Microsoft News Tracker

Imran Qureshi posts that the MSN Hotmail “Kahuna” Beta is now open, but you have to sign up to participate at http://www1.imagine-msn.com/minisites/hotmail/Default.aspx. He warns, “Be patient though. With so many people currently on the wait list it may take some time..” Aditya Bansod explains one of the reasons why:

Paul Thurrott’s review of Kahuna was Slashdotted. The comments in the Slashdot thread are full of the usual punditry and provide for a totally amusing read at (a few) people saying they welcome the change and change is good to (a lot of) people saying they hate Microsoft, Hotmail is evil, banner ads will soon take up the whole site, etc. The press embargo on Kahuna was lifted yesterday as we begin to expand the beta and you see a bit of the press coverage here.

(Via Microsoft Watch) Concerning MSN adCenter, if you are a business in the USA that would like to try adCenter for online advertising, you can now register for the pilot program according to Brady Forrest:

Yusuf Medhi, MSN SVP, asked us to invite people to join the US MSN adCenter Pilot. I am going to extend the invitation to apply to all of our loyal blog readers. We want all of you to have a shot. See below for the invite and information on how to apply.
…
This pilot represents a unique opportunity for small and medium businesses to be among the first to experience the more powerful tools and wide-ranging benefits of MSN adCenter.
…
If you know a business-owner who would be interested in advertising their business on MSN Search, please forward this email to them and encourage them to apply to participate in the US Pilot by completing our online registration form at http://advertising.msn.com/adCenterPilot/89620.asp.

I received an entry in the Microsoft Press Pass RSS feed whose link now doesn’t go anywhere, but says:

Media Alert: Microsoft Corp. And RealNetworks, Inc. Press Conference
Press Release

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and RealNetworks Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rob Glaser make announcement.

Since a settlement is rumored, I expect it really is coming up later today.

UPDATE: They did settle:

Microsoft and RealNetworks, Inc. today announced three agreements valued at $761 million to RealNetworks to settle their antitrust case and create a new partnership to innovate and promote consumer choices in digital music and games.

The three agreements include an agreement to resolve all the companies’ antitrust disputes worldwide; an agreement for a wide-ranging digital music collaboration between the parties, including promotional and marketing support of Real’s leading digital music subscription service, Rhapsody®, on MSN properties; and an agreement to offer RealNetworks’ digital games through MSN Games and Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360.

Under the music and games agreements, Microsoft is scheduled to pay Real $301 million in cash and provide services over 18 months in support of Real’s product development, distribution, and promotional activities. Microsoft will earn credits at predetermined market rates to be applied to the $301 million for subscribers delivered to Real through MSN. Additionally, Real will take steps to support MSN Search, and Real and Microsoft will jointly promote use of Windows Media technologies with Rhapsody to Go.

The antitrust and technology assurance agreement resolves all antitrust disputes worldwide, based on a $460 million up-front cash payment to resolve all damages claims and a series of technology licenses and commitments under which Real will obtain long-term access to important Windows Media technologies that will enhance Real’s media software solutions.

Quick reaction:

Short term: Microsoft gets RealNetworks off their back here and in the EU. RealNetworks gets cash.

Longer term: Unclear what the full effects will be, but nominally each gets some help strengthening some of their initiatives.

Press release:

The main objective of the service pack announced today is to improve the customer and partner experience by enhancing the overall quality of Microsoft Navision 4.0 and to make the solution more accessible to a broader range of users via the Microsoft Navision Employee Portal. Employee Portal is built from the integration between Microsoft Navision and both Microsoft Windows® SharePoint® Services and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.

Staged release starting this month.

You can refer to the press release and the Q&A with Brent Callinicos, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Worldwide Licensing and Pricing, but Ward Ralston has a nutshell summary at the Windows Server Division Weblog of the licensing changes coming December 1:

(1) Starting with Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition - customers can run up to 4 virtual instances of Windows Server 2003 (any edition) with no additional licensing costs. Zero, nil. Additionally, Starting with Longhorn, If you purchase Datacenter Edition of Windows Server, you can have unlimited virtual machines - still at no additional cost. Pretty cool, huh?

And a nice incentive to get Datacenter.

(2) Some of our Windows Server System products are licensed by the processor. (BizTalk, SQL, Etc) When these technologies are run in a virtual machine, you only need to license for the virtual processors being used rather than for the physical processors in the host computer.

For Microsoft Virtual Server which only supports virtual uniprocessors this seems straightforward. However, the new licensing applies to any virtualization product including VMWare which does support virtual multiprocessors, so depending on what the VM’s are being used for, a little planning for optimal license usage might be required.

Finally, only the active instances (and not dormant copies) of virtual machines will require licenses and the licensing of active instances is portable among physical Windows Server machines. These are forward looking provisions for leading edge users of virtualization for dynamic workload accomodation.

Also in the press release: a list of companies was announced that are working with Microsoft on virtualization solutions and standards; there is an announcement that Microsoft will increase investment in management software for virtual machine environments; and

As part of its continued commitment to virtualization solutions, Microsoft will build virtualization capabilities into the Windows platform based on Windows hypervisor technology, planned for availability in the Windows Server “Longhorn” product wave.

That confirms the buzz that the equivalent of Virtual Server will become part of the Longhorn Server OS.

(Via WinInsider) Windows XP N Stands for ‘No Sales’ :

A senior Microsoft official in the United Kingdom confirmed this week that no computer manufacturers took up the option to install Windows XP N, the operating system Microsoft created in response to the European Commission decision against it.

Windows XP N is a version of Windows that is unbundled from Windows Media Player. The EC decision prohibited Microsoft from charging more for the stripped-down operating system — Microsoft listed the product for the same price as the full version of Windows XP.

I believe we can file this one under “no brainer.”