To: t2 who wrote (29415 ) 9/13/1999 5:34:00 PM From: taxman Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Microsoft (MSFT) 93 9/16 -1 7/16: Finally, we get to see the grand plan of how Microsoft is going to live in the post-PC era. Today, Microsoft unveiled its Windows© Distributed interNet Architecture (Windows DNA) 2000, a wide ranging plan to integrate tools for Web-based development into the Windows 2000 platform. It is important to remember that Microsoft dominates computing on three separate levels: 1) Applications, such as Office, 2) Development tools, such as C++ compilers, and 3) Platforms: such as Windows and NT. The web, and recent trends actually threaten all three areas. Outsourced applications, Java development, and the move towards thin clients haven't made a dent in Microsoft yet, but if they ever built momentum, it would be disastrous for the Redmond software giant. It is clear that Bill worries about these things, because today's developments are designed to deeply link web applications to the Windows 2000 platform. The thread linking web applications and Windows is XML, or eXtensible Markup Language. XML, which is an open industry standard, support is being integrated into Windows 2000 (Windows 2000 is really just the next generation of NT, by the way), in such a way that web applications using it will require Windows 2000 on the web server. SQL Server 7.0 will also support the XML extensions. Microsoft would argue that the DNA plan is not proprietary, because they are also attempting to establish an industry standard, called SOAP, (Simple Object Access Protocol), which allows applications to communicate at the SOAP level, independent of operating system environment. But Microsoft-led open standards have a history of only really working with Microsoft products.
