And the Gorilla trotted out its value chain members to dance the dance.
Microsoft Launches 2000 With Help From Dell
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Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 15) - Software giant Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday kicked off a gala launch event for Windows 2000, with a key ally, Dell Computer Corp. and corporate customers giving the new operating system high marks.
Delivering the opening keynote for the three-day event, which will culminate on Thursday with the official unveiling of Windows 2000 by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell said he thought adoption of the software would be 'strong.'
His comments came in response to worries by analysts and investors that customers might be slow to upgrade to Windows 2000, to be launched Thursday. The next-generation operating system will run business networks and the powerful servers that underpin the Internet.
'I believe the adoption rate will be strong,' Dell told a news briefing after his speech. 'We see a lot of interest in Windows 2000, and our Dell technical consulting practice has seen a lot demand.'
Microsoft has bet $1 billion and more than three years of effort that Windows 2000, the successor to its NT networking platform, will allow it to capture the lion's share of the booming market for servers and business computers.
But the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant has faced increasing competition from rivals such as the upstart Linux operating system and perennial foe Sun Microsystems Inc.
Shares in Microsoft closed down 1-1/16 at 98-3/4.
The company's stock has been rocked the past few days, including a 5-percent-drop last Friday, after a report by research firm The Gartner Group forecast Windows 2000 adoption would be slow and that companies switching to it this year would experience compatibility problems with existing software.
Comments by Dell last week that Linux was gaining strength and that he didn't see 'a massive, immediate acceleration' in business driven by Windows 2000 upgrades, also rattled investors.
Dell on Tuesday distanced himself from those words, saying the remarks were inappropriately linked to the Gartner report. Other analysts have since said that a slower roll-out for Windows 2000 was expected because of the cost and effort needed to upgrade sprawling business networks.
Dell said his company, the No. 1 direct seller of personal computers that relies heavily on the Internet, had flipped the switch and jumped to a Windows 2000-based system last Wednesday.
He touted the reliability and flexibility of Windows 2000, the release of which Microsoft had repeatedly delayed as it continually massaged the software's more than 30 million lines of code.
'This is a huge and very important leap forward in terms of what customers want from their PCs and the related products that go around it,' Dell said.
Dell also took a shot at rival Sun, saying a Dell-brand server powered by Intel Corp.'s Pentium III chips and running Windows 2000 offered twice the performance, took up half the space and was one-third the price of a comparable Sun system.
Sun is one of Microsoft's most vocal critics, and has pushed its Java and Jini programming technologies as open and Internet-friendly alternatives to Windows systems.
Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy has publicly called on the industry not to support Windows 2000, saying it is too bulky and clunky to be of practical value in a world that is moving toward 'anywhere, anytime' computing on a range of non-PC devices.
But Dell said his company was working with such high-profile customers as Wall Street brokerage firm Merrill Lynch, American Express, TWA airlines and leading job Web site Monster.com to deploy Windows 2000.
Ford Motor Co. also gave the platform a thumbs-up, with its Chief Information Officer Jim Yost saying the American car giant planned to complete a total Windows 2000 make-over by early 2001.
'Windows 2000 was chosen for both its scalability and reliability, which are needed to support our high-volume needs,' Yost said. 'We need to have a very robust infrastructure.'
Dell's keynote was to be followed by one from Michael Capellas, chief executive of Compaq Computer Corp., the world's second biggest computer company, later on Tuesday.
Reut17:00 02-15-00
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