ORLANDO - In a city visited by most to escape reality, Bill Gates Monday smiled for two hours and detailed his dream for Microsoft's future, a future in which Microsoft remains undivided and assumes a leadership position in Internet software.
"We need a new generation of software tools to build" the Internet's new Web sites, he said during a keynote speech kicking off TechEd, the company's event for developers, which is being attended by about 14,000 people. Gates is chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft.
Gates' keynote speech amounted to a first detailed peek at the company's broad strategy for providing software for the Internet, called Next Generation Windows Services.
Microsoft will provide the software that the world needs to take the Internet to the next level, he said. To that end, Gates announced the following products during his speech:
Gates also said that Microsoft would spend $2 billion over the next three years in training and support for its community of developers.
Except for a video sketch that hinted at and made fun of the company's legal troubles, Gates himself didn't make any mention of the government's antitrust case against Microsoft, which could lead to the division of Microsoft into two independent companies.
More details to follow.
Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash., is at 425-882-8080 or at www.microsoft.com/.
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