Apart from its own Active X technology

Manzar: apart from its own Active X technology, Microsoft has also come out with Visual J++. Just how committed is Microsoft to Java?
Parameswaran: We have two elements of our Java strategy: one is to build a great virtual machine that can run the Java applets and the applications the best; and the second is to provide a tremendous development tool for Java, which is Visual J++.
We are absolutely, one hundred percent committed to shipping the best quality Java implementation that is available. We, in fact, want to make Java real.
The reason why we are committed to Java is that we have been getting an overwhelming response from java developers saying that they are frustrated with Java the way it is right now.
Java is simply not great enough right now for writing powerful applications. What we are trying to do is implement Java in such a way that developers can write powerful applications with Java. For instance many Java developers came to us and asked us how they could write multimedia application in Java. As a matter of fact, the existing Java implementation doesn’t let you do such tings.
We are going to supply with the Java virtual machine, the Java Wrap around multimedia library called Direct Text. With that Java developers can have a free hand in developing multimedia applications.
We also provide a software development kit for Java for writing underlying features of an operating system.
We are not going by what we want. Rather we are trying to provide the best of what developers and users are looking for.
Manzar: How do you react to the Java Virtual machine released by Sun?
Parameswaran: We follow closely the developments of Sun’s JDK (Java Development Kit) 1.1- the Java Virtual Machine. We tend to get delayed information from Sun, though I don’t know why.
There are many features of JDK 1.1 that we will support, and there are some features that we will not. We believe that we have good solutions right now that Java developers want. They do not want some of the solutions of JDK 1.1.
We will support Java Beans, which is the component technology for Java that has some positive as well as negative attitudes. The good thing about Java Beans is that with it you get cross platform components. However, Java Beans restricts programmers to write components in Java. We are going beyond this restriction.
Therefore, in JDK 1.1., we will support Java Beans, JDBC. Among the things we will not support is RMI (Remote Method Innocution).
Manzhar: How do you demarcate your commitment to the Java Virtual Machine and the Wintel (Windows Intel) NetPC?
Parameswaran: We will make, or rather we have already made Windows the best platform for running Java.
What we are doing is that we are taking Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and putting it on Windows. We will make Windows the best platform for running Java.
So, as a user, if you want to run a Java applet or Java application, Windows is going to be the best platform. And that message is very clear.
Manzar: Sun is living with Java technology whereas Microsoft is active with ActiveX. How do you define the two?
Java essentially is a programming language there is white codes and there is VRM. When you write on Java, you do it with the Java language and run it on JVM. ActiveX is a technology that lets components interoperate with each other. 
Java is a language that lets you write an applet etc., and ActiveX is a set of technologies that lets components written in different language interoperate with each other.
You can actually ActiveX components in Java, and that you can do either with our tools or with any third party vendor’s tools.
Manzar: “The Network is the computer” is the latest buzzword today, and it is expected to change the whole computing paradigm. What are Microsoft’s plans as regards the desktop and its role in the enterprise?
Parameswaran:  We started off with Windows on the desktop and went on to build Windows NT server. We also built the Back Office suite of products for databases, messaging and so on. All this has been the result of some very carefully planning.
Manzar: What about your plans on the server side?
Parameswaran: Moving forward, we are going to offer really sophisticated technology. For example Transaction server and Falcon for the corporate environment. While the Transaction Server lets you do high end database applications. Falcon is messaging technology which lets you communicate reliably irrespective of network failure.
Manzar:  Can you tell us some more about COM/DCOM Transaction Server and Falcon?
Cavale: The strategy that we are following with COM (Component Object Modelist), is to add value to whatever components people have already developed and leverage their existing investments.
Thus, one of such things we have developed is Transaction Server (TS). The TS is a run-time execution environment similar to Visual Basic. It is not a programming language.
Manzar: What about Falcon?
Cavale: Falcon comes next on our future plan’s agenda. Falcon is our message giving product. It lets you do messaging in an off-line manner. Meaning that if your computer is disconnected from your network, and you send the message to your remote machine, the message is kept on your local machine and when your computer connects to the network, the message is sent across.
With the marriage of D-COM (Distributed COM) and Falcon, you can add components on the network in an offline manner.
Manzar: What about the desktop
Parameswaran: As far as future planning for desktop computing is concerned, we are coming up with the next release of Internet Explorer which is going to be called Active Desktop.
Active Desktop will include the next release of IE and other technologies. For instance, we are making the browser faster, and more fun to use on the Internet. We are also working on other technologies that bring or rather push information on th3e end user’s desktop.
Manzar: What is the action on the operating system’s side?
Parameswaran: We have always taken the lead in providing the simplest operating system. And we are constantly working on making our current operating system such as Windows 95 and Windows NT more scalable, robust and user friendly.
Manzar: Why it is being said that NT may well be an unbeatable desktop operating system, but fails as a network operating system?
Parameswaran: That is absolutely wrong. Why? Because NT today, is the preferred choice or segments such as banks, where the needs are mission critical and where reliability cannot be compromised.
Also, the statistics say so: the NT server sis out selling all Unix servers combined. And the third reasons why NT is a better choice is that it is technically better designed.
Manzar: What will Winows NT 5.0 look like?
Cavale: Some of the things that you will be seeing include directory services, which will be much more feature rich than NDS (Network Directory Services) of Novell.
We will also be enhancing the security. Together with NT 5.0 we will be shipping NSSN, a certificate based security provider.
However, the most significant feature that we are going to add in NT as far as the Internet is concerned is the ability to authenticate the certificates issued over the Internet directly, on the guidelines of the security principles embedded in the operating system For example, a digital certificate issued over the Internet between two users can directly be mapped to a user ID in the Windows NT operating system.
Thus, you can build secure Internet applications extremely easily. 
Parameswaran: The other thing which is going to be added to the NT Server will be the Internet Information Server 3.0.
Manzar: India is known as a NetWare country, and the country has enough certified Netware engineers. Is it not going to be difficult for a user to implement NT without certified NT engineers?
Parameswaran: Let me explain to you just how easy it will be for an organization to replace NetWare with NT.
One of the things we did when we designed NT was that we provided the ability within NT to integrate with any existing network situation.
Therefore, an organization does not have to throw all its network to implement NT.
As far as certified NT engineers are concerned, our approaches has been to encourage the Microsoft Solution Provider program. Currently there are thousands of developers providing solution based on the Microsoft products.
In addition, we also have a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) program.