Microsoft Reveals Its Future in 'NGWS' Briefing

Updated from 2:13 p.m. EDT

Microsoft (MSFT Quote) finally revealed many of the details of its long-promised "NGWS," or Next-Generations Windows Services initiative. Chief Architect Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer led a long list of senior Microsoft managers who told an auditorium full of reporters in Redmond, Wash., why and how NGWS will become a large part of Microsoft's future. (See TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com joint newroom's coverage of the new initiative.)

The company provided a few hints, and a couple of peeks under the covers, about NGWS' content at a Florida session last month for software developers. Two weeks ago, Microsoft postponed until today the press briefing on NGWS. The postponement was done to make sure reporting of the NGWS plans was not diluted by the expected heavy coverage of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's final ruling in the antitrust action against Microsoft by the Justice Department and its state attorneys general partners. ...