Microsoft has set the official launch date of Windows Server 2003 to April 24, 2003. The operating system product family, which was recently renamed from Windows .NET Server 2003, will launch in San Francisco alongside Visual Studio 2003, the company says.
"Microsoft will unveil [Windows Server 2003 and Visual Studio 2003] and demonstrate how customers can quickly build, deploy and manage a complete server solution for connected platforms," Bob O'Brien, Windows Server Group Product Manager told me Thursday.
Microsoft and Panasonic Consumer Electronics on Thursday announced additional hardware and software makers who will support HighMAT, a technology co-developed by the two companies that aims to provide better interoperability between PCs and consumer electronics devices such as DVD players, CD players, and car stereos.
The technology aims to make it easier for consumers to take digital pictures, music, and video clips recorded onto optical media disks from their PCs and play them back on consumer devices. It should help to organize and play back content via a graphical interface on the consumer products, and as such could be a plus for consumers, said Richard Doherty, director of analyst company The Envisioneering Group, in Seaford, N.Y.
Addressing a hot-button issue among consumers, a maker of DVD-burning tools unveiled software designed to make discs recorded on Windows Media Center PCs compatible with standard DVD players. Sonic Solutions' MyDVD for Windows XP Media Center Edition, a new version of an existing program, and PrimeTime, an entirely new tool, will make TV shows burned to discs by way of Microsoft's specialized OS playable on most DVD players, Sonic said. Until now, people could generally only play such DVDs on PCs or players supporting Microsoft file formats--a restriction that chafed many users.
Proponents of MPEG-4 are decrying Microsoft's new licensing fees for rival technology, saying that the pricing poses unfair competition and threatens consumer choice.
In a first-ever move for Microsoft, it set pricing this week for licensing of its audio and video compression technology, or codecs, for use on non-Windows operating systems. The company says it will charge 10 cents per decoder, 20 cents per encoder, or 25 cents for both.
In comparison, MPEG LA--a consortium of companies holding patents attached to implementations of the MPEG-4 standard--charges 25 cents per encoder and decoder, or 50 cents for both--a fee structure finalized in November. MPEG-4 is an emerging standard for the delivery of digital media on PCs, DVDs and consumer electronics.
A slide presentation obtained by ENTmag.com suggests that Microsoft may not offer the Web Edition of Windows .NET Server 2003 through retail channels. The PowerPoint slide deck, which was being presented to customers by a major OEM and used the Microsoft logo, said, "The SKU will not be available through the retail channel. The plan is for OEM, System Builder and NSP availability."
Asked to comment on the slide deck, a Microsoft spokeswoman said, "[Microsoft hasn't] determined whether it will be OEM or retail. There's not a decision yet on how Web Edition is going to be sold."
Microsoft on Thursday again changed the name of the product, marking the fourth name for what will now be called Windows Server 2003. The successor to Windows 2000 Server is scheduled to ship in April.
Microsoft was making no technology change with the name change. "It's purely a branding issue," he said. "They've had a lot of problem explaining .Net. Putting .Net on products in a willy-nilly way only exacerbates the problem. They've certainly been guilty of that, and this is a way of policing that."
In making this and eventually other name changes, the Redmond, Wash.-based company hopes to put more emphasis on the ".Net Connected," logo program for Web services. In the past, Microsoft has used logo programs for products such as Windows XP or Windows Powered portable devices to ensure compliance with standards established by Microsoft. Software developers, for example, must meet certain criteria for their products to receive the Windows XP logo.
Instead of arguing that Windows is better than Linux, Microsoft has begun trying to show that open-source software is more expensive to support and maintain. Ironically, Microsoft hopes to beat back a basically free open-source operating system by showing that Windows has a lower total cost of ownership.
A recent Microsoft-commissioned study performed by IDC found that to be the case. And there seems to be some support for the notion: Open-source advocate Bruce Perens, for one, notes that the study points out legitimate issues with Linux.
But making Windows' case based on business value instead of technology leadership is a big change of strategy. It may be working: The latest predictions point to a slowdown for Linux in 2003, while Windows server sales will increase. And we're all still waiting for the Linux desktop.
Microsoft announced expanded support for its media ventures on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show 2003 in Las Vegas. The software giant said 11 new companies have bought into its new High-performance Media Access Technology (HighMAT), which makes it easier to move digital content between PCs and electronics devices such as CD players, car stereos and DVD players.
New supporters include consumer-device manufacturers such as Apex Digital and Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics Industries, and software developers such as Ahead Software, B.H.A. and Pinnacle Systems, according to Microsoft.
Consumer-electronics devices have traditionally differed from PCs in the way they display and open digital files, making crossover use of CDs, for example, a random and confusing experience for consumers. HighMAT is designed to smooth that translation.
AOL Time Warner is expected to write off several billion dollars -- on top of the record $54 billion charge it took last year -- increasing the strain on its balance sheet, analysts and investors say. The world's largest media company said in October it was probable it would take a "substantial" noncash goodwill impairment charge in the fourth quarter to reflect the reduced value of its America Online unit since its 2001 merger with Time Warner.
Large charges "could very well have material impact on debt covenants because it erodes net worth and net worth has some meaning in the world of debt covenants," said Robert Willens, an accounting specialist at Lehman Bros. "It reduces shareholder equity."
Touting an array of "smart" watches and portable video players, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is offering further evidence that the world's largest software company sees slick consumer gadgets as computing's future. Gates addressed the opening session of the International Consumer Electronics Show last night. The gathering includes thousands of vendors hawking the latest in everything from televisions to robots.
Next fall, watchmakers Fossil, Citizen and Finland's Suunto plan to begin selling wristwatches equipped with a chip that can receive a constant, low-bandwidth stream of data over the FM radio spectrum, Microsoft officials said.