Microsoft tries to steal Macworld thunder

[~~NeYo~~]

(Another Article i thought you guys'd wanna Check out)

Microsoft on Monday launched the first of several pre-emptive strikes against Apple Computer's Macworld trade show by making announcements about new technologies far ahead of their delivery to market.

In Microsoft's first salvo, the company revealed details about the next version of its digital media technology, code-named Corona, including that it officially will be known as Windows Media 9 Series. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is slated to launch the first public beta, or test, version of Windows Media at a Sept. 4 event. This and other digital media and consumer announcements, expected this week, are designed to steal thunder from Macworld, which starts Wednesday in New York. Last week, Microsoft said that later this year it will release a new line of 802.11b wireless networking products. Apple has been selling similar technology, called AirPort, for more than two years.

Microsoft apparently believes that it has delivered on the promises of the five-year agreement but that Apple has failed to do what is necessary to properly support its partners. Microsoft, for example, was instrumental in helping Apple resolve problems with Mac OS X (70 bug fixes contributed by the MacBU, and the MacBU unit taking the heat for a delay in shipping Office v. X when indeed the delay in bringing Office v. X to OS X was in bugs discovered by Microsoft in their new OS). That effort culminated in the September release of Mac OS X 10.1, soon followed by the release of Office v. X and many other important applications that run natively on the new operating system.

Microsoft's Mac commitment appears to be wavering, spurred in part by recent actions on the part of Apple. One such action, the inclusion of the iChat instant messenger program with Mac OS X 10.2 that connects to AOL's Instant Messenger network, caught Microsoft executives by surprise. And the Apple/Netscape home page deal, for which Microsoft "switched" the browsers default home page from Netscape's to Microsoft's own MSN home page, when they launched IE 5.2 for the Mac just recently!

Apple's Mac OS X 10.2, code-named Jaguar, has raised considerable concern in Redmond as well. Jaguar adds some new features "that have some people loosing sleep," said one source. "You don't know what kind of cultural paranoia we have here" about competitors.



Source: Here

NeYo

[Matrix Agent]

My first reaction was completely by instinct:

"They wanna drop support, they wanna make hardware, they wanna try and shoot down innovation with vaporware press releases? Well F' Them!"

Well let me step back from that a little, but most of that is true. I think Apple is ready to be independent. They are no longer at the mercy of MS. In addition, let me state that MS entered a "stratigic" partnership with Apple. They knew that they were a threat, weak or not. But this MS partnership was a good thing for both of them. But since when was Steve one to be a friendly guy, looking out for others?

I'm ready for it to end.

[edX]

i suspect the codename Corona came from what they are drinking as they work on it and that the initial release will reflect this.

also interesting to note that recent Corona commercials always emphasize that their drinkers are not working - maybe that's where the codename came from.

[adambyte]

hehe... Microsoft products NEVER work.

"Jaguar adds some new features "that have some people loosing sleep," said one source."

Does that give anybody else a nice warm feeling inside?

[azosx]

Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
i suspect the codename Corona came from what they are drinking as they work on it and that the initial release will reflect this.

also interesting to note that recent Corona commercials always emphasize that their drinkers are not working - maybe that's where the codename came from.

According to that article, Microsoft helped Apple squash a lot of the bugs in the first release of OS X.

The more you underesimate Microsoft, the bigger that slap in the face is going to be in the not so far off future.

Their Corona and Mira technologies are looking quite promising and Microsoft certainly has the ability to deliver.

Microsoft got lax because of no real competition. Turn up the heat and they'll turn up the stakes. Technically, their Windows "Longhorn/Blackcomb" releases are beyond anything OS X could possibly offer.

You trash XP because it "sucks" but so did the first release of OS X. If Microsoft does deliver on "Longhorn/Blackcomb" there's going to be a lot of long faces in Cupertino.

OS X's greatest strength is UNIX, which may also turn out to be it's greatest weakness. It's 30 year architecture is about to become obsolete.

I for one am very excited about Microsoft's future. If they can straighten themselves out and start playing by the rules, I think we'll find the quality of their software will improve greatly as well.

[voice-]

az: From what I've read Longhorn is kinda liek XP.1, a servicepack to fix problems while BlackComb is their next OS.
Anyway, there's no way of knowing how much they will rule cause we only have MSs word for it.

About stealing thunder, they need to try harder. While MWSF was going on and the keynote was given, Bill Gates stood on a stage of his own and announced an updated remote-control. Sure, that steals users from Gigahertz PowerMacs and flat-screen iMacs...

[edX]

You trash XP because it "sucks" but so did the first release of OS X. If Microsoft does deliver on "Longhorn/Blackcomb" there's going to be a lot of long faces in Cupertino.

were you still taking to me here? because i have never trashed XP specifically. i've never even seen a working copy of XP, that's how little i care about it at this point.

but I trash m$ all the time. that's because i hate m$. i have a long history of hating m$. I am a bitter old man when it comes to m$ and billy boy. no amount of reason you could provide would change my mind on this one

You, my young man, were probably not able to ride a bicycle yet when i first started to hate m$. billy boy had yet to become the richest man in the world. and now, everyday i read something here or elsewhere, often the mainstream news, that confirms to me why i should fear and hate them. My fear is fed by people like yourself who think that if they just made a better product, they would be ok again. Why can't we just let somebody else make a better product and let m$ go the way of savings and loans in america?

primarly because it would mean that millions of users worldwide would have to admit that they have been buying their own problems for too long of a time.

[Ricky]

Originally posted by adambyte
hehe... Microsoft products NEVER work.

Heh, check my sig.

It was to be expected that Microsoft would do this sort of thing so close to MacWorld. I don't mind, we're going to blow them away.