Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming

What Makes Up the Microsoft .NET Initiative
I’ve been working with Microsoft and its technologies for many years now. Over the years,
I’ve seen Microsoft introduce all kinds of new technologies and initiatives: MS-DOS,
Windows, Windows CE, OLE, COM, ActiveX, COM+, Windows DNA, and so on. When I first
started hearing about Microsoft’s .NET initiative, I was surprised at how solid Microsoft’s
story seemed to be. It really seemed to me that they had a vision and a plan and that they
had rallied the troops to implement the plan.
I contrast Microsoft’s .NET platform to ActiveX, which was just a new name given to good old
COM to make it seem more user friendly. ActiveX didn’t mean much (or so many developers
thought), and the term, along with ActiveX controls, never really took off. I also contrast
Microsoft’s .NET initiative to Windows DNA (Distributed InterNet Architecture), which was
another marketing label that Microsoft tacked onto a bunch of already existing technologies.
But I really believe in the Microsoft .NET initiative, and to prove it, I’ve written this book. So,
what exactly constitutes the Microsoft .NET initiative? Well, there are several parts to it, and
I’ll describe each one in the following sections.