Is Microsoft Corp.'s string of legal triumphs about to end as the venue shifts to Europe? The software giant emerged virtually unscathed in November from an eight-year battle with U.S. federal and state authorities over how its violations of antitrust laws should be rectified. But it may not fare as well in another major antitrust case, now entering its final phase at European Union headquarters in Brussels. Much of the relevant law is tougher in Europe than in America. Also, the top European regulator, a silver-haired Italian economist named Mario Monti, is a formidable adversary whose past victims include General Electric's legendary former chairman Jack Welch.
Thanks to WMLAH.com for this one!
Microsoft has become the company that the computer industry loves to hate. It's downright fashionable these days to blame everything on the "convicted monopolist." But that attitude also serves as a convenient vendor smoke screen that distracts the industry from more important issues such as building good products, listening to the customer and developing new technologies. Is Microsoft truly responsible for everyone's failures in this industry? To listen to its competitors, one might think so.
Vendors that can't compete have always needed someone to blame, someone to sue. Why not Microsoft? What other reason could explain why competitors' "technically superior" products fail to catch on? How about this: Many vendors are so cocksure that they know what's best for corporate IT that they fail to listen to what IT managers really want. Instead, they try to force-feed managers technologies they don't need. Microsoft has no monopoly on arrogance.
A year after introducing Visual Studio .Net, Microsoft Corp. is expected to offer showgoers sneak peeks of the next two versions of its integrated tool suite at the VSLive developers conference in San Francisco this week. The company will highlight the momentum behind its flagship development tool, along with the .Net Framework and the overall .Net and XML Web services strategy. Microsoft is also expected to demonstrate its "Everett" Visual Studio .Net release, which is due to ship April 24 along with Windows Server 2003, as well as its "Yukon" Visual Studio .Net release, which is more than a year away from delivery, said Microsoft officials, in Redmond, Wash.
Microsoft's Windows updates have often been a mixed bag, fixing one problem and causing others, but there's one available that deserves a look.
Windows Media Player 9 Series is available for Windows XP (news - web sites). Me, 2000 and 98 SE. and it's a free download that accomplishes three goals not always met:
- It works as advertised.
- It doesn't mess up anything else.
- It's kind of nifty.
The look is less boxy and certainly slicker. And it will go full-screen for both video and music. If you're into playing music from your PC, the player works with just about every available medium, and, for audio, has a sophisticated queue manipulation for multiple playbacks. Cross-fading and auto volume level let the end of one tune blend into the beginning of another and adjust the volume between tracks so the output volume is constant.
At the VSLive developer show in San Francisco this week, Microsoft will demonstrate the next two Visual Studio .NET versions, including Visual Studio .NET 2003 (code-named "Everett"), which will ship April 24 alongside Windows Server 2003. And because Microsoft is targeting all future Visual Studio releases to its major platform releases, the next version of Visual Studio, code-named Whidbey, will ship in early 2004 with the "Yukon" release of SQL Server. After that, the next version will ship with Windows "Longhorn" in late 2004 or early 2005.
"Visual Studio .NET 2003 is a reassurance for customers," Dan Hay, Lead Product Manager in Microsoft's Developer Division, told me recently. "The tools are improving, and we're listening to feedback. But [the product is] not improving or changing dramatically. The 'Yukon' release of Visual Studio is the next release, and it's a major, substantial release."
Microsoft on Monday announced the official name for the next member of its Office family, formerly code-named XDocs, and said a standards body for the healthcare industry is advocating use of the application as a way to help streamline medical records systems. Now officially called InfoPath, the application aims to make it easy for end-users to edit forms using the XML programming language. The forms can be used to extract and send business data to and from business applications running on back-end systems, and can help cut down on paperwork and reduce errors associated with manual data entry, according to Microsoft.
The judge in the U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft has ruled that two attempts to appeal the case, including one from a consumer group, cannot move forward. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Friday denied two motions to intervene for purposes of appeal, one from Consumers for Computing Choice (CCC) and the other from Robert E. Litan, vice president and director of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank.
CCC filed the motion in December arguing that the proposed settlement between Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Justice and several states would harm consumers. CCC had argued that the settlement didn't go far enough in opening Microsoft source code to outside developers.
Microsoft touts a credo of "information anywhere, anytime and on any device," but the explosion of hot wireless devices from rivals is testing the patience of customers who depend on Windows software and Web services. Microsoft strategists claim that information that sits on Windows computers can best be seen on other Windows-compatible devices, but also are meant to be accessible on non-Microsoft gadgets, from Internet screens to mobile phones.
The world's No. 1 software maker has repeatedly said it supports the industry's highest standards of openness. Officials sit on technology standards-setting bodies that determine how mobile devices, digital music and instant messaging can be made to work together harmoniously, regardless of the device.
Microsoft next week plans to give a bevy of close partners, customers and ISVs an in-depth look at Yukon, its next-generation database, the company confirmed Friday. Attendees of the sneak preview will get a detailed tour but will not leave with beta code in hand, company sources said.
A spokeswoman reiterated Microsoft's plan to ship beta one of the technology in the first half of 2003. At least one product team member got more specific last month when he told Mark Shainman, an analyst at Meta Group, that the vendor's goal was to get beta software out to 1,500 partners and customers in February or March.
Avcom Technologies has decided to exit the IT solution provider space on its own terms. The Sunnyvale-based company is ceasing operations because it can no longer make money selling Sun Microsystems-based solutions, President and CEO Brad Bishop said in a statement on the company's Web site. Avcom still has money in the bank, according to the statement. Several Sun solution providers have gone out of business or filed for bankruptcy in the past two years.