Windows 2003 release renews integration debate
WinNetMag | at | by Mike
I note with interest that, in a step that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago, Microsoft has begun marketing the integration strengths of Windows Server 2003. To understand how things have changed in recent years, we need to turn the clock back to early 1995, when the company was prepping the release of Windows 95. Back then, Microsoft found itself under increasing regulatory scrutiny because of the various technologies that it was bundling for free in its new OS. Some competitors and analysts feared that bundling these technologies, such as the TCP/IP networking stack we now all take for granted, would put enterprising third-party developers out of business. But then, the software giant revealed its plans for MSN, which was designed as a proprietary online service, not the Internet gateway it's since become.