From assorted news sources come the following short news items of general
interest.....

An industry specification that overcomes the 528MB capacity addressing
barrier in hard disk drives is quickly picking up steam. The specification
is supported by such companies as Conner Peripherals, IBM, Microsoft,
Novell, Phoenix Technologies, Quantum, SCO, Seagate, and Western Digital.
To integrate AT-interface disk drives into PCs, the system BIOS and
operating system must address each drive's capacity uniformly. Until now,
drives with a capacity greater than 528MB lacked that uniformity. BIOS
implementations containing the open specification are available now, and
formal standard approval should be granted by the summer. Efforts are
still underway to aid users of older systems built with a non-upgradable
BIOS.

Add two more mergers to the growing list of industry changes: Symantec
teamed with Central Point, and London-based Financial Times publisher
Pearson Plc. has acquired Software Toolworks.

Microsoft reportedly plans a 10,000 site test of the next release of
Windows NT, code-named Daytona and now known as Windows NT 3.5 according
to Richard Tong, general manager of the company's corporate systems group.
Microsoft hopes to get the product out by June according to Tong. Windows
NT 3.5 is smaller (12MB vs 16MB) and faster, plus provides interoperabilty
between 16 and 32-bit Windows applications running simultaneously.

IBM will introduce the first PC running its AIX Unix operating system, a
low priced PowerPC system, within the next few months. IBM executives say
they're working to "humanize" AIX by enhancing the operating system to
support multimedia applications involving voice and touch.

AT&T and Microsoft are close to an agreement to jointly provide a variety
of information services such as a nationwide electronic mail netework
according to published reprots. Bill Gates has said the companies have
been holding talks for three months and a deal is likely to be completed
within another month. Gates previously put up both personal and Microsoft
corporate money behind three communications ventures.... investing in a $9
billion satellite network to bring the information superhighway to
developing nations by the year 2001... $10 million personal/$30 million
Microsoft money into MTel's planned 300-market wireless data network...
plus signing a joing development agreement with Japan's Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone to provide multimedia access to Microsoft At Work and other
applications via NTT's network.

ComputerLand has a new identity. Vanstar Inc., the company's new name, was
unveiled in late March by president and CEO William Tauscher and corporate
division president Jay Amato. Vanstar will function primarily as an
integrator for multivendor PC services and technologies for corporate end
users, making it one of the largest distributors with more than 400
blue-chip accounts. The ComputerLand franchise and distribution divisions
were sold to Merisel Inc. in January for $80 million.

The Justice Department is considering bringing one or more antitrust suits
against an unspecified high-tech company, says Robert Litan, deputy
assistant attorney general in the antitrust division. "We're concerned
about instances where intellectual property protection is pushed too far,"
Litan said in mid-March. Microsoft is known to be under investigation by
the antitrust division.

The Open Software Foundation will be reorganizing in an effort to make the
industry consortium leaner and meaner, and get users more involved. OSF's
plan, announced at UNIFORUM, includes a new project method that will
eliminate redundant engineering efforts and eventually allow vendors to
get Unix products to market quicker. Also, Sun Microsystems finally joined
OSF, six years after the group was formed.

Sun Microsystems recently bought out its Unix licensing agreement from
Novell. Now that Sun will no longer have to pay millions in annual
royalties to Novell, the company says it can cut prices on its Unix-based
Solaris operating systems. Previously, Solaris packages were typically
priced $10 to $200 more than comparable Windows NT packages from Sun rival
Microsoft. Also part of the recent deal, Sun also will license Novell's
NetWare networking software, allowing Solaris-based systems to communicate
with NetWare users.

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