On April 25, Microsoft made some important announcements to its hardware developer partners at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2000 in New Orleans. Most important, Microsoft has formed a 500-person development group to focus on the embedded OS space, deployment strategies, and strengthening the Powered by Windows brand name. The Windows 2000 Embedded development efforts are gone. The new development group will deliver an embedded OS based on the upcoming Whistler OS, which will appear late in 2001; Microsoft will release the Whistler embedded OS about 90 days later.
Microsoft will release a Win2K Appliance Kit and follow it with a high-end embedded OS release in about 18 months, delaying Microsoft´s assault on the high-end embedded OS marketplace. The Win2K Appliance Kit will contain the same tools and technology that Microsoft used in IBM and Dell information appliancescustomized versions of Win2K in which Microsoft has disabled, but not removed, parts of the OS to create a smaller footprint. In contrast, Microsoft made NT Embedded 4.0 highly componentized, an approach that developers in this market prefer. Lineo, for example, a Linux pioneer in the embedded space, has a modular construction. The Win2K Appliance Kit is due in June and will primarily target Web servers, Network Attached Storage (NAS), and small business appliances.
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