WinInsider

Despite possible legal threats to Windows XP, more than 20 of Microsoft's OEM and ISV partners this week announced support for new features in the future OS. At a press conference in New York on Tuesday, Microsoft officials reaffirmed that XP will ship as planned on Oct. 25. Chris Jones, VP of Microsoft's Windows Division, reiterated the position, also delivered by Microsoft Group VP Jim Allchin this week, that Microsoft has made no "contingency plans" to unbundle any of the new features in response to potential court challenges.

Official Microsoft beta testers have just been notified that a new beta release 2530.1 of Internet Explorer 6.0 has been released. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 is the next major version of the world's most used browser software.

Windows XP has been updated to build 2531 with files dating from 08/31/2001. This build has also been leaked onto IRC where it is beginning to spread like wildfire. There are no noticable changes to this build, Microsoft is currently fine tuning any bugs left in the betas and transforming the executables into client instead of debug (thats why the build now reads xpclient) MSN and Windows Media Player builds remain un-changed so this is most likely another bug-check build.

Also Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 and Internet Tools has been released for Win9x/NT/2000.  This release fixes an array of bugs found in the original 5.5 and SP1 release and is a welcome service pack upgrade for users who are not on the Public Preview of IE6.

Download Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 and Internet Tools. The newest version of Internet Explorer includes improved support for DHTML and CSS, which gives Web architects greater control over browser appearance and behavior. Enjoy the ability to preview Web pages exactly as they appear when printed. Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 (SP2) makes it easier than ever to connect to the Internet and find the information you need. With Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2, you can use Connection Manager as your default dialer when Dial-Up Networking is already installed.

Good news Pocket PC fans: A market analysis firm announced this week that Microsoft Windows CE-based platform would dominate current market leader Palm. The bad news? It won't happen until 2005, which is eons away in computer time. The Aberdeen Group says that handheld PC sales will grow 30 percent each year for the foreseeable future and that the Pocket PC's benefits in the enterprise will be the deciding factor. We'll see.

From WinInfo Short Takes: Week of August 6

Speed improvements to standard computer technology will allow Dell Computer to take on high-end server competitors such as IBM and Sun Microsystems in 2002, a Dell senior executive said Wednesday.

Dell is currently locked out of the market for high-end servers, which draw on the power of dozens of computer processors by linking them through a technique called symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP). SMP uses various high-speed communication technologies to connect the CPUs, which can then collectively handle heavy-duty tasks, such as managing Wal-Mart's orders or processing Goldman Sachs' trades. With its most powerful machine being a relatively small eight-processor system, Dell hasn't been able to tackle the high-end market and its masses of CPUs.

Microsoft likes to talk about how its new Windows XP operating system will power up a new level of digital-music possibilities on your PC. But some of these features have more to do with what the recording industry is asking for than what music fans want. The changes go beyond the role of MP3 files in XP's Windows Media Player software. Microsoft has already drawn some boos for leaving out the ability to encode songs in the popular format. Although XP's software, like earlier versions, can play back MP3 files, users will have to plug in extra-cost third-party software to create MP3s.

David Byrne Featured at WindowsMedia.com in Private Concert Setting. Premieres Wednesday, Aug. 2, at 7 p.m. EDT, and available on demand through August 2001.

The hour-long concert includes live versions of songs from Byrne's recently released album on Virgin Records, "Look Into the Eyeball," as well as new versions of Byrne favorites from his days with the band Talking Heads and his work as a solo artist. 

Concert is not that great. Once you launch WMP, fast forward 5 min to start hearing David Byrne play. More Info on this concert.

Intel President Craig Barrett said this week that the computer industry has moved past the worst of its current sales problems, although a long-term solution hinges on the global economy, which has been threatening to enter a recession for months. "The computer industry has bottomed out," Barrett said during a trip to Malaysia. He noted that the demand for PCs is expected to take off once again in the fourth quarter, after Microsoft releases Windows XP. That's good news for Intel, which makes 80 percent of its revenues selling the microprocessors that drive PCs. Intel has had to lower its sales forecasts for three quarters in a row.

Microsoft Corp. this week unveiled the first fruits of its $36 million purchase of NCompass Labs Inc. in April. The Redmond, Wash., software giant announced the availability of its Content Management Server 2001, a rollout of three editions that puts Microsoft squarely into the content management arena.

Microsoft is getting into an area dominated by the likes of Vignette Corp., BroadVision Inc. and Interwoven Inc, although Chris Ramsey, a Microsoft product manager for the content management server, said there are key differences. Among them are that Microsoft's product is built with Microsoft technology -- it's based on Windows 2000 with COM-based publication APIs -- while competitors' systems are built for Unix using Java.

Lunix's only good chance to get into Desktops is gone, after largest PC maker, DELL, trashes the OS from notebooks and desktops. Yes!, excellent!, hehehehe!

Dell Computer has ceased shipping Linux on its desktop and notebook PCs.

Citing slow demand for the operating system on client PCs over the last several quarters, a Dell spokesman said the PC maker chose to stop preinstalling Red Hat Linux on desktop and notebook models.

The move was not unexpected. Dell executives have suggested that the operating system has more potential for workstations and servers. The desktop decision was largely a financial one, influenced by the slow PC market, said Dell spokesman David Graves.

An appeals court refused on Thursday to reconsider its decision that Microsoft illegally mingled its Windows operating system and Internet browser, handing the software giant a setback in its four-year antitrust battle with the government.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied Microsoft's request in a brief order, clearing the way for the case to be sent back to a lower court to decide Microsoft's penalty for being an illegal monopoly.

"Nothing in the court's opinion is intended to preclude the District Court's consideration of remedy issues,'' the appellate judges said.