Is it time to start talking about the "new Microsoft"?
At the company's Mix07 conference this week, the star was Silverlight, a browser plug-in for creating interactive web applications often done with Adobe's Flash. The parade of announcements surrounding Silverlight, including a video-streaming service, brings to life some significant changes in the way Microsoft designs software.
It also demonstrates how Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Bill Gates' successor, is making his mark at the software giant.
For years, detractors have complained that, because Microsoft's primary focus was Windows, its software was not fully in line with industry standards and its commitment for products on other operating systems wavered.
At Mix, however, Microsoft executives deliberately sought to highlight the company's intention to make Silverlight "ubiquitous" on a range of devices and to complement its software with internet-delivered services.
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In an interview, Ozzie said Microsoft's moves to embrace the web more deeply, with Silverlight and services, are meant to better address an audience that is increasingly using web services.
"I don't necessarily think that it would be accurate to characterise the increasing openness as a backing away from Windows. I think what it is, is a reflection that Windows is in a broader technology environment," Ozzie said.
The Mix announcements and Ozzie's keynote speech show that Microsoft is making progress on its long-stated claims of building a platform for building internet applications, said Peter O'Kelly, an analyst at the Burton Group.
By providing tooling and, through its Live brand of programming interfaces, a set of services for building web applications, O'Kelly said, Microsoft is creating an offering for customers such as small web companies that may have no interest in its largest product lines, Office and Windows.
"It's an enlightened Microsoft. To engage with this ecosystem in a constructive way, they have to be part of the ecosystem," he said. "In some respects, you could argue that Microsoft has been assimilated into the internet culture."
Speaking to developers
At Mix, billed as a "conversation" with web developers and designers, Microsoft started delivering key pieces of its web strategy.
The company released an alpha version of Silverlight 1.1 that will let developers use .Net languages, including dynamic languages, to write applications that will run on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari on Mac OS, with handheld devices and potentially Linux to come.
In a nod to the popularity of open source among web start-ups and developers, Microsoft said it will release the source code for its Dynamic Language Runtime — software for running applications written with dynamic, or scripting, languages — under its Permissive License, which allows outsiders to modify and distribute the code.
Microsoft also introduced Silverlight Streaming, a service, now in alpha testing, through which the company will host and deliver up to 4GB of video in Silverlight format to web pages for free.
Ozzie and other Microsoft executives said to expect more services like Silverlight Streaming. These services will provide basic infrastructure, such as data storage and network authentication, as well as access to online data, such as contact information for its Windows Live Spaces users, for building mashup applications.
It also released Expression Studio, a web design application built to include close integration with Microsoft's flagship Visual Studio development tool.
Microsoft developers' reactions to the Silverlight announcement were generally positive because it allows them to create web applications for both Windows and Mac OS with familiar products and skills.
Online banking application developer Intelligent Environments, for instance, said Silverlight is appealing because the company's staff of C# programmers will be able to write web applications with a compelling user interface. Until now, it had hired Flash developers as contractors, said Mike Warriner, chief technology officer of Intelligent Environments.
Miguel de Icaza, a Novell vice president and head of the Mono open-source project, said he will create a version of Silverlight for Linux.
In a blog, de Icaza said that, because Silverlight offers substantial front-end development capabilities…
Talkback
Does it work with FireFox and other browsers yet?
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