Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system was initially developed for a very limited computer (in terms of processing capabilities) and therefore was designed to run only one application at a time. But with the passage of time and advent of new techniques, Intel Corporation developed more and more powerful CPUs, such as the 80286 and 80386. At that time Microsoft began envisioning the limitless possibilities of running multiple applications concurrently and this vision led to the development of the cooperatively multitasking Microsoft Windows environment. Further, it lead to the development of various technologies like OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) and ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) for data exchange, which ultimately led to one of the most successful component architectures named COM (Component Object Model). Having achieved tremendous success in the desktop arena, Microsoft had the vision of making inroads into the Internet world. And this strategy had to be developed with web-centric environments in mind. The .NET strategy is nothing but Microsoft’s vision of future’s web-centric environments where the focus shifts from the desktop to the Internet.
MS-DOS |
Microsoft Windows Environment |
Microsoft Data Access Technologies (OLE, ODBC, ADO, ActiveX) |
Microsoft COM (Component Object Model) |
Microsoft .NET strategy |
