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| February 2001 |
News - Past Articles
Linux, Mac and Windows news
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| By Staff |
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Windows digest: Microsoft tightens belts; discounts discounted; Gates meets his fate.
If anyone thought for a moment that Microsoft was immune to the downturn plaguing the tech market over the last several months, the events of the past few weeks should have dispelled any inkling that the behemoth could escape the current slowdown unscathed. The software giant gave the industry a hard-core dose of reality this month when it issued its first profit warning since 1989. Microsoft announced that its second-quarter revenue and earnings would fall 5 to 6 percent shy of earlier estimates, a statement that was foreshadowed by similar warnings from Intel and other PC vendors. Attributing the losses to lower-than-anticipated PC sales, Microsoft dropped its revenue estimate from $6.8 billion to $6.5 billion and lowered its earnings estimates from 49 cents a share to 46 cents a share. Microsoft's stock dropped eight percent to 50.63 the following day, and the rest came tumbling after--Nasdaq lost 111.48 and the Dow dropped 181.44--with downgrades from Sun Microsystems, EMC, and Cisco en suite.
Microsoft has blamed a slump in PC sales and the weakening economy for the decrease in demand for desktop applications. But some analysts maintain that Microsoft's ills come not just from consumers trailing off the PC-buying path, but from its unfulfilled hopes that widespread upgrades to Windows 2000 would lead to big sales for Office 2000.
No more deals
Just days after the profit warning, Microsoft announced that it would remove consumer volume-licensing price lists in 2001, specifically those involving Select, Open, and EA volume-licensing programs. Denying that the move was an attempt to squeeze out more corporate sales of Windows 2000, Microsoft said the change had been planned for quite some time. After March 1, Windows Me will no longer be available under the volume-licensing agreements, and Windows 95 and 98 will follow suit after June 30. Buyers will be forced to buy from retail outlets, resellers, and PC-vendor preloads. That, unfortunately, means higher prices.
Gates ... dead?
Was it Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson? David Boies? A gang of open sourcerers? We'll have to wait and see--the movie, that is. GMD studios, makers of "The Blair Witch Project," are putting a gun to the head of the richest man in the world. Picture it: Dec. 2, 1999. Gates heads to MacArthur Park in Los Angeles for a charity event. Gunshots sound from the rooftop of the Park Plaza hotel and Gates is dead. The rest is up to GMD, director Brian Fleming, and anyone else who has a few good ideas about who should "kill" Microsoft's chief software architect. As we went to press, GMD was scheduled to launch a companion Web site www.billgatesisdead.com , where antitrust-backers, Linux proponents, and any other enthusiasts can make donations to the movie plot. The film is scheduled for debut sometime in 2001.
Hands across the Internet
Apple Computer will likely have a few suggestions for Gates's rendezvous in MacArthur Park, as will Cisco Systems Inc., Kasenna, Philips, and Sun Microsystems. Recently, the companies launched the Internet Streaming Media Alliance, a group devised to promote open standards for streaming media. The problem? Microsoft and RealNetworks, virtual keyholders to the information sought by the alliance, aren't interested in joining the clan. Microsoft reportedly plans to wait and see, claiming it will reconsider if a particular standard takes off.
The only organization Microsoft is currently interested in concerns the uncertain future of e-business. It recently joined hands with Intel, IBM, Compaq, Dell and about two dozen other companies to form the Business Internet Consortium, a group that will attempt to establish a unified set of business standards and technology for e-commerce. The group will hold forums on issues faced by those in business and in the computer industry as they set up shop on the Web. The goal is to ease the transition and creating a foundation that will bring truth to predictions like a recent one by Gartner Group that projects e-business revenues to hit the $7 trillion mark by 2004. -Christy Mulligan
Mac digest: Jobs rallies the troops; new QuickTime incorporates user suggestions.
Recently MacCentral called on industry analysts to take a good look at Apple's bruises and try to prescribe remedies for the ailing PC manufacturer. Their answers can be summed up in two words: faster and cheaper. This is good advice for a company that was forced in December to admit it has made some major mistakes in the last year--ones that equated to a $250 million loss at the end of the fourth quarter. It's the first loss Apple has reported in three years, and it looks as if the company's woes will last at least until the end of its second fiscal quarter in March. Analysts claim that if the company is able to generate a profit by then, it won't be much.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has dropped hints of two applications on the way, both video-editing tools he claims are similar to iMovie. In addition, the company has implemented some price cuts, rebates, and sales-staff incentives to try to stimulate sales. Jobs admitted that Apple's biggest boo-boo of the year was in the education market, referring to the company's decision to revamp its education force precisely when schools were making their annual purchasing decisions (most schools subsequently went with Dell). Jobs also claimed the company erred in failing to incorporate CD-RW storage standards into its Macs. Analysts have added to that the reality that the G4 Cube was just too expensive for even die-hard Mac buyers.
Linux digest: Finally, a real desktop; KDE 2 brings a host of features to a screen near you.
The recent release of version 2 of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) raises the bar for the Linux desktop interface, traditionally a weak area for the free Linux operating system.
Those accustomed to Windows or MacOS systems may think it odd that Linux has no standard desktop. But this just reflects the freedom of choice that is a hallmark of Linux. Both Windows and MacOS lock you into a particular desktop interface, because on those operating systems the desktop interface is part of the OS. On Linux, you can choose any desktop interface that you want, although until recently none of those desktops was very good. KDE 2 changes all that. KDE 2 brings a number of new features, including Konqueror, a Web browser and document viewer, and integrates the KOffice suite of office applications. KOffice applications include the KWord (word processor), KSpread (spreadsheet), KIllustrator (vector-drawing), and KPresenter (presentations). The desktop interface adds themes and provides more than 100 applications. KDE 2 also supports at least 40 languages. KDE provides the default desktop interface on most Linux distributions, with the notable exception of Red Hat, which uses Gnome. Gnome www.gnome.org , KDE's well publicized main competitor, is also making great strides in acceptance from major Unix vendors such as Sun Microsystems.
Luckily, these desktops are not an either-or proposition. I regularly run KDE applications on the Gnome desktop. You can also run Gnome (and other Linux applications) on the KDE desktop; this isn't a perfect solution, because some programs, notably Corel's WordPerfect Office 2000, run much better under KDE.
KDE 2 should start appearing in Linux distributions over the next six months. SuSE Linux 7, for example, provides only a pre-release version of KDE 2. It's likely the next SuSE release will include the full KDE 2, as should the next releases from Red Hat , Caldera , TurboLinux , and Corel .
In the meantime, you can download binary versions from http://ftp.kde.org/stable/2.0/distribution/ . The main KDE site is www.kde.org . - Eric Foster-Johnson
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