Microsoft.NET (formerly known as Next Generation Windows Services, NGWS) is the umbrella term for the Microsoft’s strategy to move from a client-centric model to a network-centric model. It can be best described as the initiative that will allow the Internet to be the basis of a new operating system. It frees us from the constraints of hardware by making user data available from the Internet. The .NET is important to users as it makes their information accessible across all devices. It is also important to developers because it will change the way they develop applications by allowing them to hook onto Web Services. Microsoft held the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Orlando, Florida where they revealed details about their next generation platform for Windows and Internet software development - .NET, people all across the globe have considered .NET as a broad but ambitious initiative that revolves around the .NET Framework. The .NET framework is the actual language and execution platform besides providing an extensive set of class libraries. Though there is no doubt that it seems broad and ambitious but it is certainly a revolutionary idea that introduces a completely new model of programming and deployment of applications.
The vision of .NET is globally distributed systems that use XML as the universal glue to allow functions running on different computers across an organization or across the world to come together in a single application. In this vision, systems from servers to wireless palmtops, will share the same general platform, with versions of .NET available for all of them, and with each of them able to collaborate transparently with others. The .NET also aims to make traditional business applications easier to develop and deploy. Figure 1.2 shows how applications and services can be interlinked in an Internet-based environment.
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