The online retailer is offering the full version of Windows XP Professional for $299.99 and the upgrade version for $199.99. Microsoft has yet to reveal pricing for Windows XP but is expected to release that information any day.
For the computing maniac who thought he had everything, PCs with 2GHz chips will land Monday. Nearly every major PC manufacturer will release new models sporting Pentium 4 chips running at 2GHz and 1.9GHz, according to several sources. The chips will appear in high-end consumer PCs as well as in corporate desktops and workstations. While the new PCs will increase the performance standards for desktop computers, they also will be fairly cheap, the result of a slow market for computers.
An antitrust lawyer and a computer operating system analyst consider the antitrust implications of Microsoft's rumored early release of Windows XP
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Steve Ballmer and Gordon Mangione, vice president of Microsoft® SQL ServerT, will deliver keynote addresses at the largest North American SQL Server users conference and expo, PASS 2001 North America, Sept. 19-22 in Orlando, Fla.
Designed specifically for SQL Server professionals who want to increase their competitive edge, PASS 2001 will showcase information on the latest technology and solutions being built on SQL Server. This year's conference offers an impressive lineup of more than 110 technical sessions emphasizing the issues that are important to today's SQL Server users.
The free, downloadable security tool helps users disable functions and settings that could leave their servers open to an attack, said Scott Culp, Microsoft's security program manager.
These include Internet printing, advanced search functions and certain scripting technologies that enable viruses and worms to spread, Culp said.
The tool is designed for Internet Information Server (IIS), Windows NT and Windows 2000 software for publishing Web pages. A flaw in IIS was exploited by Code Red, launching potentially crippling attacks on some Web sites.
Microsoft will give its 20 million e-mail users in Europe access to messages via their mobile phones, the company said Thursday, unveiling a new alliance with European mobile operators. The initiative involving a joint venture between Danish mobile operator TDC Mobile International and Anglo-Dutch CMG Wireless Data Solutions is the latest step in Microsoft's plan to bring its software products and Web offerings to mobile devices, including phones, pagers and handheld devices. This is the first time Microsoft has made Hotmail accessible via mobile phones, the company said.
Consumers are more distrustful of AOL Time Warner Inc. than arch rival Microsoft Corp., which has been the target of competitive concerns for years, according to a Gartner Inc. survey of adult online users released Thursday, AOL Time Warner, which prides itself on consumer privacy and security issues, is the least trusted company on the Web when compared with banks, brokerages, credit card companies, online bookseller Amazon.com Inc., large retailers and Microsoft, the survey found. About 37 percent of online consumers said they had a high level of distrust of AOL Time Warner, compared with 29 percent who said they were highly distrustful of Microsoft.
The mainstream PC market is about to give Intel Corp.'s Pentium 4 a boost, with expectations that unit shipments of the microprocessor will increase by five times in the next four months. Come September, Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., will have finally assembled the pieces of its Pentium 4 strategy, allowing the company to begin phasing out the venerable Pentium III microprocessor in all PC segments. The last piece of the puzzle will drop into place when Intel formally launches its i845 chipset next month with support for PC133 memory, the first time the Pentium 4 will be matched with SDRAM.