.NET, .Mac: Is it Time?

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by Derrick Story
Network Newsletter for 07/31/2002

Dear Reader,

We've been watching the evolution of Internet services. Like so many promising technologies, adoption never seems to happen as fast as prognosticators predict.

But we've seen some real traction lately. Two weeks ago we ran an article, "Using Amazon's New Web Services" that covered Amazon's new API initiatives allowing customers to integrate its online content with independent Web sites. This is quite a move forward for Amazon, and it makes mountains of data easily accessible on the Web.

About the same time, Apple unveiled .Mac, which is a comprehensive suite of online services aimed at Mac OS X users. We've just published an article, "Dissecting .Mac" that takes a look at Apple's latest offering. .Mac seems to be establishing a more intimate client/server relationship for Mac users for everyday tasks such as mail handling, calendar management, hard disk backup, and syncing with other digital devices.

Microsoft has been busy in this arena too, and you can stay current by checking in on our .NET DevCenter every week or so. Currently, we have an article revisiting Rotor, which is a shared source project that allows developers to create, compile, and port .NET applications in C#, Perl, Java, and other programming languages. Rotor provides an open door to .NET without having to exclusively use Microsoft's developer tools. Technologies like Rotor could really stimulate .NET's growth.

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So it does seem like Internet services are coming of age. I hope you have a few minutes to stop by and read about the latest developments.

Until next week,

Derrick
O'Reilly Network Managing Editor
derrick@oreilly.com

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