Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

306 Microsoft .NETbrowser had brought millions of users to the Web. Bill Gateshimself announced that the company would embark on a“net-centered” strategy, and this was reflected in the developmentof Windows NT, software for enterprise network andWeb servers, and the Internet Explorer browser, which dominatedthe desktop by the end of the decade.The continuing dominance of Microsoft operating systemsand office applications on the desktop provided thecash flow that gave the company the resources to catchup and then dominate almost any market it chose. However,this same dominance raised legal issues that wouldbe litigated through the late 1990s and beyond. Microsoftwas accused of using its knowledge of unpublishedWindows internal code to give products such as MicrosoftOffice an advantage over competitors. A more prominentaccusation was that Microsoft’s “bundling” of productssuch as Internet Explorer with Windows amounted to anunfair advantage over competitors such as Netscape, sinceExplorer would appear to be “free” to consumers. A seriesof civil actions under the name United States v. Microsoftresulted in a 2001 settlement with the U.S. Departmentof Justice that required Microsoft to share all informationabout its Windows API (see applications programminginterface) with competitors for at least five years. Thisresult was controversial, with defenders of Microsoft arguingthat the company had done no more than competeeffectively by using the results of its own previous work,while opponents argued that Microsoft’s coercive monopolypower had scarcely been dented by the settlement. In2008 the software giant continued to struggle with legalpressures. A European Union court has upheld previousrulings that the company had engaged in monopolistic andanticompetitive practices.Legal controversies aside, by the mid-2000s Microsoftwas facing some serious challenges, particularly from thepopularity of free and open-source software (see opensourcemovement). This is particularly true of the Webserver market, where the combination of the Apache Webserver and Linux has gained a major market share. Meanwhile,on the desktop, Windows Vista (released in January2007) did not sell as well as predicted during its firstsix months. The Apple Macintosh is maintaining its smallbut significant market share, and even Linux distributionssuch as Ubuntu are beginning to appear as an option onnew PCs. Microsoft’s flagship Office suite is facing competitionfrom products such as Open Office and particularlythe Web-based Google Apps. (In 2007 Microsoft beganto roll out Office Live Workspace, offering extensionsof Office applications rather than a complete suite.) Inother areas, the Microsoft Network (MSN) online servicehas struggled, while the company has done better withits Xbox gaming console as well as the best-selling gameHalo.Despite some stumbling and many controversies, Microsoft’svast resources and many ongoing research projects(with a $6 billion annual budget) make it likely the companywill continue to adapt and sometimes innovate, remaining astrong competitor for many years to come. For example, thecompany is now putting more resources into Web searchtechnology, an area that has been dominated by Google, aswell as eyeing applications as diverse as home media serversand social networking. Microsoft has also sought to expandits Internet presence by acquiring Yahoo!, the extensive butaging Web portal. (However, the first acquisition attemptwas rebuffed, and future plans remain uncertain as of mid-2008).Further ReadingBank, David. Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Futureof Microsoft. New York: Free Press, 2001.Blakely, Rhys. “Microsoft’s Chief Executive Has Seen the Future—and the Future is Advertising: Steve Ballmer’s Plans for theComputer Software Giant Include Taking on Yahoo! andGoogle in Their Own Internet Territory.” Times Online (U.K.).Available online. URL: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2570485.ece.Accessed October 2, 2007.Microsoft Corporation. Available online. URL: http://www.microsoft.com. Accessed October 2, 2007.Microsoft Timeline. Available online. URL: http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.htm. AccessedOctober 2, 2007.Microsoft Watch (eWeek). Available online. URL: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/. Accessed October 2, 2007.Page, William H., and John E. Lopatka. The Microsoft Case: Antitrust,High Technology, and Consumer Welfare. Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 2007.Slater, Robert. Microsoft Rebooted: How Bill Gates and Steve BallmerReinvented Their Company. New York: Portfolio, 2004.Wallace, James, and Jim Erickson. Hard Drive: Bill Gates and theMaking of the Microsoft Empire. New York: Wiley, 1992.Microsoft .NETMicrosoft .NET is a programming platform (see class andobject-oriented programming) that is intended to providea clear and consistent way for applications written ina variety of languages such as C++, C#, and Visual Basicto access Windows functions and to interact with otherprograms and services on the same machine or over theInternet..NET consists of the following main parts:• Base Class Library of data types and common functions(such as file manipulation and graphics) that isavailable to all .NET languages• Common Language Runtime, which provides thecode that applications need to run within the operatingsystem, manage memory, and so forth (“Commonlanguage” means it can be used for any .NET programminglanguage.)• ASP .NET, a class framework for building dynamicWeb applications and services (the latest version ofASP—see active server pages)• ADO .NET, a class framework that allows programsto access databases and data servicesThe latest version (as of 2008) is .NET Framework 3.5and is built into Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.New components include: