Microsoft is mulling a "lite" version of the forthcoming Small Business Server (SBS) 2003, priced at less than $1,000. For more than a year, Microsoft's next version of SBS, code-named Bobcat, has been the subject of heated internal debate about the product's components and pricing, said sources close to the company. The current plan is to get the price to less than the "magic" price point of $999 and include Windows Server 2003, the forthcoming Titanium version of Exchange, SharePoint Team Services and fax-sharing capabilities, sources said. Microsoft also is mulling two versions of SBS 2003, sources said.
Beta 2 of SBS 2003 shipped in December without SQL Server or Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) servers, sources said. Microsoft may drop SQL to reduce costs and cut ISA because of potential security breaches with Internet Information Services in the Windows 2003 Server, sources said.
So-called security experts are now damning Microsoft's entire Trustworthy Computing initiative because of fallout from the SQL Slammer worm, which brought the Internet to its knees last weekend by compromising a vulnerability in SQL Server 2000 (SQL Server 7 and other Microsoft products were also affected). Certainly, the worm was ill-timed for the company, coming as it did just a year after it announced the Trustworthy Computing initiative, but does one worm really break a company-wide movement? Sound-bite friendly Russ Cooper is one security expert who thinks so. "Trustworthy Computing is failing," he said this week. "I gave it a 'D-minus' at the beginning of the year, and now I'd give it an 'F."' Them's fighting words, Russ, and I suspect Microsoft takes issue with your grading system, as they should. Certainly, Trustworthy Computing is an ongoing effort, but locked down products such as Windows Server 2003 (and its bundled IIS 6.0) and Exchange Server, shipping this year, show how the company is focusing on security. I don't think a single vulnerability--especially one that was patched several times, regardless of how difficult it was--proves otherwise. And anyone saying so now is just trying to grab any easy headline.
A French court has granted a six-month bankruptcy protection period to Linux seller MandrakeSoft, the company said Wednesday. The French Commercial Court confirmed the observation and protection period on Monday and appointed an administrator to assist the company, said co-founder, chairman and former CEO Jacques Le Marois in a statement.
"MandrakeSoft welcomes this latest news as a positive step to achieving solid financial restructuring which will make the company profitable," the company said. Mandrake filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks ago in an attempt to restructure its debts. The company also might try to raise more money, Le Marois said.
IIS 6.0 isn't in final form yet, but that doesn't mean it's not in use. In fact, one of the largest managed hosting companies in the world has been using it for two years now-and not just on a test network. Digex Inc., headquartered in Laurel, Maryland, is a close partner of Microsoft and has been using IIS 6.0 since January 2001. Digex has been using it on some production machines, including their main Web site, www.digex.com, since the beta 3 version was released about 10 months ago. That's confidence in a product.
And what do they think of IIS 6.0? "It's working fantastic," said Senior Engineer Dan Kahler. "Prior to moving to IIS 6, we had regular service tickets" relating to problems with its use of IIS 5.0. Since the switch, "Our reliability has been outstanding," he said.
Microsoft will "radically" change its online authentication and eWallet service, dubbed Passport, in response to suggestions by the European Commission (EC), the commission announced this morning. Thanks to the changes, Microsoft will not face sanctions in Europe, where Passport was being investigated by privacy and security regulators. Also, the changes will help Passport conform to the strict data protection rules required by European Union (EU) countries.
Officials from Microsoft and Sun Microsystems debated the merits of their companies' respective Web services development platforms Wednesday, with a Microsoft executive taking a more combative stance than his Sun counterpart in pitting .Net against Java. Speaking at the OMG Integrate.2000 conference, Microsoft's Dave Wright, .Net Solutions architect in San Francisco and a former Java programmer, said Java is a "wonderful language" but has limitations in virtual machine and language constructs.
Microsoft's Web services plan relies on the company's Common Language Runtime (CLR) to serve as a virtual machine, he said. Java, Wright explained, is not good for purposes such as development of real-time applications, graphics programs, and Perl development.
Ted Turner is resigning as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner, capping a tumultuous year for the beleaguered media giant. The announcement came just shortly after the company reported a net loss of $98.7 billion for 2002. Those results included a $45.5 billion fourth-quarter charge related primarily to depreciation in the value of its America Online unit, as well as a first-quarter charge of $54 billion in accordance with changes in accounting rules. Turner will step down in May, joining Steve Case, who announced earlier this month that he is resigning as chairman.
As expected, the company's online division reported disappointing financial results. America Online's EBITDA declined 11 percent during the quarter while its revenue decreased. EBITDA for 2002 dropped 22 percent while revenue slipped 4 percent. AOL's problems went beyond weakness in advertising and e-commerce, with its subscriber base slipping to 35.2 million from 35.3 million in the third quarter of 2002.
The fierce rivalry between Microsoft and Oracle took a distinctly Seattle turn yesterday when the world's two largest software companies engaged in a coffee battle at the Westin hotel. Oracle was hosting 300 customers and software developers at a breakfast seminar in the Seattle hotel's fourth-floor ballroom. It sweetened the deal with pastries and urns of Starbucks drip coffee. Microsoft found out about the seminar, wheeled an espresso cart into the ballroom lobby and tried luring customers with free drinks.
"We thought we'd drop in and serve some lattes," said David Siroky, product manager on the team that works with Microsoft's Exchange server, software that manages e-mail and other corporate communications functions.
Microsoft has filed complaints against six resellers in the Southwest and Ohio for allegedly distributing counterfeit copies of Windows and Office. As the software giant continues its battle against piracy, on Jan. 21 it filed a slew of lawsuits against resellers in Arizona, New Mexico and Ohio, Microsoft's legal department said Tuesday. Two of the cases--one in New Mexico and another in Ohio--involved raids by the local police and FBI, said Mary Jo Schrade, a corporate attorney at Microsoft.
In the Southwest, Microsoft filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona against Continental Business Systems in Mesa and Tempe, Ariz., for allegedly distributing counterfeit components of Office 97, Office Pro 2000, Windows 98 SE, Windows Millennium, Windows NT Workstation and Exchange. The reseller also has conducted business on the Web under the names Software 1.net, Omni Harbor Software and A&S Associates, Microsoft said.
A Microsoft legal document put a late 2004 expected ship date on the next client version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn," putting in black and white what Microsoft officials have been telling partners, customers and reporters in private conversations. ".NET will not be included by default in Windows until the next version of Windows, expected to be released in late 2004," Microsoft lawyers wrote in legal filings last week.
The legal filings were appeals in the private antitrust lawsuit brought by Sun Microsystems against Microsoft. At issue was U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz' order for Microsoft to include Sun's Java Runtime Environment with all copies of Windows and Internet Explorer by June 4.