News


Tablet PC Devices Launch

Microsoft gathered partners, analysts, customers and reporters in New York last week to launch the first generation of Tablet PCs built on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

Windows "Longhorn" Server Cancelled

Microsoft abandoned its plans to ship client and server versions of Windows simultaneously in the "Longhorn" release, a company spokeswoman confirmed Monday. Instead, "Longhorn" will be a client-only release, with the successor to Windows .NET Server 2003 coming later under the code-name "Blackcomb."

Microsoft Board Creates Antitrust Compliance Committee

Microsoft's board of directors moved quickly to comply with the first deadline U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly placed in the antitrust settlement agreement that she approved Nov. 1.

Business Intelligence Tools Available for SQL Customers

Microsoft this week posted two free tools to its Web site to help financial services customers and manufacturing customers build business intelligence solutions on SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition.

IBM Pushes x440 Benchmark Results Higher

IBM Corp. published an OLTP benchmark this week that demonstrates again the surging capabilities of Windows Datacenter Server on Xeon MP chips in eight-processor systems.

Microsoft Memo: Some Anti-Linux Messages Backfire

Some of Microsoft's more aggressive public arguments against Linux and Open Source Software backfired with key customer groups, according to an internal Microsoft memo leaked to an open source advocacy site.

Unisys Ratchets Up 32-bit Wintel Benchmark Performance

Unisys made its first run against the the Transaction Processing Performance Council's closely watched OLTP benchmark using Intel's Xeon MP processors in the 32-processor Unisys ES7000 server this week.

Gallatin Debuts at 2 GHz

Intel this week made available faster and more powerful Xeon MP processors, the high-end 32-bit processors that power four-way and larger industry-standard servers.

IBM Drops New Xeon MPs Into Server Line

IBM Corp. is immediately refreshing its Intel-based server line with new silicon from Intel. IBM's quick work advances Big Blue's already significant lead in delivering eight-way Xeon MP servers while main competitors HP and Dell continue to deliver eight-processor boxes populated with 900-MHz Pentium III Xeon processors.

Analysis: Case Closed? Far From It

Yes, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's opinion on Friday to uphold most parts of the antitrust settlement and alter others only slightly looks like a clincher for the case. But when it comes to the courts, it ain't over 'til the … no wait, it's never over. The sad fact is that by the time situations like this get dragged into the courts, nobody ever really wins. The ensuing years tend to be a long-drawn out process of derivative actions, endless court dates and uncertainty.

Judge Upholds Antitrust Settlement Agreement

The long-awaited ruling in the settlement phase of the Microsoft antitrust case is in. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved the terms of the settlement Microsoft agreed to with the Department of Justice and the nine states a year ago.

Certified Mail

Licensing confusion, and more salary survey feedback.

CA Unwraps New ARCServe for Backup

Computer Associates Int’l Inc. (CA) this week announced version 9 of BrightStor ARCServe Backup. CA bills ARCServe 9 as a significant redesign of its flagship backup product for Windows, Linux and NetWare.

Microsoft Reports Critical Vulnerability in Windows 2000, XP

The flaw results from an unchecked buffer in Microsoft's PPTP implementation. The bulletin was one of three security bulletins released by Microsoft's security team on Thursday. The other newly patched vulnerabilities involve Internet Information Server and Windows 2000.

Microsoft Offers HIPAA Help in New BizTalk Accelerator

Microsoft will offer a revamped version of its healthcare industry extension to Microsoft BizTalk Server, the BizTalk Accelerator for HIPAA, on Dec. 1.

Study: IT Delayed After 9/11, But Will Still Make Major Security Purchases

It was popular wisdom after the terrorist attacks of September 2001 that Corporate America would wake up to its vulnerability and quickly spend additional billions on security and business continuity solutions, products and services.

Office 11 Beta Runs Only on Windows XP, Windows 2000

The beta version of Office 11 Microsoft released last week will only run on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Microsoft officials say there has not been a final decision on whether to freeze out Windows 9x and Windows ME users from the final version of the Office suite, which is scheduled to ship in mid-2003.

Windows 2000 Achieves Common Criteria Security Certification

Windows 2000 received the Common Criteria security certification on Tuesday after Microsoft invested millions of dollars and three years of effort to gain the certification.

Unisys Serves up Pre-Configured Database Bundles

Unisys Corp. on Monday introduced several pre-configured database bundles that it says will enable customers to rapidly deploy and support large database environments. The new systems, which feature Microsoft’s Windows 2000 Datacenter Server hosted on Unisys’ Intel-based ES7000 servers, are also outfitted with SQL Server 2000 and matched with storage capacity from EMC Corp.

Intel Still Talking About InfiniBand

Intel was one of the loudest, largest and most active early backers of InfiniBand. That's why the chip giant's decision over the summer to discontinue work on hardware products involving the fledgling server interconnect technology was widely viewed as a very bad sign for InfiniBand.