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May 16, 2007 8:46 AM PDT
On Monday, Microsoft employees bristled at comments from the press that users were unhappy with Windows Vista. With regard to User Account Control (UAC), Nash told reporters that "the process is the same in (Mac) OS X." He recounted how his wife recently bought a HP printer, and UAC had asked permission to install the driver. Being a second user on the system, she needed Nash's password to proceed. Nash said that he later installed the same printer driver on a Mac. "It asked the same question," he said. However, the Mac elevated the user's privileges across the board, while Windows only elevated the user's installation privileges.
On Tuesday, Microsoft provided figures from IDC predicting a strong adoption rate in 2007 for Windows Vista and the new Windows Server 2008 . IDC predicts that by the end of the year, 90 million copies of Windows Vista should be installed, and 35 million within the United States. By the end of 2008, that number is predicted to be 150 million worldwide, and 68 million within the U.S. That may be true, but an informal "over-the-survey" of WinHEC 2007 attendees showed most were still using Windows XP.
May 16, 2007 8:04 AM PDT
Communicator allows employees to designate, through Microsoft Office, how they'd like to be contacted, seamlessly linking office phones, cell phones, and online messenger services together so that calls roam wherever you are. The Microsoft design specs released at WinHEC make it easier for customers to choose one of these phones, knowing that the qualified phone will integrate wholly with Office Communicator.
May 15, 2007 11:40 AM PDT
Mundie talked on Tuesday morning about the evolution of multicore processor architecture on desktops and laptops. He said that the 3GHz dual-core processor on today's PCs will soon give way to 3GHz quad-core and then 3GHz eight-cores down the road. The new processors will require new software languages. The new programming languages will run programs in parallel and on multiple platforms--PC, mobile, and the Internet.
Mundie says current software poorly utilizes the full CPU potential of any PC; most of the time our screensaver kicks in and performs no background operations. Mundie predicts new software on the PC will utilize the full potential, being capable of anticipating tasks performed frequently (such as downloading Web mail) and perhaps executing these before we sit down to the computer in the morning. Given the PC will soon become a "supercomputer on a die," capable of fast, parallel computations, he says there's room for both Internet-based services and a robust new environment for PC software development.
May 15, 2007 9:08 AM PDT
LOS ANGELES--Microsoft has sold more than 40 million copies of Windows Vista so far, Bill Gates told a crowd of hardware developers Tuesday.
That's more than the total install base of Windows' largest competitors, Gates quipped as he began his keynote at the Windows Hardware and Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here.
"As of last week, we've (sold) nearly 40 million copies," Gates said. "That's twice as fast as the adoption of Windows XP, the last major release we had."
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