7th April 1999 Archive

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Dell jumps into preconfigured Linux Web sales

But it's not a breach with Microsoft, honest...

Dell has finally jumped into preinstalled Linux sales, and has backed the move up with an investment in Red Hat. The PC company will initially be selling PowerEdge servers and Precision workstations off the Web with Red Hat preinstalled, and intends to add Linux OptiPlex in the second quarter. Calendar specialists will note that …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 07:33
Spyglass deal to boost MS appliance capability?

Small but perfectly-formed Spyglass helps Redmond out. Again.

Here we go again? Back in the run-up to the Windows 95 launch Microsoft realised its browser development was going nowhere fast and licensed Mosaic from Spyglass as the basis for what would become Internet Explorer. Now Microsoft is paying $20 million to Spyglass over three years in order to develop CE products. But what kind of …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 07:35
FreeServe charging double for tech support calls

Free ISP still charging £1 a minute despite introducing 50p-a-minute in February

Leading ISP FreeServe is still charging £1 a minute for its telephone support service despite announcing in February that it had halved the cost. Net users who call FreeServe's original helpline number, 0906 553 5600, which was printed on tens of thousands of CD covers, are still being charged £1 a minute for technical support. …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 09:51
Sun brings native NT services to Solaris servers

PC Netlink/Cascade unveiled at last alongised NT co-processor card, reseller programme

Sun has finally admitted that Windows NT exists by introducing PC NetLink (codename Project Cascade) to enable Solaris servers to provide native Windows NT network services. Sun's added value is, it says, that fewer servers will be needed by NetLink users. It will be shipped this month. The pricing lure is that there is an …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 09:59
Palm parody pulled

3Com axes spoof ad attacking its politically incorrect Palm campaign

3Com's battalion of lawyers has forced a Web site featuring a parody of the latest ad campaign from the company's Palm subsidiary. The site featured a piss-take of a series of ads for the new Palm IIIx and V. 3Com's campaign features naked women and has already drawn fire from ordinary Palm users as well as the politically …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 10:19
Apple appoints ex-Beetle marketing chief

Former Volkwagen marketing boss to become Apple VP Marketing

Apple is set to appoint ex-Volkwagen US sales and marketing boss Steve Whilhite as its own head of marketing, according to a report in Advertising Age. Whilhite will become Apple's VP Marketing, a position currently unfilled, while interim CEO Steve Jobs oversees the promotion of Mac products. Given Whilhite was ultimately …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 10:43
Compaq to endorse Monterey

What can this mean for Tru64?

Later on today, Compaq will announce that it has endorsed Project Monterey's high volume shrink Unix for IA-64. At the same time, Compaq is expected to say that it will provide IBM middleware on its Unix systems. The move could be seen as something of a climbdown for Compaq with Tru64. Compaq will offer Big Blue middleware on …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 10:53
Win 2000 will launch on 6 October (maybe) and intact (maybe)

Microsoft playing very safe

Microsoft has confirmed it's pulling out all the stops to release Windows 2000 on 6 October, although this date is "100 per cent subject to review and change". According to a report by Computerworld, the Great Stan of Software also announced that the Beta 3 version will be available in a fortnight, as revealed here in February ( …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 10:57
Son of Wolfpack baptised by Big Blue

Cornhusker to arrive this quarter

A senior IBM executive said today that later this quarter, the company will, in conjunction with Microsoft, offer eight node clustering. The project, codenamed Cornhusker, uses elements of RS/6000 SP technology, and will work in conjunction with Windows NT 4.0, said Tikiri Wanduragala, IBM EMEA's Netfinity director. "One machine …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 10:58
IBM, SCO and Sequent bullish about Monterey

Big Blue claims to have solved endian problem

IBM, in conjunction with its Project Monterey partners SCO and Sequent said that the first initial tests of Monterey for IA-64 have been concluded successfully. In a separate development, Compaq also joined in the project (see story Compaq to endorse Monterey). IBM is licensing AIX technology to SCO to include in UnixWare. But …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 11:11
IBM spells out details of eight way Profusion box

Available in Q3...hi Intel

Big Blue said today that its eight way SMP server using Intel's Profusion technology will arrive in Q3. According to Tikiri Wanduragala, IBM Netfinity manager in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the box will come with technology developed in its Austin, rather than Raleigh facility. That means it will incorporate elements of …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 11:19
‘Re-invented’ HP appoints top execs

But where's the guiding light?

Has Hewlett-Packard, the big-horse, no-rider company, made a strategic error in its self-inflicted surgery, or "re-invention" as HP likes to call it? The evidence is that people work better in smaller units, and 122,800 employees is too great for one organisation in such a fast-moving sector. But there seems to be three things …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 11:28
UK ISP to set alight Net access with satellite link

High speed connection said to be quicker than ISDN. That fast huh?

Easynet is to offer high speed Net access using BT satellite technology to help users overcome the world wide wait. Believed to be one of the first commercial services of its kind, the ISP believes there will be much interest in a service which BT claims is quicker than conventional ISDN connections. "Our customers will be able …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 11:33
Amiga chief outlines plans

Collas hits out at Gateway "mismanagement"

The president of Amiga, Jim Collas, who formerly worked at Gateway, the company that owns Amiga, has outlined his plans for the future of the Amiga platform. Collas said that an Amiga show held at St Louis two weeks ago had showed an increase of 14 per cent in visitors year on year. He said: "The Amiga community is the most …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 11:52
MS blames Sun for plan to de-emphasise Visual J

Great Stan spokesman trots out standard 'innovation threat' line

Microsoft is attempting to move developers away from Java and toward its own C/C++ development system -- and it's all Sun's fault, apparently. Microsoft's Visual C Product Manager, Jeff Ressler, recently appeared on a live Web chat session hosted by the Enterprise Assistance Web site and claimed that Visual C was a far better …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 12:03
TDK pops Portable in PPCP's place

Who dropped who, why and when?

Portable Add-Ons has joined TDK's UK distribution channel, just weeks after the exit of mobile distributor PPCP. TDK has taken on Portable Add-Ons as its niche distributor for PC cards in portable devices. And in the long-running dispute over who-dropped-who in the PPCP saga, TDK says it sacked PPCP because the distributor did …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 12:31
UK shares soar as Brits go mobile-mad

Two million buy the gadgets

Mobile phone shares soared yesterday on reports that almost two million Brits flocked to buy the gadgets in the past three months. Vodafone, Cellnet, Orange and One2One all saw a healthy rise in share price following the news that around 1.9 million subscribers had signed up for mobiles from January to March. The figures, which …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 12:32
Merced seeks 70 babes in the wood

But we won't see systems until the end of next year

Sources close to Merced's plans said today that Intel has an ambitious plan to hire 70 engineers to help it sort out various problems with the microprocessor. And the same source, a senior executive at one of Intel's largest OEMs, said that while his company had still not yet seen silicon, even if samples arrived on time, …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 12:41
Sony talking to Citrix about Playstation licence

Run your Windows apps on a Sony platform

Sources said that Citrix is in talks to licence its technology to Sony for the Playstation platform. If the talks succeed, it could mean that you will be able to run your favourite Window apps on the Playstation and even do print and operations on Playstation II because it will have USB and FireWire connectivity. Citrix software …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 12:54
Intel, Farallon launch home networking line

Chip company plays Mac, shipping first cards to head off rival 3Com/Microsoft efforts

Intel yesterday launched its entry into the home networking market, AnyPoint, a system that will go head to head with rival technology from 3Com and Microsoft. AnyPoint connects multiple PCs through a building's telephone wiring. It's based on the Home Phone Networking Alliance (HomePNA) spec., which offers a data throughput …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 12:59
IE 5 boosts MS' browser marketshare

But not by very much

Further evidence has emerged today that Microsoft Internet Explorer is increasing its lead in the browser war as Net users desert Netscape in favour of the Great Satan of Software's software. According to figures published by analyst WebSideStory, IE ranks number one in the browser hit parade with 68.75 per cent of Internauts …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 15:34
Big Blue catches cold with PC virus

Almighty coryza strikes Aptivas

IBM has admitted that some of its PCs may be infected with the CIH virus, set to plague some of our systems later this month. That is, if we've bought IBM Aptivas, and the evidence is not many of us have. Big Blue said some Aptiva machines in the US were exposed to the bug during manufacture due to human error. IBM warned users …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 15:36
South Carolina not to get Microsoft plant

Dropping legal action against MS made no difference in the end...

South Carolina has lost out in its bid to persuade Microsoft to open a new facility in the state, rather than in North Carolina where Microsoft already has a base. It was announced yesterday that Microsoft will expand its 1000-person facility in Charlotte that it uses as its eastern regional product support services operation. …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 15:40
Tatung takes Cyrix WebPad route

It's mass market stuff...

NatSemi Cyrix said today that Tatung was to manufacture its WebPad design and aim it at the mass market. It is the first OEM announcement in a string of others, according to our source at Cyrix. The devices will arrive in volume in Q3 this year, according to the announcement. And Cyrix' partner ViA, not to be confused with VIA, …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 15:41
IBM denies any dispute with Intel over bus direction

Battle, what battle?

Tikiri Wanduragala, the charismatic director of Netfinity products at IBM EMEA, was in Raleigh last week talking to his colleagues who work on bus technology. And he was adamant that his company, Compaq and Hewlett Packard have not fallen out over the PCIX versus the NGIO bus. However, he did say that the PCIX chipset was due to …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 15:43
Eubanx to join Oblix

Departing Symantec CEO to stay until a successor is found

Departing Symantec CEO Gordon Eubanks is to join little-known business directory software supplier Oblix. Eubanks' decision to hand over the day-to-day running of the Great Stan of Utilities has been discussed for some time. However, this is the first official sign that he is not only stepping aside from that role but from the …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 15:53
Network Associates beaten up on stock market

Profit warnings and the like take toll

Network Associates yesterday saw its shares take a battering due to a warning that first quarter earnings would fall short of analysts’ expectations. The US-based software security company also announced a $169 million adjustment to acquisition write-offs taken last year. Shares fell 26 per cent in anticipation of the …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 16:33
BMG and Universal team up on Web

Market-defining e-commerce pact signed weeks ago -- anouncement comes at last

Two of the world's 'big five' music companies, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and Universal, today combined their online music ventures into a single operation, GetMusic.com, as predicted here. The deal, while initially merely an attempt to provide artist information and flog CDs, nevertheless paves the way for full-scale digital …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 16:37
Reseller and pregnant wife survive helicopter crash

Millionaire rescued from drink

A helicopter crash off the Dorset coast on Easter Monday nearly cost millionaire Phil Burgess his and his family's life. Burgess, financial director at Uxbridge, Middlesex reseller Pandi Data Services, was rescued from helicopter wreckage with his pregnant wife on Monday. The couple spent an hour in freezing sea water after …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 16:44
Intel Corollary technology late

Waiting for that chipset...

IBM's pre-announcement of its Profusion eight way SMP box later this year cannot disguise the fact that Intel is being tardy delivering essential infrastructure for the platform. Tikiri Wanduragala, IBM EMEA's Netfinity manager, said today that his company's machine will ship in Q3. But he also admitted that problems with the …

Business 7 Apr 1999, 16:48