Microsoft to release Unix/Windows integration package

FRAMINGHAM (01/14/2004) - Microsoft Corp. on Thursday will release the latest version of its Unix/Windows integration software, available for free on the company's Web site.

The prior incarnation of Services For Unix (SFU) listed for US$99, although Microsoft offered deals allowing some users to get it for free.

Version 3.5 features about a 50 percent performance improvement when tapping into Unix Network File System (NFS) -- making it within 10 percent of native Windows I/O, according to Dennis Oldroyd of Microsoft's server division -- and on eight-way clusters. Other improvements include support for Posix threading, meaning a new set of Unix applications can be compiled and run SFU.

Oldroyd declined to say how many copies of SFU have shipped to date, but he said it was a "small fraction" of overall Windows server customers.

Starting Thursday, SFU 3.5 can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu/downloads/default.asp.