Neowin.net

Everyone's heard of Texas tall tales, but when the crew at Mesquite-based id Software talks, it's rarely with exaggeration -- and people listen. id CEO Todd Hollenshead, Doom 3 Lead Designer Tim Willits, and id's Director of Business Development Marty Stratton were especially candid in our interviews for the April 2004 exclusive cover story. They didn't flinch when asked whether the company has changed in the wake of violent video game scrutiny, how they felt about John Romero's legacy, how Doom 3 will measure up to Halo 2, and why they were crazy enough to mess with one of the most beloved franchises in gaming history in the first place. The first half of the interview was full of inside information and the second half delivers more of the same. Read on!

GP: A lot of the media attention on game violence has fallen on id -- lawsuits were filed and dismissed and you've been in the crosshairs. Has all the media attention and blame changed anything about the way you guys do stuff here?

MS: No -- I would say not at all. Todd is very well versed in all of that. A significant part of his job during the lawsuits was working with our attorneys on that kind of stuff. We're members of the ESA, and we're very active in the ratings system -- Todd's on the ESA committee that works with the ESRB to perfect the ratings system, to make it better, to make it more effective. To that extent, we're as involved as any company in the industry as far as making responsible decisions about ratings and that kind of thing. But from a design perspective, we're a company that makes action games, and that's what our fans want. Our fans are young adults and adults, and just like any good action movie, you put yourself in the line of fire, and that's what games are all about. I don't think we've backed away or changed anything we do here on any of that. It's good entertainment, and we deal with things like the rating system as responsibly as anybody else.

News source: GamePro

The four new guides are:

* Solution Guide for Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX
Using Active Directory and Kerberos for authentication and identity store in a heterogeneous UNIX and Windows IT environment.

* Solution Guide for Sybase/UNIX to SQL Server 2000
Migrating a Sybase / UNIX database environment to SQL Server on Windows with focus on the backend server.
* Solution Guide for Migrating High Performance Computing Applications from UNIX to Windows
Migrating a High Performance Computing environment from UNIX or Linux to Windows and in depth information about HPC on Windows.

* Solution Guide for Migrating UNIX Build Environments
Migrating UNIX application projects based on make to Windows and Visual Studio using a variety of UNIX toolsets including Microsoft Services for UNIX (SFU).

"With these guides and SFU 3.5 we are demonstrating our continuing commitment to customers who want to maximise cost savings and IT value by migrating to the Windows platform," said Hilary Wittman, Server Solutions Marketing Manager, Microsoft UK. "We see a great deal of demand from our customers for these products, which can really add value to their use of Windows Server 2003 in a cross platform environment. Customers can also rely on the specific training and skills that Microsoft Partners have in Windows/UNIX migration." The complete list of customers is Infosys, Avanade, HP, Unisys, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Trinity Expert System.

Steve Rawsthorn of Unisys said: "Unisys recognise that enterprise customers require an interoperability solution for the UNIX and Microsoft platforms that reduces costs and improves infrastructure efficiency. We offer a UNIX Migration Assessment Service to customers and Services For UNIX 3.5 is an effective tool as part of the overall Migration service."


Steve Watling, Managing Principal, HP Services, added: "Customers are migrating from UNIX onto lower cost Microsoft platforms because of the capital and operational savings this allows. The guides that Microsoft has produced facilitate the project management and skillsets needed in realising a migration project and maximising the agility of the IT infrastructure."

Meeting Customer Needs for Interoperability

"The vast majority of enterprise IT shops have both Windows and UNIX installed, and this will be the case for the foreseeable future," said Al Gillen, research director of system software at IDC. "Achieving effective interoperability is not only critical for leveraging these investments, it's essential for building flexible systems that can solve today's business problems."


SFU 3.5 includes new tools to make administering a cross-platform environment more cost-effective too - for example, by including an expanded array of UNIX-based tools and utilities for administering the Windows platform. This enables companies to harness their IT administrators' UNIX expertise and make it relevant on the Windows platform. Also new in SFU 3.5 are dynamic registry capabilities, which enable network administrators to make changes such as network performance tuning without incurring the downtime that comes with rebooting.

The Interix subsystem and Software Development Kit (Interix) - a full application execution subsystem that lets customers compile and natively run UNIX programs and scripts on Windows operating systems, has also been enhanced in SFU 3.5. Capabilities have been expanded to include support for running multithreaded applications, enabling customers to run a wider array of applications that have been developed for UNIX on the Windows platform.

Upcoming Events

To help customers realise the potential of these toolsets, Microsoft and its partners are holding a series of events in London for customers looking migrate or integrate UNIX environments. Avanade are holding an event for customers in central London on March 25th and similarly, HP is hosting Executive Circle Events on this topic in London on April 6th and May 11th - Unisys will also host an event on April 28th. For details of these events contact HilaryW@microsoft.com.