Asustek Computer predicts the Eee PC it has started selling with Microsoft Windows XP Home edition on board will outsell the original Linux-based version by a
ratio of 6 to 4 in the market by the end of this year, a heady prediction considering the Windows machine costs nearly twice
as much as the cheapest Linux one.
The company has forecast Eee PC shipments at around 5 million units this year. Based on the 6-to-4 ratio the company predicts, Asus could ship around 3 million Windows
Eee PCs and 2 million Linux ones.
It's not always easy persuading politicians on Capitol Hill to take up items on Silicon Valley's wish list, even if you're Bill Gates and his posse. That was one message that the Microsoft chairman and Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie had on Thursday for the some 1,100 local business and government representatives gathered at a breakfast here sponsored by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. (NVTC's board includes companies like IBM, Micron, Unisys, AOL, Sprint Nextel, and, of course, Microsoft.)
The coming decade will bring even more advances in software and computing than the last 10 years, bringing new ways to watch
television, to use telephones and to input information into computers, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates predicted Thursday.
Changes in software and computing over the next 10 years will be "very substantial" and will permeate all facets of life,
Gates told a crowd of about 1,100 people during a Northern Virginia Technology Council breakfast in Washington, D.C. Computers
and software have changed how people take photographs and purchase music, but other industries will be affected just as much
in coming years, he said.
The Microsoft Learning Group has released three new exams for Windows Server 2008. All three are available worlwide at Prometric testing centers. The release comes quickly on the heels of the official release of Microsoft's newest network operating system software in Los Angeles at the end of February.
70-640 TS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring
70-642 TS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring
70-643 TS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuring
Microsoft recommends that candidates taking these exams have at least a year of experience implementing and administering a Windows Server networking environment that has at least 250 users spread over at least three physical locations and three or more domain controllers.
The Office Open XML format may not have gotten ISO's final blessing as an open standard yet, but Microsoft is finalizing plans to release a software development kit for it anyway.
Microsoft plans to put out the final beta of the OOXML SDK next month, and release Version 1.0 in May, according to Doug Mahugh, a technical evangelist at Microsoft. The final SDK beta and related information will be available at openxmldeveloper.org, openxmlcommunity.org, and microsoft.com.
End-user adoption is often cited as a key stumbling block in ERP and CRM implementations. But
Microsoft is asserting that improvements in its Dynamics line of software will have users swooning with passion, not seething
with frustration.
"About two years ago, I started making the claim within Dynamics not to just be the best in the industry, but really make
something people love," said Jakob Nielsen, principal user experience manager for Dynamics, at the company's Convergence conference
in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.
Microsoft continues to step up its virtualization push, with the acquisition of desktop virtualization management software
developer Kidaro.
Without disclosing a purchase price or when the deal is expected to close, Microsoft said it plans to acquire Kidaro and integrate
its technology into the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance.
Kidaro offers management technology aimed at making it easier for enterprises to deploy, use, and manage virtual PCs. The
platform comprises several components, including a client that handles encryption and firewall security and integrates the
virtual machine applications into the end-user computer.
You may not be able to get an early look at the next major release of Windows ? but the law can.
Microsoft recently submitted an early build of what has been referred to as Windows 7 to the Technical Committee ? the group of technology experts appointed by the Department of Justice and the other plaintiffs in Microsoft's U.S. antitrust settlement that oversee technical aspects of the case, according to court documents.
Discussion of Windows 7 showed up as part of the quarterly joint status report that Microsoft and the plaintiffs are required to file with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly so that she can monitor Microsoft's compliance with its 2002 consent decree.
Microsoft is trying to overturn a federal judge's order creating a nationwide class-action lawsuit that claims the company misled consumers about which computers can run its most advanced Vista operating system.
The company Friday filed papers seeking to challenge a Seattle federal judge's order recognizing a class of consumers who bought a personal computer certified by Microsoft as "Windows Vista capable" without indicating whether the machines could run the premium version of the software, its attorneys said.
U.K. companies' IT spending is likely to grow above inflation this year, with Windows Vista and mobile computing hardware
consuming much of the increase, a new study from the National Computing Centre has said.
The NCC's findings, based on a survey of 120 U.K. companies, contrasts with recent reports from the likes of IDC and Gartner.
IDC said that server expenditure could fall in 2008, while Gartner warned companies to begin cutting IT spending ahead of a possible recession.