Demystifying .Net
C|Net | at | by Mike
Despite that little run-in with the Justice Department, Microsoft never liked browsers. Instead, it has longed to make Windows and Microsoft desktop applications the user interface for the Internet experience. With its sprawling .Net initiative, launched last year, Microsoft may finally get its wish.
With .Net, Microsoft proposes a kind of Internet operating system for a new breed of distributed applications that rely on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), the universal specification for sharing data and processing services among computers of any stripe. Bill Gates himself describes .Net as "simply Microsoft's platform for XML." But it's more than that, because .Net not only intends to define the XML-based operating system, but also to supply a host of powerful applications that run on top of it. Sound familiar?