NY Times: Microsoft Starts Recruiting for Its Next War

“The browser war may be a memory, but executives of the
Microsoft Corp. conceded Monday that the company now faces an even
greater challenge in the next phase of the Internet’s evolution, as
the role of traditional desktop software recedes and the power
center of computing shifts from the operating system to the World
Wide Web…”

“But the basic technology standards on the Web are openly
available and not controlled by any single company. So Microsoft
has a much tougher job on its hands in trying to persuade software
developers to use its software for Web applications and Internet
commerce services…”

“XML is an open industry standard. But the Microsoft pitch
to software developers is that such Web-based services will work
best if they use Microsoft’s software and tools. Its different
software products, Microsoft says, will operate with the software
of rivals, but they will work better the more Microsoft software is
used.“

“It does restrict some of their choice, but we’re getting rid of
some of the complexity for them,” said Paul Maritz, group vice
president of Microsoft’s developer group. “And we think there’s
value for that, and we charge for it…”

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