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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tony Viola who wrote (34982)	12/1/1999 10:19:00 AM
From: Teflon	Respond to of 74651

Tony and Gang, latest news on W2K: Microsoft sees Windows 2000 release by end of year By Shoshanna Solomon TEL AVIV, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) expects to release its Windows 2000 operating system by the end of this year, group Vice President Jeff Raikes said on Wednesday. ''We expect to release Windows 2000 perhaps as early as the end of this year,'' Raikes told reporters at an Israeli technology conference, adding that a worldwide official launch was planned for February 17. ''We expect to have released the software prior to that event.'' He did not specify any date and did not say whether the software would be released to manufacturers or retailers by year-end. Raikes said the system was currently being tested by 600,000 people around the world and the company had just begun its third testing phase. ''Most companies which are using (Windows) NT4 will switch over to Windows 2000,'' he told Reuters. Raikes said nearly 400 million personal computers were in use around the world, with an estimated 50 to 100 million using Windows NT. Microsoft's main challenge at the moment was to focus on customer needs and not be distracted by the anti-trust suit against the company, Raikes said. ''What our competitors would like is for us to get distracted by the trial, by the issues at hand. There is a lot of activity going on with the trial, but it is most important we remain focused on the customers.'' He said he did not expect any changes to be made in Microsoft's products as a result of the trial. Last month U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found that Microsoft abused monopoly power in its Windows operating system, using it to harm consumers, rivals and other companies. An appeals court judge has been appointed to mediate a settlement in the case. ''We think that if we can come to some resolution with the Justice Department where we would maintain the ability to continue to add new innovations into the operating environment and perhaps make other changes that would make the Justice Department more comfortable, that would be something we would love to discuss,'' Raikes said. MICROSOFT WATCHING LINUX CLOSELY He said Microsoft was closely watching the trends in the industry and particularly the ''great deal of attention'' that Linux was receiving. Linux, a version of the Unix operating system that runs on Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) chips and other processors, has taken the computer world by storm in the past year, as many computer makers have begun to offer it as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows NT for certain applications. Raikes said Linux did not yet have a large percentage of the client operating system market and that Microsoft's emphasis on research and development gave its customers a more reliable platform than that of Linux. Microsoft will spend $3.8 billion in research and development in the next 12 months, he said. Teflon