Microsoft has delayed the third service pack for Windows 2000--Service Pack 3 (SP3)-for an indefinite period of time, according to internal documents I viewed over the weekend. Win2K was originally due July 17, but Microsoft recently discovered several major bugs in its Microsoft Installer (MSI) 2.0 code, which was to have been bundled with the update. So now the company will remove MS 2.0 from SP3 and include the older version, MSI 1.1, instead, unless feedback from its beta testers and partners indicates that MSI 2.0 must be included. This indecision, obviously, will adversely affect the release schedule for SP3.
While the MSI mess is resolved, Microsoft is indefinitely delaying the SP3 release. "This will have a bad hit to [the] Win2K SP3 schedule," the email reads. "[So] we will not be able to release an escrow build today [which would have previously been considered a release candidate]. We will roll out a new schedule early [this] week." I have yet to hear where the new schedule places the final SP3 release, but build 3.149, which was released last week, is not the final build. I'll have more information about the Win2K SP3 release as it becomes available.
Intel's latest foray into 64-bit computing--the Itanium 2--is now widely available in workstation and server systems today, the company says. The Itanium 2 follows its lackluster predecessor by a year, offering faster processing speeds and other internal improvements, which Intel says sets the chip apart from its Sun and AMD competition. Sun has dominated the 64-bit space for some time, while AMD's recently announced 64-bit Opteron line has some interesting backers, including David Cutler, the architect of Windows NT. Intel, however, says that Itanium 2 is the right product for the market.
"Unlike AMD's offering, the Itanium is uniquely architect for this space," Intel Director of Enterprise Product Marketing Lisa Hambrick told me recently. "It's not a one size fits all strategy. We're targeting high reliability and scalability [with Itanium 2]." Hambrick noted the problems with Sun's strategy as well. "Sun wants to reach down from [the high end of the market], but now it has to compete in a market that doesn't value [the] features [it built into its SPARC chips]," she said. "We focused the Itanium 2's features on what customers want."
Following widespread skepticism of Microsoft's motives for developing its trusted computing platform, the software giant this week moved to reassure the software community that Palladium will not be limited to Microsoft's platforms. Speaking to ZDNet UK, Microsoft Palladium group product manager Mario Juarez said it is still too soon to say what license will be used for Palladium interfaces, but indicated that it would not necessarily be as restrictive as past examples. "We do realize that we are an important company and that we have a responsibility to the industry. The goal is for as many people as possible to be able to take advantage of what we are talking about here. We are not trying to drive this as a Microsoft-only initiative."
The Windows giant has never ignored the Linux show, often sending executives along to scope out the terrain and pitch Microsoft's point of view. Last week, however, Microsoft finalized its plans for establishing a small presence in the "Rookery" area of the conference, which showcases first-time exhibitors. On display will be Microsoft's embedded offerings, including Windows CE .Net and Windows XP Embedded; the former is aimed at handheld devices, and the latter is a modular form of Windows XP that can be customised for everything from cash registers to Internet fridges.
"Microsoft will be... discussing many offerings for the developer community with the goal of educating developers who may not be familiar with our products, and engaging in interesting dialogue about Windows Embedded and its comparisons to Linux offerings," the company said in a statement provided to journalists.
Netascap gets shafted again, this time by web developers, bummer
Now online photo print shop Shutterfly, another Clark-founded venture, has a succinct warning for visitors who come to the site using the latest versions of Netscape: Beware. Versions 6 and higher of the browser are "unsupported," meaning people who use them cannot take advantage of several site features and may run into glitches not found with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to a browser error message being published on the site as of last Wednesday. Shutterfly's browser preference page is more than ironic; it reflects an ongoing bias among some Web sites to write and test their pages for the browser most people use--Internet Explorer.
Thanks to ActiveWin for the link
Microsoft will support eight-node failover clusters in Windows .NET Enterprise Server. The decision came months after the Beta 3 release of the Windows .NET Server family editions back in November, when Microsoft announced that only four-node clusters would be supported in Windows .NET Enterprise Server, while eight-node failover clusters would be reserved for Windows .NET Datacenter Server customers. A Microsoft spokesman told ENT that customer demand led to the change. "Making eight-node clustering exclusive to Datacenter Server does not fit within our focus of scalability and reliability [for Datacenter Server]," the spokesman said.
Named after a protective statue of the Greek goddess of wisdom, "Palladium" is being used to describe a broad-based security system for the Windows operating system that will involve both hardware and software. As Microsoft wraps up its antitrust case and settles into marketing its newest Windows operating system and seven-month-old Xbox video game console, the cash-rich software giant is directing attention toward its next generation of products, including Palladium and others carrying code-names such as "Longhorn" and, reportedly, "Freon."
Palladium will most likely be an integral part of the next version of Windows, which is code-named "Longhorn." In a detailed interview with Fortune Magazine this week, Gates provides a broad view of what Longhorn will hope to accomplish once it succeeds the current Windows XP (once code-named Whistler) operating system sometime after 2005. Gates explains that Longhorn will be much more intelligent in that it will recognize users and tasks seamlessly, and tailor itself to specific situations and needs.
MS has changed the KEY algorithm because of piracy (XPkeygen). Read this, from MS intranet:
"New Product Keys are required for all Server builds starting with today's RC1 Lockdown build (build 3639). You must go to http://PKD to request new product keys for the builds that have the new algorithm. Read the below for any questions you may have.
Why is this change necessary?
This is our latest anti-piracy measure designed to render hacker generated product keys useless in Windows.Net products. With this change, previously issued server beta keys and non-Microsoft generated keys will not be accepted during setup.
What products does this change affect?
All SKUs in the Windows.Net server family will be affected. This includes Webserver, Standard Server, Small Business Server, Enterprise Server, and Datacenter Server. The change also affects all Windows.Net 64-bit products too."
Say what you like about Bill Gates, but you've got to give him full marks for persistence. Ever since he's been able to talk, his goal has been worlddomination. In 1975 he was talking about 'a computer on every desk, and every one running Microsoft software'. Walk around the office blocks of any city on Earth at night, and look into the windows. What do you see? Millions of desktop computers, 99.9 per cent of them running Windows. World Domination, Release 1.0. Yet just as Gates achieved his childhood dream, the goal posts moved. The internet arrived, and Gates didn't see it coming. As the importance of the standalone PC began to erode, Gates decided that Microsoft would have to control the net, too. Thus was born World Domination, Release 2.0 - to be achieved by having every computer running a Microsoft browser and every server running Microsoft internet server software.
Neowin has obtained detailed XP SP1 related files, which will be of much interest to SP1 neowin fans! The first is a detailed readme on windows xp sp1, which details special installation instructions, amongst other things. Secondly, we have obtained Post-Beta Release Notes which contain detailed information on the SP1 install - e.g. they tell us that Space required if installing SP1 from a shared distribution folder on a network will be 313 MB (610 MB peak during installation). Finally, we have obtained notes on Windows XP MUI.