Updated: July 12, 2020 (June 30, 2003)

  Analyst Report

.NET Ambitions Lowered

My Atlas / Analyst Reports

2,735 wordsTime to read: 14 min
Rob Helm by
Rob Helm

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

“.NET” has almost vanished from Microsoft’s vocabulary since the company launched its .NET strategic initiative in June 2000. The .NET initiative described a vision for how software and the Internet would evolve, a new platform for software development that supported the vision, and a new business—application hosting—that would drive future growth for the company. Three years later, most of the hopes behind the .NET initiative have not been realized, but it remains central to the company’s server and developer tools business and is even beginning to influence longtime cash cows such as the Office suite.

A Three-Part Strategic Plan

The boundaries of the term .NET have always been fuzzy, but the initiative originally had three parts:

  • A vision for how software and the Internet would develop, revolving around a new kind of application—the Web service
  • A platform—Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework—for developing and running software that would make Windows a better base for both traditional

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