Microsoft isn't playing favorites in the NT storage management market. After picking Seagate Software to develop the backup utility in NT 5.0, Microsoft promptly chose Cheyenne Software (http://www.cheyenne.com/Product-Info/windowsnt/drdata.html) to create a disaster recovery diskette for NT 3.51 and 4.0.

Citrix Systems' 15 minutes of fame might be over. The company gained prominence selling WinFrame multi-user software for Windows NT Server. Now, Microsoft says it will build multi-user software directly into future versions of NTS. As of press time, Microsoft had not decided whether to write the multi-user code itself or license it from Citrix. (By the way, Microsoft owns a small stake in Citrix.)

When Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows NT 4.0 a few months back, customers complained that the software patch caused more problems than it fixed. Now, Microsoft says it will beta test NT service packs prior to delivery. More than 300 customers were beta testing SP3 for NT 4.0 as we went to press.

After repeated delays, Microsoft and Texas Instruments have finally completed work on the Microsoft Repository. The repository is included with the Professional and Enterprise editions of Visual Basic 5.0 and Visual Studio 97.

The city of Seattle, only minutes from Microsoft's corporate campus, has decided to standardize on Novell GroupWise rather than Microsoft Exchange Server. About 5,000 city workers are expected to use the groupware product.

IBM will spend $150 million on research and development for OS/2 Warp this year. We'll resist the temptation to comment on that figure.

Windows Magazine, May 1997, page NT06.