1. Speaking of COMDEX/Fall '96*
2. Windows Strategy Day at Windows NT Server PDC Highlights
Corporate Vision
3. Get An Early Start On Building Windows CE Solutions!
4. OpenGL and DirectX Support in Windows 95 and Windows
NT Synch Up
5. Windows NT 4.0 Receives POSIX Certification
6. Future Windows NT Development For MIPS To Be Phased Out
7. Microsoft Exchange Provides Lower TCO Than Lotus Notes
8. Lettuce, BackOffice, Hold The Onions
9. BackOffice Expands and Updates the Family
10. Try User-Driven Support Sources For Windows NT
Speaking of COMDEX/Fall '96*
It's just around the corner! If you are attending COMDEX,
make sure to stop by the Microsoft booth number 2202 to
visit our demo stations, see live presentations in our
theater, look through MS Press books, consult with techs,
and get some hands-on experience with Microsoft's newest
products! Our booth is located directly at the main
entrance to the main floor of the show at the Las Vegas
Convention Center. You won't miss it.
The 206-space Microsoft Partner Pavilion is located in
almost equally prime real estate just behind and adjacent
to the main Microsoft booth. If you're a partner in our
Partner Pavilion, be sure to take advantage of the special
opportunities we have planned: (1) The Pre-Show Reception
on Sunday, November 17 at 6:00 p.m. at the Information Kiosk
inside the Partner Pavilion (Booth L2212). This is a chance
for you to "meet and greet" with Softbank and Microsoft
representatives. (2) On Saturday, November 16 and Sunday,
November 17, we will be coming to your booth to place our
Microsoft monitor toppers which feature Internet Explorer
4.0 and the new IntelliMouse, Windows and BackOffice Logo
stickers, and the new IntelliMouse itself. If your company
has not signed up for these materials, contact Kristin Connors
at 206-703-7476. Please make sure your booth manager hasn't
already responded to our fax-down before calling her. If
you have any questions about logistics and your booth, please
contact Bob Berkowitz at Softbank at Berkowitz@comdex.com.
Look for the Microsoft COMDEX website to be located off the
main Microsoft page, including a listing of all of our
exhibiting Partners.
If you're a Logo partner exhibiting in the Pavilion at
COMDEX, you've been invited to participate in our special
co-marketing opportunities which include the PressFest
@ ChampFest on Wednesday, November 20th, the Logo Partner
Map, and the Virtual Press Kit on the Web. If you haven't
responded, and can whip up a news release, a URL, and
some product in the next two days (no pressure!), please
contact me immediately at a-franl@microsoft.com to find
out how to participate.
We look forward to seeing all our partners down in Vegas!
Windows Strategy Day at Windows NT Server PDC Highlights
Corporate Vision On Monday, November 4th Microsoft unveiled
the future direction for the Windows platform in an
exclusive briefing for developers, top industry analysts
and press reporters in Long Beach, California. A series
of announcements were made focusing on: re-establishing
the vision of "Information at Your Fingertips" (IAYF);
establishing Windows as the platform for innovation;
and responding to the Network Computer initiative by
laying out Microsoft's plans to reduce the total cost
of ownership. For more details, check out the articles
about the Zero Administration initiative and the NetPC
on the announcement page of http://www.microsoft.com/
windows/strategy/. If you missed the PDC and Windows
Strategy live web-event, PowerPoint presentations and
Real Audio coverage are available now on this website.
On-demand presentations via Microsoft NetShow will be
available starting November 11th. In addition to
slideware and press releases, Microsoft delivered a
preview version of Windows NT Server 5.0 (actual
preliminary code) to over 3500 developers at the Server
PDC, including Active Directory and Active Server
technologies, see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/
common/aa2354.htm for more information. If you
weren't at either the Site Builder's or Server PDCs
(Professional Developer Conferences), you can see what
all the excitement was all about by going to the PDC
website http://www.microsoft.com/pdc/ and clicking
on the "here's your second chance" link to see a
schedule for highlights of these two shows coming to
a Microsoft at the Movies theater near you. Also,
check out the new consolidated Windows web page at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/.
Get An Early Start On Building Windows CE Solutions!
Don't miss the launch of Windows CE on Sunday November
17. If you haven't been invited to this exclusive event,
you can track it from the website address listed below.
If you are interested in developing applications or
solutions for Windows CE, Microsoft's new hand-held
Windows platform, you'll need the Windows CE SDK and
Tools. A cross development add-on package for use
with Visual C++ will be available early next year,
but to get an early start on developing you can join
the Windows CE Technical Beta Program. This beta
program includes beta versions of the SDK and Tools,
the DDK, and developer support. See the new Windows
CE website at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsce
or for information about joining the Windows CE
Technical Beta Program, email WCEDEV@Microsoft.com.
OpenGL and DirectX Support in Windows 95 and
Windows NT Synch Up
OpenGL originally shipped with Windows NT, and now
it's available for Windows 95. The Windows 95 OpenGL
redistributable libraries are on our ftp site
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES and
get: Opengl95.exe. They include DLLs and SDK
materials which must be installed by your the application.
This is a final release of the new OpenGL 1.1 for
Windows95. For Windows NT you need to get a copy
of NT 4.0; we can't ship it independently, due to
changes in the display driver model. This library
is also included in the next Win32 SDK and MSDN
level 2 update. It is also shipped with Win95
OSR2 update release for new machines shipping
this Christmas. There are no development or
run-time licensing fees. You are free to redistribute
the library with your OpenGL application. See
readme.txt included in Opengl95.exe for more information.
Expect DirectX to synch up in the December timeframe,
when we expect a new DirectX development kit will
ship that brings Windows 95 and Windows NT support more
in synch.
Windows NT 4.0 Receives POSIX Certification
Windows NT Server and Windows NT Workstation version
4.0 has successfully completed POSIX (NIST-PCTS:151-2)
certification this week. POSIX is a standard that
defines a portable operating system interface and
environment to support application development.
You can look at this as the Win32 API for portable
UNIX. Through POSIX certification, Windows NT is
shown to be compliant with this standard and is placed
on a National Institute of Standards and Technology
product list as such. The bottom line is that POSIX
certification allows Windows NT to complete against
UNIX in large government and government contractor
procurements.
Future Windows NT Development For MIPS To Be Phased Out
This decision was driven by lack of demand for MIPS-based
systems from key OEM customers, NEC and others. (NEC,
the largest OEM for this platform, decided not to enhance
the MIPS platform after Windows NT Server and Workstation
4.0.) As customer satisfaction is Microsoft's primary
concern, Windows NT Server and Workstation 4.0 on MIPS
will still be supported moving forward. For the longer
term, customers and ISVs should plan to evaluate other
hardware platforms for Windows NT Server and Workstation
solutions.
Microsoft Exchange Provides Lower TCO Than Lotus Notes
The Exchange marketing team recently announced the results
of a study titled Microsoft Exchange v. Lotus Notes:
A Cost of Ownership Study. This study was conducted by
Zona Research. Highlights include the following data:
* Exchange has a 47% lower total cost of ownership over
a 3 year period --$388/user v. $727/user.
* Exchange customers reported an average of 232 users/server,
compared with 54 users/server reported by Notes customers
(Exchange user/server numebrs ranged from 4-2750; Notes
from 5-428).
* Total acquisition cost for Exchange is $130.75/user
v. $347.73--62% less
* Exchange costs 65% less per user to deploy--$43.31 v.
$125.35
* Staffing support for Exchange costs $15.48/user compared
to $44.55/user for Notes--66% savings
The numbers above represent the areas with the largest
percentage savings. In addition to these Zona also looked
at training and ongoing support/maintanence. In total
over 50 medium and large companies were surveyed,
representing ~100K Exchange seats and ~70K Notes seats.
For complete study results, the press release, and more
competitive information see
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/tco.htm.
Lettuce, BackOffice, Hold The Onions
Next time you go eat at a corporate-owned Burger King,
they'll ring you up using a new point-of-sales system in
restaurants based on the Microsoft BackOffice integrated
suite of server applications including Microsoft Windows
NT Server. This client server solution will replace an
existing mainframe information reporting systems and
provide Burger King Corporation with an enterprise-wide
business information system. The home of the Whopper
will also offer this POS solution to its franchises.
BackOffice Expands and Updates the Family
To meet the needs of corporate customers who want to
integrate their existing business operations with
additional Internet technologies, Microsoft will make
five new servers widely available as part of the
BackOffice family: Microsoft Personalization System,
Microsoft Content Replication System, Microsoft
Conference Server, Microsoft Proxy Server, and
Microsoft Merchant Server. For more information on
the Microsoft BackOffice Family, visit the Web site
at: http://www.microsoft.com/backoffice.
Try User-Driven Support Sources For Windows NT
If you'd like support help by the people, for the people,
and of the people (no, wait, the election is over*),
you should investigate the following websites that are
run by companies or individuals who really know their
Windows NT stuff. Among the websites that offer tips
and techniques, news, and other resources are: Windows
NT Resource Center (maintained by Beverly Hills
Software), Windows-NT.com, The Windows NT Interactive
Archive, and The iNformaTion site. While these are
the top sites recommended by those in the know, here
are links to others that are suggested: Windows NT
Magazine at http:/www.winntmag.com/, The
NetInnovation.Com Windows NT Resources page, located
at http://www.NetInnovation.com/NT, Frank Condron's
World O'Windows, at http://www.conitech.com/
windows/winnt.html, and WindowsNT-Plus.\com, at
http://www.windowsnt-plus.com.
Thanks,
Doyoung Rhee
(02) 531-4628 , dyrhee@microsoft.com