Rob Garrett - Blog » Microsoft

More Microsoft Codenames

Rob Garrett — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 22:53:00 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I have become overwhelmed with the number
of new technologies that Microsoft have announced this year.
There are some great new applications, services and APIs, soon to be
available to developers and application consumers. It is all very exciting (unless you
happen to be a penguin). Not to
dampen the spirits of all ye happy MS developers, but is it me or are
there far too many acronyms and code names for all of these great
software inventions?

It took me a while, but I finally got to grips with names like Yukon,
Indigo, Whidbey, Avalon, and Longhorn, only to be astounded
further with the three letter acronym names given to the latest managed
APIs for Windows as part of the WinFX suite – WWF, WPF, WCF, WFS. As a colleague of mine put it “it is a marketing person’s dream and a developer’s nightmare“.

For those suffering a similar headache to me, here is a list of some of
the newer Microsoft technologies, along with their codename/acronym:

Longhorn – The new Windows Vista operating system – successor to Windows XP.
Whidbey – Visual Studio 2005, look out for Orcas – the next version (Visual Studio 2007) and Hawaii – the version after Orcas.
Yukon – SQL Server 2005.
WWF – Windows Workflow Foundation - Biztalk in a nutshell.
WFS – The new file subsystem, built atop of NTFS.
WCF/Indigo – Windows Communications Foundations – The new messaging subsystem, which includes secure web services.
WPF/Avalon – Windows Presentation Foundation – The graphical
subsystem and successor to GDI, includes XAML (Extensible Application
Markup Language).
LINQ - Language Integrated Query.

Not forgetting …

Microsoft Expression – Graphical design tool for the Vista interface.

Confused by Microsoft Code Names?

Rob Garrett — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 16:19:00 +0000

Here’s a list I found of Windows code names:

http://www.phm.lu/Documentation/Windows/Codenames.asp

Microsoft Announces Community Technology Preview of Avalon

Rob Garrett — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 16:10:00 +0000

Last Friday Microsoft announced the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Avalon – an alpha version of the Windows presentation subsystem. Avalon features XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language), which is Microsoft’s answer for building presentation logic into application user interfaces, similar to how ASP.NET uses XML to build dynamic web forms.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1730336,00.asp

Microsoft goes after Netware

Rob Garrett — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:46:00 +0000

“Microsoft is targeting Novell Netware customers with a bundle of reasons to dump the software and switch to Microsoft Windows Server products.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/16/microsoft_netware_basher/

This ought to be interesting, MS paid out half a billion to Novell for loss of business to NDS (http://robgarrett.com/Blogs/software/archive/2004/11/08/227.aspx). It looks like MS is trying to recoup that expense by migrating Netware customers ;)

Microsoft / Comcast Cable Deal

Rob Garrett — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 03:04:00 +0000

US pay TV firm Comcast will next week deploy set-top boxes featuring Microsoft software, in a crucial test for Microsoft’s cable TV ambitions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3994993.stm

Microsoft pays Novell half a billion

Rob Garrett — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 02:19:00 +0000

The case between Microsoft and Novell came to a conclusion today when Microsoft agreed to settle with half a billion dollars payout.

Novell was suing Microsoft over loss of business relating to Novell’s gateway product called NDS. NDS was introduced several years ago and enabled users to retain password and user management on Novell servers. With the introduction of Windows 2000 and cryptographic signing of dynamic link libraries Microsoft rendered NDS unworkable and Novell unable to maintain the product. Microsoft claim that the addition of cryptographic DLL signing was added to Windows for security reasons.

Novell claim that they indicated their intention to develop NDS on Windows NT before introducing the product. Bill Thompson, former head of networking group for NT, now Exchange Server product group manager) verbally informed Novell that Microsoft would break their product.

Microsoft’s decision to extend the security borders and thus rendering NDS unmarketable was a contributing factor in Novell’s decision to become a Linux company.

Microsoft is planning to appeal the decision made by the European Union antitrust investigation to side with Novell. Issues relating to the WordPerfect office suite in early 90′s are still outstanding.

Cited from article by Andrew Orlowski and published by the Register.

Microsoft to Patent the Internet?

Rob Garrett — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 18:36:00 +0000

http://www.shaftek.org/blog/archives/000169.html

Has Microsoft been trying to retroactively claim IP (intellectual property) rights over many of the Internet’s basic protocols? Larry J. Blunk, senior engineer for networking research and development at Merit Network Inc., believes that might be the case.

Blunk expressed these concerns about Microsoft’s Royalty Free Protocol License Agreement in a recent note to the IETF’s Intellectual Property Rights Working Group. Specifically, Blunk suggested that Microsoft seemed to be claiming IP rights to many vital Internet protocols. And by so doing, “Microsoft is injecting a significant amount of unwarranted uncertainty and doubt regarding non-Microsoft implementations of these protocols,” Blunk said.

Blunk pointed out that Microsoft is claiming some form of IP rights over “a total of 130 protocols which Microsoft is offering for license.”

“Many of the listed protocols are [IETF] RFC [request for comment] documents, including but not limited to the core TCP/IP v4 and TCP/IP v6 protocol specifications,” he said in his note.

Some of the RFC protocols that Microsoft asserts that it may have IP rights over, such as the TCP/IP protocols and the DNS (Domain Name System), form the very bedrock of the Internet’s network infrastructure.