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Microsoft Won't Stop in 'Albany' After April
Microsoft disclosed Wednesday that it will cut off its Equipt subscription service – formerly codenamed 'Albany' -- for Office and Live OneCare as of April 30.
After that date, the copies of Office Home and Student that are part of the service will default to "limited functionality" mode, which will let users view Office documents but not change or edit them, nor will it allow them to create new documents, Microsoft said in a blog post.
In November, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) quietly disclosed that it was going to close the service down when it announced the cancellation of its OneCare anti-malware and antivirus subscription service effective June 30. OneCare customers will be able to migrate to a free anti-malware service codenamed 'Morro' when that product is ready for release in the second half of the year. Microsoft, which has been mum about the cutoff date until this week, posted the date on its Help and Support blog, which also stated that users will be automatically warned of the expiration date if they have Windows Update enabled. When it rolled out last July, Equipt was viewed as another attempt by Microsoft to close in on defining its "software-plus-services" strategy. The idea was to produce an attractive bundle of services for users at a much lower incremental price. Microsoft combined Office and OneCare into a subscription service that cost $69.99 per year, a much more affordable deal than $149.95 for Office Home and Student and $49.95 per year for a standalone subscription to OneCare. By November, however, Microsoft executives had come to the decision to shut down OneCare. Since then, subscribers have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. So what happens next next? "Microsoft Office will stop receiving subscription license updates and will enter reduced functionality mode .… [also] OneCare will stop receiving the periodic updates that are required for continued security protection," said the post. What should subscribers do? "You should uninstall Microsoft Equipt from all computers after April 30, 2009. We recommend that you install another version of Microsoft Office and replace your antivirus software," the post continued. One analyst points out that the discontinuation won't be as painful as it could have been – at least financially. The Equipt site states that Microsoft will provide subscribers with a free copy of Office Home and Student to replace the one that will expire April 30. Additionally, Microsoft will refund the unexpired months that the subscription would have left to run. Subscribers can apply for refunds at the Microsoft Equipt Subscriber Center. "The question is what anti-virus product subscribers will use because Morro isn't due until the second half of the year," Rob Helm, research director at Directions on Microsoft, So why end the Equipt service? However, one analyst wondered whether one of the problems with OneCare might have been more a question of not enough subscribers to make the services viable. "My sense is this will affect a fairly small number of people [subscribers]," Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies, "It may not have done very well in the market." When queried as to the demise of OneCare and Equipt, however, Microsoft said it was not a lack of subscribers. "The subscription model did not fail. This delivery method was well-received in the market," a Microsoft spokesperson in an e-mail. "We will look into offering future Office products and services via a subscription model, but have nothing to announce at this time," the spokesperson added. One side effect of killing off Equipt, however, may be lower confidence in Microsoft's famous "stick-to-it" attitude when it comes to other online investments, according to Helm. "It's definitely a reasonable question to ask," he said. "The customers have to ask 'Is this [product] something Microsoft is really committed to'?"
Microsoft's various posts explain that customers' need for a free malware engine caused the demise of OneCare, with the domino effect that without OneCare, there really is no Equipt bundle any longer.
Windows 7's Worst-Kept Secret? Its Release Date
Microsoft may be preparing to release the first and possibly the only "release candidate" for Windows 7 in March or April, the final stage in the development cycle. Thus far, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has maintained the party line that Windows 7 will ship in the first quarter of 2010. Steven Sinofsky, the executive leading the development of Windows 7, has already said publicly that Microsoft is focused on the RC phase of development, but he gave no timeline as to when that will be. However, TechARP, a tech enthusiast Web site in Malaysia, says that it has learned that Microsoft will ship the "release candidate" of Windows 7 in April – and that could put Windows 7 on users' desktops sooner than they might expect. "Microsoft is targeting an April '09 release of their Release Candidate (RC) build [of Windows 7]," said an article posted on TechArp's site in recent days. In Microsoft parlance, the last phase of testing after beta testing is completed is called a "release candidate." That is, it is a candidate to be the final code released to the public. Microsoft officials have said they're nearly ready to begin RC testing on Windows 7, just not when. An RC is sent to a select group of testers and if they don't find any "showstopper" bugs in a specified length of time, it becomes the final code. If they do, the code is fixed and another RC is released. There is then a brief period of a up to several weeks between the final RC and release to manufacturing (RTM), when the product goes into formal production for sale. The question is whether TechArp is right on the schedule. The site does have a growing track record of getting details and dates for many Microsoft products before almost anyone else. Among TechArp's other revelations: Microsoft plans to RTM Internet Explorer 8 in March and Microsoft has set the cut off date for its "technical guarantee" program to January 31, 2010. The site had previously revealed that the time period within which users who buy new PCs with Vista installed will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 at low or no cost will begin July 1. The report went on to say "If tests of the RC build proceeds [sic] according to plan, Microsoft is confident of launching Windows 7 before the December '09 holiday season. In short, we can expect Windows 7 to RTM by November or early December '09." That would be a seven to eight month gap between RC and RTM, which is unheard of for Microsoft. Microsoft remains silent "We expect Windows 7 to ship approximately three years from the Windows Vista Consumer GA [general availability] launch," a spokesperson on Thursday. By that worst case math, it would put public release of Windows 7 on or around late January 2010. Almost no experienced Microsoft observer believes it will be that late, though. Reports on the quality of the beta say the code is extremely stable, as well as faster and smaller than Vista. "I think we'll see [commercial release of] Windows 7 this year," Richard Shim, research manager for IDC's PC team, He has been running the beta and attests that it's "very stable." Indeed, reported in September that Microsoft was, at that time, slated to RTM Windows 7 on June 3. Follow up reporting has found that Windows 7 is apparently still on track for a June RTM. If Microsoft does indeed begin RC testing in April, which appears more likely by the day, and RTMs in June, the next question is when is Windows 7 likely to be available for purchase? "Typically, it takes at least a few months [to fill the channel], so June would make it available for the holiday sales period, but that's speculation on my part," IDC's Shim said. Back-to-school sales in late summer seem more likely, he added. "That would be a little advanced [in time] but we're looking at shipments slowing down and that might get OEMs to move faster," said Shim. In fact, some OEMs are looking to Windows 7 to help improve sales as the recession grinds on.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is famous for its reticence to disclose details such as ship dates until it is absolutely positive it can meet them – though even there, it has had some equally-famous misses. Take, for instance, the repeated public delays Microsoft suffered with Windows Vista. In fact, the very public debacle with Vista had a hand in how little Microsoft has been willing to say out loud with Windows 7 – Vista's successor.
Microsoft Looks to 'Elevate America'
Microsoft has launched an ambitious program designed to help provide technology training to millions of citizens. The news comes during a growing, worldwide economic crisis that has seen rising unemployment in the U.S. Elevate America, announced Sunday, has two major components. First is the Elevate America Web site run by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and available now. The online resource is designed to help people figure out what types of technical skills they need for jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities available today and in the future. Resources to help acquire the skills necessary to find these jobs are also included. The site includes Microsoft-specific content and access to several Microsoft online training programs on how to use specific Microsoft applications. More basic training material is also included, such as instruction on how to use the Internet, send e-mail and create a résumé. Also, Microsoft said it is partnering with state and local governments so that they in turn can make these resources available at local levels. Florida, New York and Washington will be the first states to provide Elevate America to their residents, Microsoft said. Florida Governor Charlie Crist said that the success of the Elevate Miami program in his state is proof that public-private partnerships can work and benefit citizens. "We have worked with Microsoft for years in Miami to bring technology training to underserved populations," he said in a release. "Now, with Elevate America, we have the opportunity to bring these important skills to even more people, at a time when they are needed more than ever." As part of the progam, Microsoft said it plans to provide a million Microsoft Learning vouchers for free access to Microsoft eLearning courses and select certification exams. "We are also providing a full range of work force development resources for state and local governments so they can offer specialized training for their workers," said Pamela Passman, corporate vice president of Microsoft Global Corporate Affairs. Microsoft said that more than half of today's jobs require some technology skills, and that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that figure will reach 77 percent in the next decade.
Microsoft Proposes a More Secure Browser
Microsoft Research, in conjunction with researchers at several prominent technology-oriented universities, has published a thesis on what a new secure Web browser should look like. The paper addresses a number of security issues that have dogged browsers from day one, and gives hints at a possible future direction for Internet Explorer.
The Gazelle Web browser, as it's codenamed, is a "secure web browser constructed as a multi-principal OS," according to the report. It's the outcome of a project under development at Microsoft Research called "MashupOS," which Microsoft has discussed publicly.
In that paper, Microsoft researchers noted that the evolution of the browser "has led to an inadequate security model that forces Web applications to choose between security and interoperation." MashupOS is "a set of abstractions that isolate mutually-untrusting web services within the browser, while allowing safe forms of communication." The problem, as Microsoft outlined, is that in a Web 2.0 world, you have to choose between convenience or security. The convenience of running mashups has to be countered against the security question of visiting one trusted Web site that may be pulling in applications and services from multiple unknown, untrusted Web sites. The aim of MashupOS is to provide cross-domain protection that prevents code in one domain from compromising the integrity of other domains, controlling the communication lines between domains, and making minimal changes to the existing Web API to maintain backwards compatibility. The authors noted that no existing browsers have a multi-principal operating system construction that gives the browser exclusive control to manage the protection of all system resources. In other words, browsers use the operating system's kernel. Turning the browser into an operating system The report, written by some of the authors of the MashupOS paper as well as researchers from University of Washington and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says that Gazelle is "an IE-based prototype that realizes Gazelle's multi-principal OS architecture and at the same time utilizes all the backward-compatible parsing, DOM management, and JavaScript interpretation that already exist in IE." But don't hold your breath for a new Gazelle-based browser. Microsoft officials say this is, for now, strictly a research project and there are no plans to productize Gazelle anytime soon.
The Gazelle browser uses its own kernel, effectively turning the app into an operating system. This allows it to examine and identify traffic as it's passed through the browser's subsystems and lets it react to anything malicious with far more control than browser have previously had.
Will Windows 7 Be a PC Mover
No two recessions are the same, and the shakedown hitting the U.S., indeed the global economy, is very different from the one experienced in 2000-2002. That was a powerful combination of the Silicon Valley getting hit directly from the dot-bomb implosion and the overall U.S. economy shattered by the events on September 11, 2001.
This time, the industries hardest hit are banking and housing, and tech has merely been caught in the blast radius. The lack of credit, draconian decisions by credit card issuers and uncertainty about jobs has people keeping their wallets closed and limiting purchases to the essentials.
Vendors are trying their best to get product moving. The PC sector has taken to cutting prices as much as it can without actually losing money. However, customers are still not motivated. PC sales fell to just 1.1 percent year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter. So, can the release of Windows 7 get PC sales moving again? Even in prerelease form, Windows 7 has done something remarkable; it's generated real, positive excitement on the blogosphere and Web sites for its stability and performance. There is also some anecdotal evidence that lots of people are willing to buy a Windows 7 machine when it debuts. The clearest statement came this week from Brian Gladden, chief financial officer of Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), on a conference call with analysts to discuss the firm's fourth quarter and fiscal year. "We're starting to get pretty excited about Windows 7 and think it will be an important catalyst for growth," he told analysts on the call. Then Gladden said the one thing Microsoft probably doesn't want to hear: "Having said that, it will likely push some purchases back until it comes out." Analysts interviewed by are cautiously optimistic the release of Windows 7 can help drive PC sales. The questionable economic situation is a black cloud in everyone's crystal ball, forcing all of them to temper their sentiments. These sentiments were also impacted by the fact that Microsoft still has not given a release date for Windows 7. It continues to maintain the party line of a January 2010 release date. has learned otherwise -- that the company internally has set a target date of June 2009. Judging by the solid condition of the beta and numerous accolades heaped on it, that June target seems increasingly likely. Outlook: cloudy "The big benefit is if they can get Windows 7 done by the holidays, it's another reason to get consumers to buy," said Stephen Baker, vice president of research for NPD Group. "In this environment, that's what everybody needs, a reason to get people back into the marketplace." Added Rob Enderle, principal analyst with The Enderle Group, "There is a lot of aging hardware in the market, particularly in the large business space which is waiting for a trigger. Windows 7 could be that trigger and feedback from companies is that they are optimistically looking forward to driving deployments with it." Predictions are clouded by the economy, not to mention guessing when Windows 7 will really ship. "It's not the sort of answer I could say 'yes' or 'no' to," said Richard Shim, research manager for IDC's Personal Computing program. "There are significant variables and right now we don't have definitive visibility to say [Windows 7's impact]." Steve Kleynhans, vice president in the Client Platforms Group at Gartner, was probably the most bearish on the consumer impact. "It is unlikely that an OS on its own won't outweigh consumer concerns about the economy, so we aren't expecting it to have a major impact this year," he said in an e-mail to Baker also has two cautionary points: the first is that despite the great buzz for Windows 7 on the Internet, the vast majority of consumers have much bigger concerns right now. "This is not on their radar today. Come the end of the year, if this is available, we'll have something to talk about," he said. Should I stay or should I go? "The reality is that the economic situation is causing a lot of companies (both small and large) to slow down their PC replacements and postpone non-essential projects. This is likely to impact corporate Vista deployments significantly – in a negative way," Kleynhans said. However, Microsoft plans to end support for Windows XP on April 2014, so companies will start to feel some pressure to start migrating their computers from XP to something else and be finished by the middle of 2013. That would be cutting it close for companies that eschew Vista, which almost half said they would do in one survey. Windows 7 deployments won't start until 2011 because it takes at least a year to get all the pieces lined up, get apps tested, get support from third parties, and so on, said Kleynhans. Transition issues Microsoft is certainly not encouraging anyone to wait. "We recommend they deploy Windows Vista to both take advantage of its benefits and to get their applications ready for Windows 7," said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement e-mailed to Because Windows 7 will not make significant architectural changes over Windows Vista, using the same kernel and device driver model, Microsoft expects that Windows 7 will run most if not all applications that run on Windows Vista. "While we know that enterprise customers will want to complete thorough compatibility testing with any new operating system, the transition to Windows 7 should be much more straightforward if they move to Windows Vista in the interim," the company concluded. Shim believes there will be some corporate buying for Windows 7, and they won't wait for the first service pack to be released, which is usually what happens. In the past, businesses would test a new OS, but not distribute it until the first service pack came out, usually one year after the OS is released. "The short time frame between Vista and Windows 7 has given commercial buyers a reason to hold off," he said. "That as well as the economy, and we haven't seen a refresh cycle in a while. My feeling is adoption for Windows 7 will be pretty quick, because a lot of what they tried to accomplish with Vista will be in 7."
The general forecast for Windows 7 looks good. With many consumers and businesses holding off on purchasing new computers because they didn't want Vista, that means there are a lot of aging computers that need to be put out to pasture.
On the business side, Vista has gotten a big thumbs down, with many companies choosing to wait, or forcing Microsoft to keep extending the availability of Windows XP as a purchase option. But the Vista distaste has given way to economic realities.
"This means that a lot of companies will be looking at doing an update either to Vista or Windows 7 in the rather narrow window between 2011 and mid-2013. Given that many of these same companies will find the average age of their PC fleet will have grown by 2011, there will be pressure to update a lot more machines as part of a migration during the 2011-2013 period," he said.