WinInsider

Hoping to play a larger role on the homeland security scene, Microsoft has created a new position to advise U.S. policymakers on information technology issues. The company said Wednesday it has tapped Thomas Richey, a retired U.S. Coast Guard officer, to fill the new post of federal director of homeland security at the company. After serving for 20 years in the Coast Guard, Richey retired in 2001 and became policy adviser to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in whose office he worked on homeland security and other issues. Microsoft said it created the post in order to help the government manage its IT systems and to make sure the different systems work together.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates coaxed Indian engineers on Wednesday to use his firm's proprietary software, dismissing threats to his Windows system from rival Linux in the battle over network computing. The world's richest man, on the third day of a trip to India, delivered a sales pitch in the nation's technology capital Bangalore, home to more than 1,000 software companies. Gates, who said on Tuesday that his firm would invest $400 million in India over three years on education, partnerships and boosting its own software center, used his Bangalore visit to promote Microsoft's .NET (dot-net) network platforms and tools.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Tuesday that the software giant was "dedicated from the top down" to meeting settlement guidelines from a federal antitrust ruling against the company. Ballmer's speech marked the first public remarks from a company executive about the antitrust case and its impact on the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. The CEO spoke at an event held at the Brookings Institute here. Ballmer described the settlement as "a fundamental part of what's different" at Microsoft. The antitrust rulings put "new obligations, responsibilities" on the company, he said.

Microsoft on Wednesday is expected to unveil a new instant messaging service aimed at corporate customers, jump-starting belated efforts by the software giant to tap a fast-growing, new market for the hugely popular technology. According to sources familiar with the product, MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises will add security, archiving and other message-management features sought by companies that are beginning to warm to the idea of allowing employees to conduct business over instant messaging (IM) networks.

Wednesday's release could act as a placeholder for the company while it puts the finishing touches on a more ambitious plan to develop corporate IM server technology. That product, code-named Greenwich, is still six months or more away from release.

Microsoft this week confirmed rumors that its next Windows release, code-named Longhorn, would be a desktop OS only, and not a synchronized release including both desktop and server versions as originally planned. Likewise, the Windows release following Longhorn, code-named Blackcomb, will be server-only. Microsoft did tell me, however, that while the company has not announced an official release date for Longhorn, the time table for its release hasn't changed, contrary to rumors. This means we'll see Longhorn in 2004 or 2005, depending on which Microsoft official you believe.

Projecting a warmer, gentler -- if not quite contrite -- corporate image, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer made his first public address since a federal court issued a decision in the antitrust suit that has dogged the company since 1998. In language bordering on therapeutic, Ballmer emphasized that Microsoft has learned and grown from the legal dispute, and he depicted the software leviathan's new mission as one about relationships, communication and sensitivity.

"As a company, as people, I think we've changed and grown over the past few years," Ballmer said Tuesday at a forum in Washington sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute.

Microsoft and Samsung on Monday announced they have teamed up to develop a design for low-cost handhelds, a market dominated by rival Palm. Devices based on the design will use Microsoft's Pocket PC software and Samsung's 200MHz ARM9-based S3C2410 application processor and will have 32MB of memory. The design also calls for a 3.5-inch color or black-and-white display, Secure Digital and SDIO support, and a petite 4.1-inch-by-2.8-inch, 2.9-ounce case.

The announcement with Samsung underscores Microsoft's recent emphasis on the low-end market. The software giant and its hardware partners have traditionally offered devices with advanced features to the corporate market, where prices tend to be in the $500 range. The high end of the market is a smaller segment compared with the low end, but profit margins are larger.

For its emerging line of hand-held computers, Dell Computer Corp. has spurned the hand-held software offered by Palm Inc. and instead chosen Microsoft Corp.'s Pocket PC software. The Dell Axim X5 hand-helds, which go on sale Monday for less than $300 -- after a $50 rebate -- aim to take market share from Microsoft-fueled devices made by competitors Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Casio. They will be manufactured in Taiwan by Wistron Corp., and include 300 or 400 MHz Intel Xscale processors, said Dell spokesman Cody Pinkston.

Display maker ViewSonic on Tuesday will release specifications for a new class of wireless computer displays running a custom operating system from Microsoft that will allow home users to walk away from their desks and still have access to data on their PCs. ViewSonic will release two versions of its wireless display in the first quarter of 2003, according to David Feldman, senior product manager for mobile and wireless at ViewSonic, in Walnut, Calif. The ViewSonic V110 will be a 10-inch monitor weighing in at 2.5 pounds and priced at $999. A second, 15-inch version called the ViewSonic V150 will weigh 8.8 pounds and cost $1,299, Feldman said.

These are happy days in Redmond, Washington, with Microsoft having defeated, coopted, or survived the Department of Justice, depending on what side of the issue you stand. Microsoft shares are surging, and the future seems bright with only a few more legal speed bumps in the way. There are the private anti-trust suits from AOL/Netscape, Sun, and others. There are a few class-action lawsuits still pending in California, where Microsoft runs afoul of a state anti-trust law. And there are the inevitable patent infringement cases that have dogged Microsoft for years. These latter lawsuits are the topic of this column.

The only part of the final judgment I like is the part most Microsoft foes hate the most. Instead of a panel of three outside observers to monitor Microsoft's compliance with the judgment, the compliance officer will be one person chosen by Microsoft from its own ranks. While this would appear to be a matter of having the fox guard the hen house, the judgment specifically makes the Microsoft board of directors personally responsible for compliance. So if the compliance officer, in a moment of weakness, looks the other way as Microsoft crushes an opponent in violation of the judgment, Gates, Ballmer, Shirley and the others will have to pay, personally. I like that.