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Bill Gates on Tuesday showed new plans to combat the security problems plaguing Microsoft's software, escalating the company's competition with a surging rival and putting it at odds with a key sector of the software industry.
In a surprise, Gates said the company will release the next version of the Internet Explorer Web browser, with improved security, in preliminary form this summer. The decision significantly moves up the schedule for the dominant Web browser amid rising security concerns and new competition from the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser.
Gates also said Microsoft will offer the finished version of its recently acquired anti-spyware technology free of charge to individual Windows users. That could pose a new challenge to the business models of independent companies that specialize in anti-spyware software for the Microsoft operating system.
In addition, Gates said the company will release its planned anti-virus product for consumers by the end of this year. Microsoft executives said the anti-virus software will be part of a broader offering for consumers, but they gave no further details.
The series of moves, announced by Gates at the RSA security conference in San Francisco, highlighted Microsoft's potential impact on McAfee, Symantec and other companies that sell packages of anti-virus, anti-spyware and other security software for Windows and other computer systems.
The prospect of competition from Microsoft drew a pointed response from the leader of one of those companies. John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec Inc., raised the Microsoft issue during a speech at the conference.
Symantec and other security-software specialists "will always be a better alternative," Thompson said, drawing a round of applause from the audience at San Francisco's Moscone Center. "We provide common tools across the many disparate environments present in every large enterprise, and we aren't distracted by computer games and a host of unrelated security stuff going on."
Later in the day, during a session with reporters, Thompson was asked if he would object on antitrust grounds to Microsoft's decision to offer its anti-spyware program free to Windows users. The company's inclusion of Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for free along with Windows has been at the heart of the United States and European antitrust cases against the company.
"I'd rather fight Microsoft in the marketplace, because we're convinced we can whup 'em," Thompson replied. However, he added, "To the extent that they violate the position of prominence that they have, be assured that we'll be watching."
Microsoft said it hasn't yet decided whether the anti-spyware software will be distributed along with Windows or offered as a free download. The company acquired the technology through the purchase of Giant anti-spyware last year, and Gates said more than 5 million people have downloaded the preliminary version of the program.
Gates said the company "looked hard" at the spyware issue before deciding that it would offer the final version of the anti-spyware software for free to consumers.
Spyware is "a very serious problem" and "something we've got to nip now before it gets worse than it is today," Gates said. He said the company decided that anti-spyware protections "should be available to protect every system."
Microsoft said one advantage of widespread distribution of its anti-spyware program will be a much larger base of users reporting suspicious programs.
Gates also focused on the potential for security improvements when discussing plans for the next Internet Explorer. He didn't mention the challenge from Firefox, an open-source descendant of the Netscape browser, over which Microsoft prevailed in the 1990s. But improved security is one of Firefox's main selling points, and analysts said that challenge is clearly playing a role in Microsoft's move.
Although Internet Explorer still dominates the market, its market share has been slipping in recent months as Firefox has gained.
Microsoft had previously said it would wait to release the next Internet Explorer version along with the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, next year. But given the competition from Firefox, Tuesday's announcement seemed almost inevitable to one industry analyst.
"I'm not at all surprised," said Geoff Johnston, analyst at WebSideStory, an analytics firm that tracks browser market share and other data. "In fact, it's the least surprising thing I've heard in a long time."
Gates said the new IE would better address tactics including "phishing," a practice that uses misleading Web addresses to steal personal information. The company says the improvements will build on advances introduced last year in a major security-related Windows XP update, Service Pack 2.
Microsoft declined to give further specifics about its plans for the new version, saying that more would emerge as the preliminary release approaches. But analysts said the company is likely to go beyond security improvements to add other features, such as tabbed browsing, that are popular in Firefox and other browsers.
During his speech at RSA Tuesday morning, Gates focused not on the potential competitive impact of the security initiatives but rather on the broader need for Microsoft and others in the industry to improve computer security.
He described security problems as the biggest potential obstacle to the types of advances that software development promises.
As a result, he said, security "will remain our top priority, because it's the one thing we need to make sure we get absolutely right to unlock all of those other exciting things."
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