Summer is usually a slow time for computer sales, but for software makers and PC makers alike, it's often the busiest time of the year, as upcoming new products are massaged into sellable form. This has never been more true than this year for Microsoft, which is prepping a number of important upgrades and pre-releases for its core products, all of which will ship soon. On deck for July are Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Windows .NET Server Release Candidate 1 (RC1). Then, in August, Microsoft will ship the important Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) release, which will form the foundation of two new Windows versions, XP Media Center Edition and XP Tablet PC Edition, both of which will ship late this year with new hardware.
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