Microsoft offers flat-fee support option for NT 4.0 Server ...
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DECEMBER 06, 2004  - Microsoft Corp. will offer custom support options on a flat-fee basis to users of Windows NT 4.0 Server and Exchange Server 5.5 when the standard support phases for those products end.
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Paying customers may not get their hands on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) for weeks, but pirates can download the brand-new code today, according to searches at several BitTorrent trackers.The RTM, or release to manufacturing, versions of both operating systems can easily be found on BitTorrent tracker sites such as Pirate Bay, which has made them available since yesterday.One torrent of Microsoft's newest server operating system, Windows Server 2008, lists 42 "seeders," the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file, and nearly 190 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. The Windows Server 2008 torrent installs a 60-day trial edition, according to users on Pirate Bay who have downloaded the 2.5GB disk image.Vista SP1, meanwhile, is even more popular. The most active torrent located using Pirate Bay listed 163 seeds and almost 500 leechers by mid-day Wednesday. Another tracker, Mininova.org, showed similar numbers: 159 seeders and 665 leechers.Pirate Bay reported the file as 2.9GB in size, while users who successfully downloaded the image warned others that it was not an upgrade per se. "This torrent is a complete install of Windows Vista including SP1. So there will be no option to upgrade," said a commenter on Pirate Bay using the alias "Soulshot." "You'll have to backup [sic] your Documents/Music/Pictures/Favorites, install the .iso to a DVD, restart and run the DVD. Which will erease [sic] everthing [sic] on your primary hard disk."Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 moved to RTM on Monday, when CEO Steve Ballmer touted both milestones during a conference call with financial analysts. Vista SP1, however, won't land on the company's download site until mid-March because of problems with device drivers, while the official launch for Windows Server 2008 has been set for Feb. 27. Neither operating system can currently be legally obtained by the public.Microsoft is no stranger to leaks. Last summer, for example, several builds of Vista SP1 that had been given to an invite-only group of some 15,000 testers ended up on BitTorrent within days.The company, of course, takes a dim view of counterfeiters -- one analyst recently estimated that Microsoft made an extra $77 million last quarter by cracking down on piracy. But its response to questions about the latest leaks was muted. "Microsoft cautions consumers and businesses that downloading software from a non-genuine source can pose risks to their environment," a spokeswoman said.
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Microsoft is targeting diehard NetWare customers faced with a looming decision on migrating servers to either to Linux or Windows Server 2003.
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Microsoft Corp.'s long-delayed upgrade of its flagship Windows operating system will cost the same as comparable versions of the previous version, Windows XP, the company said Tuesday.
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Microsoft is offering a new subscription model to small businesses that will allow them to use the company&#39;s software for less cost than the currently available licensing model.The plan, called Open Value Subscription program, is part of Microsoft&#39;s effort to give small businesses more flexible and affordable options for purchasing software, said Cindy Bates, Microsoft&#39;s general manager for U.S. small business.The new plan costs about a third of the license-only expense for the current licensing program open to small business, called the Open Value program, Bates said. The plan is cheaper because Microsoft offers upfront discounts for software purchased through the subscription program, and also allows customers to increase or decrease pricing over the three-year subscription period if their business needs change, she said.Open Value Subscription includes Microsoft&#39;s Software Assurance program, the company&#39;s software maintenance and support program for business customers.Microsoft defines small businesses as those with 50 employees or fewer. Bates called 50 employees the &quot;break point&quot; for when a company hires IT management. Up until that number, &quot;usually it&#39;s the business owner or office manager&quot; handling the IT system, she said.Businesses will be able to sign up for the Open Value Subscription program beginning in March, Bates said. Microsoft products available through the program include Microsoft Office Small Business, Office Professional +, Windows Vista Business Upgrade, Small Business Server Client Access License (CAL), Core CAL, Desktop Professional Suite, and Small Business Desktop Suite.As part of its small-business outreach, Microsoft also this week is unveiling a partner program called &quot;Big Easy,&quot; which invests about $10 million in subsidies to small businesses purchasing products through partners.Through the program, small businesses purchasing certain products through authorized specialist partners will get a certain percentage of money back that they can use to purchase other services from those partners, Bates said.For example, a small business would get a maximum of 22 percent of the money it spends if it buys six or more products that are on the approved list. Bates said Microsoft has figured the average return will be about 15 percent to 17 percent on purchases for small businesses.Products available for subsidies under the Big Easy program include Microsoft Office products, Exchange Server, Forefront Security for Exchange Server, System Center Essentials, Project, Visio, Office SharePoint Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint, and Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006, among others.More information about Open Value Subscription can be found on Microsoft&#39;s Web site. The company also provides more information about the Big Easy on its Microsoft Small Business Community Blog.
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In a new blog entry, Michael Kimsal points out a driver that Microsoft has released (during the end of last year) that allows PHP5 applications to connect directly to a SQL Server database.   This isn't replacing freetds any time soon.  I guess I'm still wondering what the market for "PHP apps deployed on Windows talking to SQL Server" really is - most of the shared hosting accounts I've seen, even on Windows, offer MySQL or Access as the database.    He also points out a video that was shot of the development team talking about the driver (here's their blog too).
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A new 24-hour help desk will cover non-Dell or non-PC problems--for a charge.
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US software maker Microsoft has announced the availability of a combination of tools, prescriptive guidance, training and technical support for customers that are considering migrating from Novell NetWare to Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
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Microsoft has announced general availability of Windows-Based Hosting Version 3.0, which is a platform for service providers to sell hosted offerings.
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has taken another step to bolster its Web e-mail service, MSN Hotmail, by tying it with its popular desktop application Outlook. For a US&#36;59.95 yearly subscription fee, customers can use Outlook Live when accessing their Hotmail accounts. The company is offering a reduced introductory price of &#36;44.95 through April 19th.
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Despite denials from members of its own server development team on blogs last week, Microsoft announced today that it is indeed making Release Candidate 0 of Windows Server 2008 available for download tomorrow, if not sooner, as a community technology preview.
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Microsoft has improved its support for Windows NT 4.0 Server and has outlined how it will end support for e-mail system Exchange Server 5.5.
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After Dec. 31, Microsoft will no longer provide general support for Windows NT Server 4.0, marking the end of an era. By John Foley.
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Ziff Davis - Microsoft's omission of WinFS from the Longhorn version of Windows may open options for open-source competitors to the forthcoming operating system.
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com December 22, 2004, 11:39 AM PT. The European Union ruled on Wednesday that Microsoft must make Windows Server protocols available for license, but competitors showed little initial interest in the program.
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ has signed up the first licensee for the workgroup server protocols the European Commission ordered it to open up to competitors in aÂ 2004 antitrust ruling, it said Thursday. The announcement comes a week after the Commission sent Microsoft a "statement of objections," saying it was not satisfied that the information Microsoft planned to provide under its Work Group Server Protocol Program (WSPP) warranted the prices the company planned to charge. The licensee, Quest Software of Aliso Viejo, California, plans to use Microsoft's User and Group Administration protocol set in products based on Microsoft's Active Directory, extending the way those products link with Unix, Linux, and Java authentication systems, the companies said Thursday. Quest develops software for Active Directory administration and data recovery, in addition to tools for application, database and server administration. The companies signed their licensing deal on March 1, the day the Commission published its objections, said Tom Brookes, a spokesman for Microsoft. Quest will pay the full list price to which the Commission objected, 5.25 percent of net revenue on the products in which the protocols are being integrated, Brookes said. The Commission ordered Microsoft to create the WSPP as one of the remedies in a March 2004 antitrust ruling, in which it found Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the desktop operating system market to gain advantages in the markets for media players and workgroup server software. It ordered Microsoft to pay a â¬497 million (then around $600 million) fine, release a version of Windows without an integrated media player, and release details of the protocols used for communication between computers running the desktop and workgroup server versions of Windows, to enable competitors to build interoperable software. Microsoft is stillÂ appealing the ruling, but paid the fine and released the software and protocol information anyway. Since the ruling, the Commission has complained that Microsoft is not releasing the right kind of information fast enough, while Microsoft has protested that the Commission has not made its demands clear. In July 2006, the CommissionÂ fined Microsoft a further â¬280.5 millionÂ for the delays,Â a ruling Microsoft appealedÂ in October. Last week, the Commission signalled that the protocol information Microsoft had provided was not innovative enough to justify its price. Microsoft created a similar licensing program in the U.S., in response to an antitrust ruling there. That program has so far attracted 27 licensees. Â
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Microsoft Thursday did something it rarely does. The company released a beta for a long-awaited technology -- in this case its Windows Server 2008 virtualization technology Hyper-V -- ahead of schedule.Hyper-V, formerly code-named &quot;Viridian,&quot; is now available for download from Microsoft&#39;s Web site and is ready to be used with the current x64 beta version of Windows Server 2008, which is also available online. The technology, called a hypervisor, is the underlying virtualization technology for the server release, which is a major update that&#39;s expected to be released on Feb. 27, 2008. A beta of Hyper-V originally was planned to be released on that date as well.Virtualization, or the ability to use virtual machine technology to run multiple OSes on a physical server, is widely seen as a disruptive technology and is becoming increasingly important as companies seek to cut costs and consolidate hardware in their data centers and IT environments. Microsoft had originally intended to release Hyper-V as part of the original release Windows Server 2008, but the technology was delayed and is now scheduled to be generally available 180 days, or about six months, after Windows Server 2008 ships. Hyper-V&#39;s released was delayed earlier this year because Microsoft opted to pull out some originally planned features.Hyper-V takes advantage of virtualization-optimized microprocessors from Intel and&#160;AMD and is meant to help Microsoft compete with virtualization leader VMware, which already has hypervisor technology on the market. Hypervisors allow for cross-platform support so servers can run multiple versions of different OSes -- such as Windows and Linux -- side by side on one piece of hardware.Bill Hilf, general manager of Windows Server at Microsoft, said customers have been asking the company for a built-in virtualization technology that works directly within the Windows Server environment so it&#39;s easy to manage and implement. By design, Hyper-V is set up as what Microsoft calls a &quot;role&quot; within Windows Server 2008, and can be turned on or off as a customer wishes, he said. Roles are a new feature of the forthcoming release of the OS that allow servers to be set up so only the role or roles a customer wants them to play in the IT environment -- such as e-mail server or application server -- will be turned on.Mike Neal, general manager of virtualization at Microsoft, said Hyper-V is meant to make the virtualization market &quot;a two-horse race&quot; between Microsoft and VMware. However, with Hyper-V not scheduled to ship until the second half of next year, the company has a lot of ground to make up to topple VMware from its leadership position. And Microsoft also faces pressure in providing built-in OS virtualization from Linux leader Red Hat, which already has integrated cross-platform virtualization into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.Windows Server 2008 eventually will be available in multiple editions and will be offered with and without Hyper-V. Microsoft also plans to release a product called Microsoft Hyper-V Server specifically as a virtualization host environment in the second half of 2008.