Microsoft Corp. is facing calls for the courts to block its upcoming Windows XP operating system because of competitive concerns, but political and legal issues make such a move unlikely, analysts say.
But such an attempt to delay the launch of Windows XP is unlikely to succeed, analysts said. First, there are legal grounds that set a high bar for such a measure.
Second, there are political reasons that boil down to the fact that for every opponent trying to trip Microsoft up, there is an ally throwing its weight behind the company.
In a report issued on Monday, Brendan Barnicle, a former lawyer who is now an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said any injunction against Windows XP would require showing that the product would inflict irreparable damage on competitors.
After years of languishing from slow connection speeds, Internet telephony may get a boost from the upcoming release of Windows XP.
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If Microsoft Corp.'s enthusiasm to bundle new technologies into Windows XP was dampened last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals, the company isn't showing any signs. In fact, Microsoft is maintaining its hard line on the inclusion of several potentially controversial technologies in the forthcoming operating system. In addition to sticking to its plan to include HailStorm Web services in XP, Microsoft is also readying a second service called Rendezvous. The protocol will allow people to initiate an instant messaging conversation and video chat and will be part of XP by the time it ships Oct. 25. This is in addition to its Passport authentication service, which will also be included.
Quoting sources close to state and federal prosecutors, a report this weekend in The Washington Post said that the government and state attorneys general are seriously considering asking the courts to block Windows XP's release or at least require Microsoft to modify the OS before releasing it. According to the report, lawyers from the offices of the New York, Wisconsin, and California attorneys general are conducting XP research. None of the parties involved are willing to speak publicly about the government's legal strategy.
INTEL IS PREPARING ITS distributors and dealers for the introduction of the Pentium 4 2GHz processor this month, with flavours already available at some of its biggest customers. Both Ingram Micro and Tech Data have versions of the 2GHz available on their site. The boxed 2GHz/256 (BX80528JK200G ) in socket 423 is being listed at $565 at Tech Data, while the Pentium 1.5GHz Pentium 4 (BX80531NK150G) is listed at $140 in a Socket 478 version. The 1.6GHz Pentium 4 in Socket 478 format is listed as $170 (BX80531NK160G), while the 1.7GHz S478 is listed as costing $200.00.
A new, destructive worm similar to Code Red, which infected computers around the world last week, is spreading through the Internet, but authorities aren't sure how much damage it has done. The new worm, dubbed Code Red II, moves faster than Code Red but can still be stopped by downloading a software patch for some Microsoft operating systems, security officials said Sunday.
Wxperience offers you an exclusive preview of the future! In this video of a Microsoft presentation the speaker shows some of the new features and ideas Microsoft is fooling around with. Download the zip-file, unzip and enjoy.
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According to MSDN Subscriber Downloads recently released RC2 will NOT be shipped on CD media to MSDN Subscribers, it will only be available via download. This might be a sign that instead sending RC2 in next monthly shipment, Microsoft will send RTM version of WinXP. Next MSDN shipment will be for month of September, but CD/DVD are packaged and send usually between two-to-one week before target month. That makes last two weeks of August. The bad news is that unless you are major PC maker or MSDN subscriber chances are that you will not get RTM, as it is the final product, (gold-CD). Unless I am mistaken or Microsoft will decides to give out RTM, most people will have to wait until Oct. 25 to get the final WinXP.
The info about no RC2 disk shipments appears on the MSDN Subscribers Download "What's Hot" page under "Announcements" that you see after you sign-in.
In an e-mail to beta testers, Microsoft today announced the availability of what is expected to be the final build for the Internet Explorer 6 release. Barring any last minute issues, build 2530.1 will be deemed golden next week. "We would like to express our sincere appreciation for your participation in the Beta program," IE6 coordinators boasted, "In large part thanks to your feedback and input, Internet Explorer 6 will be the best browser in the market."
In a win for Intel, a key industry group has voted in favor of the chipmaker's proposal to rework the innards of computers and a who's who of industry heavy hitters will promote the technology.
The proposed technology, called 3GIO, will now be overseen by the PCI-SIG, the standards body that supervises Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), the long-dominant technique for plugging devices such as graphics cards and network cards into computers. PCI will be phased out and replaced by the Intel technology.
The PCI-SIG steering committee voted unanimously in favor of 3GIO Friday morning, the standards body's president, Roger Tipley, said. The nine committee members--representatives of Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom's ServerWorks division, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix Technologies and Texas Instruments--had voted July 27 to take another week for company lawyers to review the standard.