Microsoft gets Internet fever; Redmond reassesses strategy and endorses Java language - Company Business and Marketing

Software Magazine, Feb, 1996 by Jack Vaughan

Microsoft abruptly changed its Internet tune last month when it announced plans to incorporate the Java programming language into its Internet strategy. The strategy still includes a Visual Basic script with an Internet flavor. Until recently, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft focused on using OLE to distribute Internet applications to Windows PCs.

Java is a new technology developed by Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif., which enables developers to write applications that can be distributed over the Internet in realtime. It can turn traditional Web pages into interactive applications with animation, screen control and built-in security. It has become somewhat of a de facto standard since Sun started licensing it to third parties.

Netscape and Silicon Graphics, two of the leading Internet companies, have announced plans to incorporate Java into their products. The approach is endorsed by dozens of others. Uses of Java, say advocates, are many.

Although Java has an associated Hot-Java browser, the software is seen as complementary to well-established browsers from Netscape, Spyglass and others. In December, Netscape and Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a simpler "Java- Script" version of Java for cross-platform scripting. Java-capable products are due in 1996. Oracle, Sybase, IBM and others have licensed Java technology. In December Lotus Development Corp., Cambridge, Mass., announced that its Notes Release 4 server will natively support Java technology.

Microsoft Corp. recently endorsed use of Java, at the same time that it announced its own Visual Basic Script for "providing business object extensions to World Wide Web applications." This script, Microsoft asserted, also facilitates integration into existing corporate systems. Sun and Microsoft have been in negotiations that reportedly may lead to an official Windows-version of Java.

Java can even be used to develop Corba-compliant applications over the Internet, according to Post Modern Computing, based in Mountain View, Calif. The company just announced Black Widow, an object request broker (ORB) that connects Corba applets to the Web.

Black Widow automatically generates the code required for client-and server-side Java applications. In addition, says its creator, it can use Corba services to ensure continuous availability of Web servers. Another use: helping companies connect to legacy applications over the Internet using object wrappers.

"I think Java has a really good shot at being the default standard," said Jens Christensen, Post Modern president and CEO, "especially now that Microsoft has licensed it."

Moves by Computer Associates International, VMark and others indicate that the real power of software like Java may be discovered as it is extended to manage and distribute applications over the Internet.

"Most vendors are moving towards an approach where you can do centralized management and licensing from a central plane, so you never have to know your application has been updated," said Be-atriz Infante, vice president, Oracle's Open Systems Division, speaking at the recent Softwarevision Conference sponsored by Price Waterhouse.

Many suspect that Microsoft decided to change strategies because its proprietary approach was out of sync in an Internet world created by open standards. Also, the company's plans to rule the Internet desktop have been thwarted in the wake of superior Internet browser products such as Netscape Navigator. In fact, 70% of Windows 95 users have skipped Microsoft's Internet Explorer in favor of other Internet browsers, despite the fact that Internet Explorer comes free with Windows 95.

To speed development of Internet applications, Microsoft is going after the audience it knows and loves: an estimated three million Visual Basic program- mers. Visual Basic Script is a scripting language designed to create active content on the World Wide Web. The tool enables developers to automate objects within Web pages using OLE objects and applets created with Java.

Microsoft is licensing Visual Basic Script to application browser and tool vendors at no charge. In addition, it is presenting the tool to the Internet Engineering Task Force and the W3 Consortium, which create Web standards. Microsoft is also posting a source reference implementation on the Internet so third parties can port it to other platforms.

Philippe Kahn, chief executive officer of Starfish Software, commented on Microsoft's strategy during the Softwarevision conference. "We have the biggest paradigm shift since the PC, and that is a new infrastructure. What is good is that we now know we will have industry standards that will be driven through open competition." The PC will no longer serve for mere document creation, said Kahn. It will become a true personal communicator.