Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Michael S Czeiszperger <czei AT webperformanceinc.com>]

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On Wednesday 11 April 2001 15:19, you wrote:
> In the interest of equal representation, here's somebody who does not
> like the idea of Microsoft's .NET framework as much as I do...
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/09/technology/09HAIL.html?searchpv=site01
>

I'll add my own 2 cents to Mr. Winer's. After year's of extablishing a 
monopoly using "embrace and extend", I find it hard to believe that MS has 
changed their strategy.  Its obvious that between the mindshare gained by 
open source and the negative publicity over the antitrust lawsuit, MS has 
been forced to at least change the appearance of their strategy, but not the 
substance.

As an example, take a look at their new language C#, which is the basis of 
the .NET strategy. After seeing Java gain popularity, and being unsuccessful 
in their battle to embrace and extend it, simply copied the language 
specification and added a few features. MS can be counted upon to espouse 
open standards while secretly doing the opposite, and this is no exception. 
Java has been criticized for not being a public standard, and so MS has 
promised to submit C# to an international standards organization. The twist 
is that a programming language is nothing without libraries, and the 
libraries that C# programmers will use is WIndows, which unsurprisingly will 
*not* be part of the standard. This means MS can claim that C# is a standard, 
while Java is not, while at the same time making sure that C# programs can't 
be ported to other operating systems without great difficulty, and unlike 
Java, no one else will be able to clone the language.

How does this impact .NET, Hailstorm, and XML? On the surface the MS use of 
XML and SOAP looks like a good thing, with proprietary protocols and file 
formats being replaced by what hopefully will be standards. In my opinion MS 
has no intention of relinquishing their monopoly on such ubiquitious secret 
standards such as the MS Word file format, and are using XML and SOAP so they 
can claim to be "open", without actually being so.

The most obvious sign of this is in Hailstorm, which is supposed to move your 
applications and data from the client to Windows 2000 servers. For example, 
you would subscribe to the MS Word web site, and the code needed to run Word 
on your computer would be downloaded dynamically. Every time you needed a new 
feature, it would be downloaded dynamically. Well, none of that code is going 
to work cross platform, and just because the data might be sent via XML does 
not mean that other operating systems will be able to use it. My prediction 
is the actual data contained in XML, if indeed it is made available, will 
only be usable by processing it with the Windows APIs.

The larger problem with Hailstorm, though, is its popularity will be based on 
the MS monopoly on operating systems being shipped with new computers. MSN 
which will be the portal to Hailstorm services, will be the first thing new 
computer buyers will see, and the first dialog will prompt them to sign up. 
New computers will probably come with a full year of usage free, after which 
all their data will be contained on MS servers, and it will be hard to switch 
to anything else. Since everyone seems to use MS Word format to send 
documents around, you won't be able to even read attachments without paying a 
monthly MS tax.

- -- 
Michael S Czeiszperger | czei AT webperformanceinc.com
Web Performance Inc.   | http://www.webperfcenter.com

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