WinInsider

Well at least they named it right. Sun Microsystems' low-cost Sun Ray workstation ships with an interesting feature: When you shut down such a system, it will occasionally make a popping sound and smoke will billow out of the ventilation holes. No, it's not catching on fire (and no, it's not announcing the arrival of a new Pope), but Sun has fixed the problem anyway. The defect affects only the original Sun Ray 1, and not the newer Sun Ray 100 and 200 models.

Microsoft has independently settled its antitrust case with New Mexico, eliminating one of the 19 states participating with the Justice Department in the landmark lawsuit.

"We're pleased to have resolved this matter with the state of New Mexico, and we thank Attorney General Patsy Madrid for her leadership in hammering out this agreement," said Microsoft spokesman Vivek Varma. "And we're committed to working with the federal government and the remaining state AGs to resolve the remaining issues of the case."

Answer to the question: Why Microsoft has changed its Windows Licensing terms?

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Microsoft jumped into the online music fray Thursday with a deal to offer Pressplay, an online service formed by music giants Vivendi Universal and Sony, on its MSN network.

The deal caps months of negotiations between the three giants, making content from two of the world's largest music companies, Vivendi Universal and Sony, available to MSN's approximately 5 million subscribers.

Terms were not disclosed. Company officials said the deal with Microsoft is similar to its affiliate deal with Yahoo that will enable users to stream music and eventually download it. Pressplay is expected to launch its music subscription joint venture later this summer.

Despite that little run-in with the Justice Department, Microsoft never liked browsers. Instead, it has longed to make Windows and Microsoft desktop applications the user interface for the Internet experience. With its sprawling .Net initiative, launched last year, Microsoft may finally get its wish.

With .Net, Microsoft proposes a kind of Internet operating system for a new breed of distributed applications that rely on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), the universal specification for sharing data and processing services among computers of any stripe. Bill Gates himself describes .Net as "simply Microsoft's platform for XML." But it's more than that, because .Net not only intends to define the XML-based operating system, but also to supply a host of powerful applications that run on top of it. Sound familiar?

Microsoft on Wednesday said it would report better-than-expected sales for the fourth quarter, but added it would log an investment loss of $2.6 billion. Additionally, the software giant said earnings from operations would fall in line with its previous guidance excluding one-time items. First Call consensus predicts a profit of 42 cents a share. Including charges, Microsoft expects to report a profit of a penny per share. Shares of Microsoft moved up $5.92 to $70.40, or 9 percent on the Island ECN.

Just days after Amazon.com revealed packaging and pricing for Windows XP, the company has been forced by Microsoft to remove the product from its Web site. The company admitted that it had posted the information too early, noting the final pricing had yet to be determined. According to Amazon's site earlier this week, Windows XP Home Edition will cost $99 and $199.99 for the upgrade and full versions respectively, while XP Professional will cost $199.99 and $299.99.

A German copy-protection company has published details of Microsoft's technology for preventing casual copying of Windows XP but concluded the technology allows for reasonable upgrades and doesn't threaten customers' privacy. "We contribute technical facts to a discussion that is currently characterized by uncertainty and speculation about XP," Thomas Lopatic, chief technology officer for the company and an active member of the security community, said in a statement. In a paper published on the Web on Monday, start-up company Fully Licensed found there's little to fear.

In 1996, America Online carpet-bombed the nation with 3.5-inch floppy disks in a battle to build its brand and grab more of the online services market. At the same time, Microsoft waged "the Browser Wars," the media's moniker for the struggle between established Netscape Navigator and upstart Internet Explorer. In those days, the two companies were vicious rivals. AOL then helped sow the seeds that blossomed into the government antitrust suit against Microsoft. AOL Chairman Steve Case hammered Microsoft, demanding equal access to the consumer's computer desktop, referring to it as the "dial tone" of the online services industry. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates volleyed back, quoted as saying he would either buy AOL or bury it.

AOL Time Warner may miss the chance to bundle its online service software with Windows XP, according to sources close to negotiations between the media giant and Microsoft. Because there are still technical issues to be worked out to ensure the AOL software is compatible with Windows XP, the two companies must resolve their differences soon, said sources close to the negotiations. Resolving the technical problems would be contingent on reaching a broader business agreement, the sources said. Microsoft and AOL Time Warner are engaged in talks to renew a five-year bundling arrangement that expired in January. That agreement made Microsoft's Internet Explorer the default browser for the AOL service while guaranteeing the online software prominent placement on the Windows desktop.