news analysis LAS VEGAS--Is it time to start talking about the "new Microsoft"?
At the company's Mix '07 conference here this week, the star was Silverlight, Redmond's browser plug-in for creating interactive Web applications often done with Adobe Systems' 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.
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 characterize 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 to build 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,
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