.NET Web Services for Not Yet Techies

.NET Web Services sets out to connect people, businesses and all types of computing devices across networks using Internet technologies, so .NET Web Services is a multilanguage environment that will replace CORBA and diminish the importance of COM "middleware" that connects different software applications across networks.

.NET Web Services are: Framework, Visual Studio.NET, Enterprise Servers and My Services (once known as Hailstorm).

.NET Web Services is undoubtedly Microsoft's answer to those critics who said they were barking up the wrong tree by creating a huge operating system (Windows) designed for ever-increasingly powerful PCs.

Ever since the introduction of Java and Netscape and the IT industry wars, some pundits have proclaimed that the future of computing lay in "thin clients." That is, cheap Internet appliances. Instead of having a huge amount of software stored on a zillion-gig hard drive, the thin client would use whatever programs it needed by finding it online.

In such a world, Windows would be unnecessary, an obviously direct challenge to Microsoft - which they answer with .NET Web Services, which combines the power of Windows with the convenience of the Internet to provide the power of both.

I'm not sure what's happened to that.

My original thought when I first heard about thin clients is that why should people give up the power of having their own PCs? Moore's Law predicted that computing power would double every 18 months. Why give that up? With .NET Web Services you don't have to.

I don't think anybody wants to. That's why the Internet "appliances" have apparently failed on the consumer market. They were cheaper than PCs but PCs are so cheap, so what? They're big and you had to set them on a table or desk -- just like a PC.

So why not have a PC? If you want to write a letter or play a game, why go through the hassle of going online and downloading a Java applet for that?

However, it's obvious that wireless devices from PDAs to mobile phones are extremely popular with consumers for accessing the Internet for specific purposes. Because they are convenient. You can use them when you are not at your desk where your PC is. So .NET Web Services will provide a lot of convenience to people while they are not at their desks but who still need or want certain information and services.

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