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Next week at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference hosted by Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher there will be a special joint appearance by Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs. While hardly a steel cage match, the conference format is completely interview based with Mossberg and Swisher doing the questioning. To that end, Swisher is requesting input on questions for the dynamic duo and baiting the crowd with some candid snaps of Bill and Steve from the past. In separate sessions, Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer will also get the third degree.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates used a speech in Beijing to introduce a number of new Microsoft philanthropic initiatives directed at developing nations. Attracting the most buzz was a bargain software package for students:
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it plans to offer a software package called Microsoft Student Innovation Suite for $3 to governments purchasing and giving Windows-based computer to primary and secondary students.
The software bundle, which will be available in the second half of 2007, includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live Mail desktop and other programs.
It’s not clear how many relevant governments have the wherewithal for extensive rollouts of PCs to students, but the thought is nice even if there is more to it than sheer altruism.
“This is not a philanthropic effort, this is a business,” Orlando Ayala, senior vice president at Microsoft’s emerging segments market development group in an interview before the official announcement.In many emerging markets, Microsoft has seen its software pirated and sold at a fraction of the price of a genuine product. Microsoft said the technology industry must also adapt business models to developing nations.
Case in point: the report at Newlaunches.com in which they quote the “Windows Vista chief distributor in Beijing” to the effect that:
However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista. Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets.
They have some nice box shots of pirated copies of Vista too and not unexpectedly, humorous comments abound at slashdot like “244 copies ought to be enough ….”
Today, Bill Gates and Craig Mundie keynoted the RSA Conference 2007 and announced a variety of security related Microsoft initiatives. Perhaps the biggest news was announced in detail on the blog of Microsoft’s Kim Cameron where Microsoft pledged interoperability between its CardSpace identity technolgy and the emerging open standard, OpenID:
JanRain, Microsoft, Sxip, and VeriSign will collaborate on interoperability between OpenID and Windows CardSpace™ to make the Internet safer and easier to use. Specifically (excerpted – ed.):
- Microsoft recognizes the growth of the OpenID community and believes OpenID plays a significant role in the Internet identity infrastructure. Kim Cameron, Chief Architect of Identity at Microsoft, will work with the OpenID community on authentication and anti-phishing.
- JanRain, Sxip, and VeriSign recognize that Information Cards provide significant anti-phishing, privacy, and convenience benefits to users. Information Cards, based on the open WS-Trust standard, are available though Windows CardSpace™.
- JanRain, Sxip and VeriSign plan to add Information Card support to future identity solutions.
- Microsoft plans to support OpenID in future Identity server products
- The four companies have agreed to work together on a “Using Information Cards with OpenID” profile that will make it possible for other developers and service providers to take advantage of these technology advancements.
The OpenID connection wasn’t surprising given Microsoft’s past failed attempt to go it alone in the identity business with Passport.
Other Microsoft announcements:
• Microsoft announced Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007. Available to customers in May, ILM 2007 is a new solution that builds on Microsoft’s metadirectory and user provisioning capabilities by adding support for managing strong credentials such as certificates and smart cards. ILM provides an integrated and comprehensive solution for managing the entire life cycle of a user identity. Microsoft also unveiled a comprehensive strategy and road map for identity life-cycle management, including planned availability of ILM “2,” the next version of ILM, in late 2008.
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• Microsoft launched the public beta of the new Forefront Server Security Management Console, a centralized, Web-based management solution for onsite or remote administration of Microsoft messaging and collaboration security solutions.
• Microsoft announced that it has enabled support for Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates in Internet Explorer 7, which is the first browser to fully support EV SSL Certificates. When a user visits a site with a valid EV Certificate, Internet Explorer 7 will alert the user to the available identity information by turning the background of the address bar green and displaying identity information. Twelve certificate authorities, including VeriSign Inc., Cybertrust and Entrust, are already issuing EV SSL Certificates.
• Microsoft has added four new data providers to the Microsoft Phishing Filter service: the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT), BrandProtect, MySpace.com and Netcraft Ltd., whose own broad set of Internet Explorer and Firefox toolbar anti-phishing data sources will be included as data feeds into the service. These new providers join Microsoft’s current anti-phishing data providers, which include Cyveillance, Digital Resolve, Internet Identity, MarkMonitor Inc., and RSA Security, the security division of EMC Corp.
More details here and specifically on the IE7 phishing toolbar here.
Microsoft today released Windows Mobile Device Center 6 for Windows Vista. It was one of the missing pieces noted yesterday and allows portable devices to synch with Vista PCs.
Bink.nu reports that the Microsoft Home Use Program is broken for Vista and Office 2007. That’s the program where employees of Microsoft volume license customers get free Microsoft software for home use.
George Ou figures out a security exploit of Vista’s voice recognition feature that can actually be explained to the average person. More here.
Jim Allchin seems to be enjoying his retirement.
Bill Gates is on a European promotional tour for Vista and stopped by Bucharest to open a technical support center. As part of the festivities, the Romainian President told him that software piracy worked out great for his country.
Chris Pirillo says Microsoft: Give me a Million Dollars to market Windows Vista for you. He figures he can do it better and cheaper than the expensive and lackluster efforts so far. I don’t doubt it.
Mary Jo Foley says to forget the Vienna codename because Microsoft is internally calling the next client Windows OS ”Windows 7″ and the next Office will be “Office 14.” How incredibly boring! For those who have never had the joy of dealing with OSVERSIONINFOEX, Windows does have internal version numbers and 7 is up next. I’m sure there is something similar for Office, but I’ve never had the pleasure.
