Microsoft will be beefing up its server and development tools offerings to better support enterprise customers, provide for tighter integration and drive down costs while driving up usage, said Eric Rudder, senior vice president of the company's server and tools business.
As part of a product roadmap Rudder presented at the Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting here Thursday, he said the company would be delivering a version of Windows Server in the Longhorn timeframe, known as Longhorn Server. He also said Microsoft is working on an enhanced Web services platform known as Indigo. Rudder also announced new audit and collection services and a "Bear Paw" terminal server to be added to the server system family of products.
Two vehicles, formerly the toys of a Microsoft director indicted for selling more than $9 million worth of software he stole from the company, are set to be auctioned today in Kenmore. A 1995 AM General Hummer and a 1995 355RB Berlinetta Ferrari once owned by Daniel Fuessner will be sold by James G. Murphy Co. Fuessner, 32, was charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and computer fraud when he ordered high-end Microsoft software intended only for use at work but then resold it and kept the proceeds.
With the regulatory reins somewhat loosened, Microsoft is moving ahead with plans to more tightly integrate the development of Windows, Office and its other programs. As for Longhorn, Gates did not provide a date for the final version, but other executives said the first full beta, or test, version will ship next year. The operating system will feature a new filing system as well as a revamped user interface.
"It's a big bet for us. We don't know the exact timeframe," Gates told analysts. "It's clearly many years of work we are engaging in."
One of the concerns of the tighter integration, analysts have said, is that Microsoft's product releases are increasingly tied to one another. If one product is delayed, there is a good chance that other launches could be pushed back as well.
Database maker Oracle warned customers on Wednesday of three new flaws in its products and reiterated its warning to businesses of a fourth flaw that uses the company's application server. The two most serious vulnerabilities were in the firm's E-Business Suite, Oracle's set of server applications for managing everything from accounting to Intranets. Both were given the highest of three threat ratings assigned by Oracle to its products' vulnerabilities.
"Our rating system is based upon likelihood of exploitation and risk of damage if the issue were exploited," said John Heimann, director of security product management for Oracle. "Either of these issues is exploitable and could result in damage if exploited."
Longhorn, the next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows desktop operating system, will be so different from its predecessors that users may not like it right away, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said Thursday.
"Longhorn is a bit scary. ... We have been willing to change things," Gates said while trying to eat a fruit salad and drink a Diet Coke during lunch at Microsoft's annual financial analyst meeting at the company's Redmond, Washington, headquarters.
"It (Longhorn) should drive a whole range of upgrades, but that could be sort of delayed," Gates said. Because of differences with the previous versions of Windows, it could be a year or two after its release before computer users really pick up Longhorn, he said.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said the intellectual property battle between SCO and IBM is hurting the business of Linux. Gates, speaking to financial analysts at the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters Thursday, said it's unclear if Microsoft is benefiting from customer worries about the liability of deploying Linux when the lawsuit between SCO and IBM hasn't been resolved.
However, Gates said the controversy has exposed a fundamental weakness of Linux--that the General Public License (GPL) makes it difficult for companies to engage in the cross-licensing deals that have become standard in the software industry.
That's a big Achilles heel, Gates said.
Paul Thurrott has put together interesting summary of all the info from
Microsoft 2003 Financial Analysts Meeting. Here is only one excerpt...
Longhorn Not Just Windows, But Next Generation
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates got the day going with a pie-in-the-sky view of the company's objectives moving forward, but the most interesting thing he said concerned Longhorn, which the company views more as a platform generation than a single product. That is, there won't be just a Longhorn client release (and, yes, the corresponding server release as first reported right here in WinInfo), but also corresponding releases of Microsoft Office and other products. "Longhorn is the next generation; it's a big bet for us," Gates said. "We don't know the exact time frame of it. It's clearly many years of work that we're engaging in. We're very excited about the prototypes we've built, and some of the early technology proofs that we have. We've got a major advance in the user interface [Aero], a major advance in the API [Avalon]. It has this new storage capability [WinFS], it's got Web services as sort of a built-in piece of the platform, and it's very oriented around scenarios, making
it easy to manage workflows, making it easy to manage contacts. For our customer, taking the idea of the way you deal with photos and music and just unifying those into the single storage metaphor. Longhorn is not just a release of the Windows client, it's also a release where in the same time frame you'll have advances in Office, our server products, virtually everything at Microsoft is synchronized to build on this platform in, and take advantage of that." And lest you still not understand that Longhorn is a huge release, consider CEO Steve Ballmer's comments about the release. "There needs to be periodic big bangs," he said. "That's how we think about Longhorn."
Here is outline of the rest...
- MS Financial Analysts Meeting (MSFAM): Gates, Execs Talk Up Future Advances
- Longhorn Beta 1 Still on Track for 2004
- Longhorn in 2005?
- Windows 9x, NT 4 Still Huge
- Windows XP SP2 This Year
- New Version of Plus! Digital Media Edition on the Way
- Making the Money
- Investing in People, R&D
- Microsoft, Linux, and Security
- There's More
- AOL Inflated Its Subscriber Numbers
- Microsoft Relaxes Licensing Rules
- Apple Takes Down Switch Ads
That's how Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer responded to the notion that technology no longer has the potential to transform lives and make people more productive. At a meeting with financial analysts here, Ballmer said much of the potential gains technology has to offer have yet to be realized.
"Unrealized, unrealized, unrealized, unrealized," Ballmer said, offering a low-key self-parody of his famous "developers, developers" speech. "We just look out there like kids in a candy store saying what a great world (this is) to live in. The world is there to be transformed."
Ballmer's booming voice and boundless enthusiasm offered a stark contrast to the sea of PowerPoint presentations and the smattering of demos that punctuated the rest of the day-long gathering of financial analysts.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said his company is exploring ways to develop a music download service similar to Apple Computer's iTunes that would tie into the software giant's multimedia applications.
A Windows Media Player-based digital music store, whether provided by Microsoft itself or by partners, would be a steep hurdle for Apple as it pursues plans to push its own popular iTunes music service into the PC market.
Responding to questions at an analyst meeting here Thursday, Gates indicated that any music store project would be more a matter of providing computer users with added convenience--and presumably, keeping people using Microsoft software--rather than a direct moneymaker.
"It's maybe a feature your platform should offer, but it's not like you're going to make some (big) markup," Gates said.
Microsoft made clear on Thursday that it has no intention of distributing any of its $62.7 billion cash-and-investment stockpile to shareholders until the legal risks posed to the company have been removed.
Regarding reports that it was considering giving up to $10 billion of this back to shareholders through a dividend payment, Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer John Connors said the company had declared its first-ever dividend in January and had repurchased $24 billion in stock over the past four years.