Microsoft News Tracker

(Via Brandon LeBlanc) It had been anticipated that Microsoft would release the November CTP of Vista either yesterday or today, but WinBeta reports:

*UPDATE* Microsoft sources confirmed this morning (Friday) that they are still compiling 5259 builds and have yet to settle on one they are willing to release. Until this is achieved, testers and enthusiasts alike will settle back and wait.

There are currently no plans to release any more interim builds after the November CTP until beta 2 although Microsoft said that that is open to change if they feel there are builds beta testers should receive.

On the other hand, the WinFX November CTP was released. Tim Sneath:

This release is particularly exciting, because it is based on the final .NET Framework 2.0 bits. You’ve no excuse now for not installing WinFX and starting to prototype a great Windows Presentation Foundation application!
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My esteemed colleague Karsten Januszewski has stepped up to the mark and produced a great white paper (he’s posting it to his blog today) that describes the new features added to WPF in this CTP release (there’s some great new animation work that’s exposed here) as well as highlighting the API breaking changes since the PDC release. We’re gradually getting closer to being API complete for the first release - there’s probably just one more set of breaking changes to go in that will be exposed in a CTP release in the first month or two of next year, but otherwise we’re entering the glidepath - starting to focus on performance and stability beyond all other considerations. It’s going to be an exciting year!

See Karsten Januszewski’s and Lori Pearce’s posts for more, but in case the distinction isn’t clear, the WinFX CTP is only supported on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Jay Greene at Business Week provides an interesting analysis in Microsoft’s New Word: Accountability. Some snippets:

Execs at the software giant hate setting expectations, lest they slip. So the company has been mum on the date, saying only that Vista will launch some time in the second half of 2006. Analysts have taken that to mean a shipment date some time near Christmas.

It turns out, the company plans to ship much sooner. According to an internal blog by Chris Jones, one of Microsoft’s top Windows execs, the shipping target is Aug. 31.
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Jones’s blog post appears to address the question of low morale head on. “If you want my personal accountability, I will not take a bonus if we don’t ship Vista with high quality and the soul intact by August 31st, 2006,” Jones writes in a Sept. 28 blog post that was obtained by BusinessWeek Online. “If there is more I can do, let me know.”

Indeed, Microsoft may be entering a period of greater accountability, something the company’s critics say is long overdue. The Vista deadline isn’t the only evidence. On Nov. 17, Microsoft announced that Doug Burgum is giving up his operational responsibility for the Microsoft Business Solutions group. He’ll become chairman of the division, which sells software that helps small and mid-sized companies run their businesses.

Microsoft was careful to avoid calling the move a promotion. As group chairman, Burgum will help build support among independent software developers. Burgum’s replacement, for whom the company is searching, will report to Burgum’s boss, Jeff Raikes — not Burgum.

Much more by following the link.

Business Week profiles Robbie Bach, President, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division and Chief Xbox Officer. Excerpt:

One crucial discussion for the Xbox team took place on Feb. 14, 2000, when they met with Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates. Bach wanted the green light to develop the Xbox without using Windows. But Gates resisted, opening fire even before he sat down. “The operating system I’ve been working on for 25 years is not good enough?” Gates said, according to Xbox technology exec J Allard, also at the meeting. Bach held his ground, arguing that Windows would ruin the gameplaying experience because it wasn’t specialized enough for the task. At the end of a three-hour meeting, Bach and his team had persuaded Gates and Ballmer to make one of the biggest financial bets in the company’s history, using a completely foreign strategy. The event is known internally as the Valentine’s Day Massacre, for how brutally it started. “None of us have ever forgotten that meeting,” says Bach.

His Microsoft biography has more standard details.

Press release:

Nov. 18, 2005 — Last Thursday, U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt awarded a consortium led by Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) one of four contracts to develop prototypes for a Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). As a member of the consortium, Microsoft Corp. will play a key role in the development, providing Microsoft® .NET technology to drive interoperable software solutions between MA-SHARE and the other regional entities participating in the CSC-led group: Indiana Health Information Exchange and Mendocino HRE of California.

Based on Microsoft’s integrated technology, the MA-SHARE prototype represents a regional collaboration of health insurers and healthcare providers, universities, pharmacies, advocacy and interest groups, governmental bodies, and employers. Focusing on four pilot sites within MA-SHARE membership, the initiative promotes the interorganizational exchange of healthcare data using information technology, open industry standards and administrative simplification. It was chosen for its perceived ability to accelerate a more secure and seamless transfer of health information across the United States.