RSSMicrosoft Details Vision for Web Future
By Nate Mook | Published April 30, 2007, 3:02 PM
FROM MIX 07 Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie took the stage at the company's MIX 07 conference in Las Vegas Monday morning to discuss Microsoft's vision for the future of the Web, integrating software and services.
Ozzie opened his keynote by highlighting the difficult associated with creating applications for the Web due to the fragmentation across technologies, ranging from the Web browser to set-top box and mobile phone.
"A daunting number of skills are needed to pursue the opportunities before us," Ozzie said, explaining that application development is currently split between the "universal Web" with AJAX and Flash, and "experience first" with phones, PCs and gaming systems.
Microsoft is aiming to unify this by bringing together the best of the Web, the best of the desktop and the best of the device using the service as the hub. Ozzie calls it the "software plus service pattern," which requires a mix of skills - the reasoning behind Microsoft's conference this week.
While Bill Gates heralded the opening of MIX last year, Ray Ozzie's speciality lies in services, which is the reason Microsoft acquired his former company, Groove Networks, two years ago. "The pedulum has swung from pure software and pure service to software and service,” Ozzie said Monday.
Microsoft's movement in this direction is not new, but the company is unveiling a number of new products this week. At the top of the list is the first 1.0 Beta release of Silverlight, Microsoft's new platform for delivering rich Internet applications across browsers and operating systems that challenges Adobe's Flash.
Silverlight 1.0 works with any technology powering Web sites, including non-Micorsoft software such as Apache and PHP, and XHTML and JavaScript on the client side. The beta release includes a Go-Live license, meaning it can be deployed in a production environment now, and a final release is slated for this summer.
Going beyond the current language support included in Silverlight, a 1.1 Alpha release is being offered to developers with full .NET support. While Silverlight 1.0 applications can be programmed with XAML and JavaScript, the integration of the .NET Framework means developers can utilize ASP.NET, Visual Basic, C#, Python and even Ruby.
The next version of Visual Studio .NET, known as "Orcas," will include built-in support for Silverlight as well. "Silverlight changes the game by giving you a new choice for develoing rich Internet applications," said Ozzie. "Silverlight brings .NET to the universal Web."
"In case it’s not clear to you, I’m having a blast," he added.
Technically, Vista was started on August 27 2004 because everything that was previousily done from 2001 - 2004 was scrapped and redone hence the missing features. So as long as they don't start work on something for 3 yrs then decide lets start over it should be fine.
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|Microsoft better hurry up. If Vista is the result of tens of thousands of programmers working nonstop for many years, they have a lot to worry about...
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|You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.....
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|So the company who with Windows95 declared the Internet an insignificant fad is now FINALLY jumping on the convergence fad 5 years after everyone else has...
Yup, they're going to tell how how it will be when they can't even come up with a worthwhile "media center" after how many years?
Any more ideas?
"Orcas" huh? With their code bloat, it should have been called "Blue".
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|lmao...
Nice rant.
Windows 95 included a browser built into the OS that not only served web-pages, but handled many of it's other display tasks. They're also the guys behind MSN, Windows Live, Sharepoint, Infopath... Just now jumping on it, eh?
Yup, they're going to tell how how it will be when they can't even come up with a worthwhile "media center" after how many years?
How does Media Center relate to this at all?
"Orcas" huh? With their code bloat, it should have been called "Blue".
I'm sure you could easily show them how to include all of their features in a much more efficient and conservative manner.
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|>”Windows 95 included a browser built into the OS that not only served web-pages, but handled many of it's other display tasks. They're also the guys behind MSN, Windows Live, Sharepoint, Infopath... Just now jumping on it, eh?”
Yup, Sharepoint, and Infopath launched when?? 10 years after Win95? Good point! They were definitely “on it”! “Hey, Wait for me! I am supposed to be the leader!”
Oh yeah! MS was ON TOP of the Internet with he release of Win95! Not!
Windows95 validated the concept of running a fully graphical interface (yup, those Macs sure are lousy! …let’s copy them!), but Windows95 was almost obsolete when it shipped! It only vaguely addressed the most important trend of the era – the emergence of the Internet and the Web. Sure, Windows95 included a rudimentary first version of IE, but it had to go through 2 or 3 more versions before it was a competitive browser. Moreover, Office95 didn’t even have an e-mail client. Outlook didn’t even debut until Office97.
Even Gates did a mea culpa over missing the Internet trend!
And in many ways, history is repeating itself with Vista and Office07. After many anticipating Vista for a very long time, while the graphics finally take advantage of the current hardware capabilities, and with the addition of greater search capabilities and security safeguards, Vista and Office2007 may have missed the biggest opportunity in software today – the move to Web based applications (or software as a service (SaaS) or Web2. IE anti-phishing features do not exactly constitute a new way of working on/with the Web.
What does that mean? For two examples, neither Vista nor Office2007 have capabilities to let you save files directly to online storage. And IE lacks fundamental much-needed enhanced tools for managing and organizing online credentials and connecting with web based bookmarked services.
But it does have lots of new features, widgets and sidebars! Unfortunately, just like with Win95 and the Net, Visa lacks a new way of working with the web.
Yup, they're going to tell you how it will be when they can't even come up with a worthwhile "media center" after how many years?
>How does Media Center relate to this at all?
How? By Convergence and Integration. You know, the topic of the article??
Obviously the concept is a bit confusing to you. Just as Media Center has proven the concept illusive to them as well!
"Orcas" huh? With their code bloat, it should have been called "Blue".
>”I'm sure you could easily show them how to include all of their features in a much more efficient and conservative manner.”
Oh, and as far as bloatware? I don’t have to come up with a viable alternative with a much smaller footprint! Everyone else has!
With Win95 , it was the 3rd party apps that defined the extension of the capabilities, not the OS itself. And I suspect that like Win95 and the net, so it will be with Vista and web based apps.
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|Wow.
Why does anyone even bother...
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|Hm, maybe I am not understanding what you are saying about the online storage for vista but... Microsoft created windows live drive for this.
http://arstechnica.com/j...soft.ars/2006/4/19/3668
Windows Live Drive is an upcoming file hosting service as part of Microsoft's Windows Live range of services. On 2006-08-24, Microsoft announced that the service would likely provide 2 gigabytes of free storage, with additional storage available for purchase. It is unknown at this stage whether Windows Live Drive will integrate with FolderShare or not, but the service can be mapped to using Windows Vista.
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|too much whine...not enough cheese...
ppl complain, do nothing...MS picks up the baton, runs a hundred laps and wins 1st place...then everyone else tries to say they were there first. Enough...if you can't run the race, don't try to be at the finish line.
Of course, you can complain...just make it more valid.
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|Wow... umm... heard this before. Circa "push tech" 1996. Microsoft will pwn the web. Ya. They haven't been able to kill Flash. Anyone think Silverlight will be exporting to .swf soon? =)
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|Wow... umm... heard this before.
Yes, amazingly companies continue to try and make the web better.
They haven't been able to kill Flash.
Silverlight is still in Alpha.
Anyone think Silverlight will be exporting to .swf soon?
No. At least not without losing quite a bit of functionality.
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