WinInsider

Late Tuesday, Microsoft verified reports that it has pushed back the company's expected successor to Windows XP, code-named Blackcomb, and will develop an intermediate release called "Longhorn." Microsoft intends Blackcomb to be a major Windows release with full .NET user experience and integration with various Web services. And although Microsoft still plans to develop Blackcomb, the company now realizes that it can't hit the original late 2002 release date for such an ambitious product. So Longhorn will fill that gap, with an expected release in late 2002 or early 2003. Blackcomb will follow in 2003 or 2004.

After months of stock madness, IT values have been severely affected by what is modestly called the US economy's landing. We have stopped counting profit warnings, and start-up crashes. In fact, it was predictable that the incredible start-ups development would come to an end some day. Economically speaking it was a major mistake to have a company valued for virtually millions of dollars while this company was losing money on a daily basis. As a result worldwide markets ran out of steam realizing the harsh reality of our world. The NASDAQ has recently reached its lowest level for the greatest despair of investors. Worse yet, computer sales are falling down at the speed of light due to the manufacturer's inability to energize customer's enthusiasm about the benefits of new technologies. Last year, computers' sales dropped of 8% in the US for the first time in 15 years.

Microsoft President Rick Belluzzo outlined a vision of a high-speed Internet world with his company as its foundation Tuesday, in remarks aimed at cable industry executives. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company is betting much of its future on its ambitious .Net strategy, which involves moving many of its software products into a service mode, where customers might rent access to Office or subscribe to music from MSN. Because that strategy requires people to have more bandwidth than is reachable via simple dial-up modem connections to the Internet, the company has also turned into one of the biggest boosters of the high-speed Net, with a history of broadband investments.

The software maker plans to ship software development tools aimed at college-level computer science students, a move the company hopes will result in a new wave of software programmers loyal to its technology. Microsoft on Tuesday announced plans to ship by year's end a version of its forthcoming Visual Studio.Net tools with features specifically targeted to educational use. Visual Studio.Net is the new version of Microsoft's development tools that will allow people to write and build Web-based software and services.

Finally education system will see how in real world software development is done professionally.  I can not bare seeing crappie unix at my university. It just gets me on the edge.

Despite growing doubts about the value of the banner ad, Microsoft MSN -- Europe's most popular Web portal -- expects advertising revenue at its European business to rise by more than 50 percent over the next year. It predicts advertising will drive its European portal business for the next few years, Judy Gibbons, vice president of Microsoft MSN's Europe, Middle East and Africa division, told Reuters on Tuesday.

AOL Time Warner's dominant instant messaging service (IM), now under increased pressure from competitors, is conducting tests that will allow its users to communicate with people who use other products such as Microsoft's MSN Messenger.

With about 32 million users around the world, and expects that number to increase significantly once Windows XP is released. Jupiter said that in the United States, the MSN service had 18.4 million users in the latest month tallied.

Even as the furor over Windows XP grew Monday, negotiators for Microsoft and the government forces allied against it met in Washington D.C. to discuss a possible settlement in the company's antitrust case. The talks are the first since the June 28 Appellate Court ruling that affirmed most of the antitrust findings against the company, though a breakup order was overturned. Monday's meeting was described as "procedural." It was attended by Microsoft lawyers, DOJ antitrust chief Charles James, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. All declined to discuss the meeting.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday the company's software-as-service strategy will not generate significant profits for several years--a position that drew a hailstorm of criticism from the company's chief rival. Ballmer, who delivered the keynote speech at The Industry Standard's annual Internet Summit here, said the company's .Net program has about 3,500 corporate customers and may grow to as many as 7,000 clients in the next few years. However, Ballmer said, the effort isn't likely to immediately excite financial analysts or others on Wall Street.

Microsoft has just officially released the first post RC1 build of Windows XP to its set of beta testers. This new build 2520 is a step closer to the RC2 and fixes several bugs. At this point no new features will be added to Windows XP since the development team concentrates on fixing bugs.

Sources close to Microsoft today said that the code of Windows XP, the brand new operating system from Redmond, is expected to receive the 'gold' status in the early days of August. Rumours are stating the RC2 of Windows XP should be internally released later this week (some plan to see the RC2 unveiled this Wednesday). The representative, who wanted to stay anonymous, told us Windows XP should be released to manufacture on August 15th at worst. OEM will be the first to get their hands on the final code before the product will be launched worldwide, in an unprecedented hype on October 25th in an attempt to boost both computers' sales and market.