Early alpha builds of Longhorn, the next Windows version, appear to have leaked to the Web, according to a group of Windows enthusiasts who are now using the product. The Longhorn builds, which are variously identified as "alpha" or M3 ("milestone 3"), show a side-mounted task pane, or sidebar, similar to the dashboard debuting this week as part of MSN 8. But in these alpha quality builds, the user interface is very much based on Luna, Windows XP's user interface, and does not include the 3D video layer that will adorn the final Longhorn product. Still, as an early peek at the company's post-XP work, the Longhorn alphas--if real--are interesting.
Microsoft Corp. has sent the first beta of Office 11, its next-version desktop productivity suite, to a core group of several thousand technical testers for evaluation, bug checking and comment. The Redmond, Wash., software company, which will announce the release of the beta on Tuesday, has high expectations for this Office upgrade, which it is targeting at the broad business user market rather than just at productivity workers as it has in the past.
It is also hoping that this wider target group and the business value the new features bring will drive sales of the software, which have begun to plateau over the past few quarters. In fact Jeff Raikes, Microsoft's group vice president of productivity and business services, has previously said he hopes to double revenue from Office to $20 billion by 2010.
Microsoft this week plans to deliver the first test release of a new version of its Office software intended to rejuvenate sales and stave off competitors. With Office 11, Microsoft's new strategy is to focus more on features targeted at businesses, as the company tries to expand its reach into larger customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.
With the greater use of XML in Office 11, customers may benefit from being able to generate XML documents that can be used with their own applications or those from other software developers. Microsoft could gain from XML services hooked to other products--such as .Net Server--that would extend Office's reach beyond the desktop.
Stratus believes in Windows. The company is backing one of its fault-tolerant servers with a $100,000 guarantee that the system will not crash when running Microsoft's Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Stratus announced Monday. Under the terms of the "Perfect Performance" program, Stratus will shell out the cash to any customer who experiences unplanned downtime from an operating system or hardware failure on its ftServer 6500 product, said James Gargan, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Stratus.
"One of the biggest concerns IT managers have is that more of their applications are becoming mission critical," Gargan said. "Microsoft customers are clamoring for this."
Microsoft may withdraw its Xbox video game console from the Australian market or seek new legal protections there as a result of a court decision that legitimizes "mod chips" for hackers, CEO Steve Ballmer said. Ballmer was commenting on a July ruling by a Federal Court of Australia judge who found that mod chips sold for Sony's PlayStation 2 game machine do not violate federal copyright rules outlawing devices primarily intended to bypass copyright-protection technology. Ballmer said the ruling threatens Microsoft's business strategy for the Xbox, which relies on licensing fees and other revenue from game sales to subsidize hardware manufacturing costs.
Mod chips have been a headache for game hardware makers for years, but Microsoft has been particularly aggressive in fighting the hacker tools. The company changed the innards of the Xbox partly to deter hackers, sought to hire an Xbox hacking expert and may use the upcoming Xbox Live online service to detect mod chips. Microsoft also joined with Sony and Nintendo in a recent action against one of the largest retailers of mod chips for numerous game devices.
Microsoft is giving a tune up to its Windows-branded operating system for use in car dashboards and expects to make a new version of the software available to car makers in the first half of 2003. The newly renamed Windows Automotive is a variation of the company's Windows CE operating system, which also makes up the foundation for software used to power handheld computers, smart phones and other devices. Microsoft first released its software for in-car computers in 1998 under the name Windows CE for Automotive.
Due for delivery to auto makers, suppliers and software developers early next year, Windows Automotive will include support for voice recognition and the wireless technology Bluetooth, the company said in a statement Monday.
The National Hockey League on Monday introduced a subscription service for digital video game highlights, in exclusive partnership with Microsoft. The sports league launched "The NHL Highlight Machine," its first-ever paid service. For $4.95 a month or $29.95 a season, hockey fans can search for and watch highlights from the 2002 season. In November, they will also be able to access classic games for up to $3 per view. NHL's digital division signed an exclusive deal to use Microsoft's Windows Media 9 series, the software makers' newest video-streaming and player technology. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Microsoft and Siebel Systems on Monday announced an alliance that will tie Siebel's customer relationship management software to Microsoft's .Net architecture. The alliance, which was widely expected, includes collaborative development, global marketing and sales, and support for corporate customers. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will deliver a keynote speech at a Siebel user conference later Monday.
The companies said the alliance is an expansion of an existing relationship, but that now Siebel's applications will be designed for .Net. Engineers from the two companies will work together to conduct benchmark tests and to integrate and cross-certify Siebel applications with Microsoft's software.
Microsoft still has yet to deliver the second release candidate (RC2) of Windows .Net Server 2003, but that doesn't mean work on the version of Windows due in 2005, code-named Longhorn, has come to a standstill. Over the weekend, a couple of Windows enthusiast Web sites, led by Winbeta.org, posted a handful of screen shots of an alleged early version of Longhorn. Several developer sources who said they had seen previous sneak peeks of Longhorn said the posted screens looked authentic. Microsoft did not respond by press time regarding the authenticity of the screen shots.
Longhorn is still in the pre-alpha stage. Microsoft has not announced a beta-release target date. But the Redmond, Wash.-based software vendor has been demonstrating Longhorn for some of its major customers and closest third-party software developers under nondisclosure, say sources.
Microsoft and Siebel will tighten their relationship with an agreement to jointly sell Siebel's customer management software on Microsoft's .NET platform, the companies said Monday. The two companies said they would each invest millions of dollars to create a worldwide collaborative selling and services entity to provide expert assistance from product evaluation and selection to installation, deployment and ongoing maintenance.
San Mateo, California-based Siebel is the leading maker of software that allows companies to manage their sales force and customers. The .NET platform is Microsoft's big Web services initiative, which allows data more freely flow between different computer systems.