Some major promises by Bill Gates in his keynote address:
1. Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 customers, beta will be available this summer and the final version this fall - it will not wait for the next version of Windows. We delivered on our part of XP SP2. We are actively delivering on our part of a great 64-bit Windows client. We continue to deliver on security updates for customers (across several versions of IE (back to IE 5.01) and Windows). We are going to deliver on IE7.
2. Windows Anti-Spyware To Come Free Of Charge Expanding anti-spyware protection by including the Windowsî AntiSpyware technology at no additional charge as part of the Windows value proposition
Gates expanded on Microsoft's recently announced plans to acquire security vendor Sybari Software Inc., which provides solutions to help protect messaging and collaboration servers from malicious software. Gates noted that when the acquisition is closed, Microsoft intends to ship a Microsoft engine, based on the GeCAD technology acquired in 2003, as one of the multiple scanning engines supported by Sybari's flagship Antigen software. Gates further noted that the Microsoft engine would also be integrated into a broad consumer offering by the end of this year.
Earlier, I had written a story where Microsoft executives have confirmed that aren't planning to ship any new or intermediate version of IE before Longhorn(2006) though they are busy building and testing a faster, more secure version internally. Though they will continue to release patches and service packs that would "extend" the functionality of IE. So Firefox is definitely setting the IE stage on fire and the critics have forced Microsoft to release a new IE even before Longhorn.
Via Gates Highlights Progress on Security, Outlines Next Steps for Continued Innovation
Updated: New details emerge on IE 7 at Microsoft IE blog.
- Platforms. We currently plan to make IE7 available for Windows XP SP2 and later. This will therefore include availability not only for the 32bit version of Windows XP SP2 but also for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 both of which are due to be released soon. As Dean commented in his original IE7 post on this blog we have heard the requests for support of Windows 2000 but have nothing to announce at this time.
- Outlook Express. The Outlook Express team is hard at work on great functionality for the new version of Outlook Express, which is shipping with the next release of Windows. There are no plans to ship the new version of Outlook Express before the next release of Windows. The Outlook Express newsgroup is a great place for discussion about that product and to leave feedback for that team.