“The .NET initiative is basically an attempt to create an
alternative platform for online applications, controlled by
Microsoft–a sort of Windows for the Internet. In contrast to the
operating system, however, the parts of this platform will not
reside on a user’s hard disk, but be spread all over the Internet.
There will be .NET software on servers, on database computers, on
PCs and on appliances–all closely integrated.”
“To establish .NET, the firm is apparently counting on the same
tactics that it used with Windows. Last week?s launch was classic
Microsoft: most of the applications presented were
“vapourware”–software that does not yet exist, but is announced to
deter customers from looking elsewhere. To get their ideas across,
Microsoft executives showed several “vision videos”, for example
about a family planning its next holiday trip entirely online with
minimal hassle. Most of the things shown will not be available
until after 2002.”
“At the .NET launch in Redmond, the firm?s executives went to
great lengths to insist that the platform will be based on open
standards, mainly XML and SOAP–implying that they do not intend to
use Windows to gain an unfair advantage. But other statements raise
suspicions that Microsoft will try to tie the old and new platforms
together. The experience for users of Windows is supposed to be
“richer” than that for people with rival operating systems. The
protocols for the “building blocks” will be proprietary–as are the
application program interfaces in Windows, the software hooks that
other programs connect to. In other words: if developers do not
write to the .NET platform, their users will be second-class
citizens.”
“The issue at hand is how the coming web-services industry,
a central part of the new economy, will be organised: whether it
will be dominated by one firm, as the PC software industry has
been, or be based on open standards. Microsoft has delivered
an elegant though scarcely original vision of the future. But its
version is not the one most likely to foster competition and
innovation.”