Microsoft News Tracker

Mary Jo Foley at Microsoft Watch:

Think every two to three years for a new SQL Server release. Expect a newly rebranded mobile version of SQL Server that will run on the Windows client. And watch for new tools tie-ins, according to the Redmond software giant.

Microsoft outlined in very broad strokes its long-term data storage vision on April 6 at a customer lunch in San Francisco.

Microsoft is rebranding its SQL Server Mobile Edition product as “SQL Server Everywhere,” and is planning to release a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build of a new version of that product in the summer of 2006, with final availability slated in some time in the second half of 2006. The new SQL Server Everywhere release will run on Windows CE, as does the current product, but also on Win32 and Win64 platforms.

“SQL Server Everywhere is a very light-weight database. It’s not a server. It’s for online and offline use,” said Paul Flessner, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Data and Storage Division.

In offline mode, users might choose to run SQL Server Everywhere on their Windows systems, and then later sync it with a server-version of SQL Server, he added.

Microsoft also is on track to release a final version of its first service pack (SP) for SQL Server 2005 later in April, Flessner said.

There’s also a letter from Flessner on Microsoft’s Web site that has more details.

Update 4/10: Microsoft’s Steve Lasker has a Q&A on SQL Server Everywhere.

MSN Search, the third most popular Web search site, was unavailable for four hours today:

Microsoft spokesman Justin Osmer said in an e-mail that the company was still trying to determine what went wrong.

During the outage, which began about 8:30 a.m. and was being restored as of about 12:15 p.m. (Redmond time - ed.), users who tried to find Web pages were told the service was unavailable and that, “Our team is working to restore service as quickly as possible.”

Hey, stuff happens; but it doesn’t look good when your aspiration is to be number one. Todd Bishop asks, “What would happen to the world if Google were down for four hours?”

David Boschman:

Today Bill Hilf presented the first ever Microsoft keynote at a LinuxWorld event. Bill’s keynote at LinuxWorld is a clear indication that the dialogue is changing and a new discussion is developing — a more mature, technical discussion, around specific uses of Open Source, the implications of operating in heterogeneous environments, and the need for a more technical exchange on the evolving world of Windows, Linux and Open Source Software.

During his keynote Bill launched “Port 25: Communications from the Open Source Software Lab @ Microsoft”. Port 25 is a Microsoft community web site designed to facilitate a deeper dialogue around the interoperability issues surrounding Windows, Linux, UNIX and Open Source Software. Port 25 will feature the people, insights and analysis from the Microsoft Open Source Software Lab and allow customers direct access to the lab staff and the technical research underway in the lab.

Predicting the popularity and utility of “community” web sites is always chancy, but it’s nice to see Microsoft recognizing that once you get above a certain size, heterogeneous IT shops are the way of the world.

Netcraft, the British Internet services firm, does regular data collection scans of the Web and their April report shows a substantial shift:

There are now more than 80 million web sites on the Internet, as the April 2006 survey received responses from 80,655,992 sites, an increase of 3.1 million hostnames from March 2006. The web has doubled in size in the past three years, as the survey hit the 40 million mark in April 2003.

This month’s survey brings one of the largest one-month swings in the history of the web server market, as Microsoft gains 4.7 percent share while Apache loses 5.9 percent. The shift is driven by changes at domain registrar Go Daddy, which has just migrated more than 3.5 million hostnames from Linux to Windows. Go Daddy, which had been the world’s largest Linux host, is now the world’s largest Windows Server 2003 host, as measured by hostnames. The company said it will shift a total of 4.4 million hostnames to Windows Server 2003.

Technology trends among registrars have a large impact on web server market share, as each registrar hosts large numbers of parked domains. Microsoft’s last major upward surge in market share in 2001-02 was boosted by migrations at Register.com and VeriSign. Go Daddy is the second huge registrar to shift its sites to Windows Server 2003, following the lead of enom. Among other major registrars, 1&1 Internet, Dotster and Register.com host on Linux, while Network Solutions uses Solaris.

More details by following the link and in the original press release announcing the hosting change for GoDaddy’s parked domains.

As rumored last week, Microsoft today acquired game developer Lionhead Studios:

Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) today announced it has purchased U.K.-based Lionhead Studios, one of the world’s leading and most innovative video game developers and creators of “Fable®,” the hit Xbox® and Windows® franchise.

Lionhead Studios will immediately begin creating content exclusively for the Xbox 360™ and Microsoft® Windows platforms. The companies previously worked together on the popular role-playing games “Fable” for Xbox and “Fable: The Lost Chapters” for Xbox and Windows, which have collectively surpassed the 2 million global unit sales milestone, making “Fable” the best-selling role-playing franchise on the Xbox platform.
…
With today’s announcement, Lionhead Studios becomes the latest member of MGS, joining such prestigious and globally recognized game creators as Bungie Studios, Ensemble Studios, FASA Studio and Rare Ltd. on a team whose charter is to create exclusive entertainment experiences that differentiate Xbox 360 and Windows from other gaming platforms.

Lionhead was founded in 1997 by well known British game designer Peter Molyneux, but had been having financial troubles of late. Their web site is at http://www.lionhead.com/. Lionhead was privately held and no financial details were disclosed.