DENVER, October 12, 1998 — In his opening keynote today to 6,000 software developers at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates predicted that when Windows NT 5.0 ships, it will have more available applications than any previous operating system.
“This kind of applications support is unprecedented,” Gates told developers of some of the 60,000 applications expected to be ready for NT 5.0. He added that within 18 months after Windows NT 5.0 is released, Microsoft expects availability of more than 100,000 supporting applications forthe new operating system.
The PDC is one of many Microsoft developer education and training events offered through MSDN, the Microsoft Developer Network, to help developers benefit from business opportunities spurred by innovations on the Windows platform. Premier sponsors of this year’s PDC are Casio Computer Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Creative Labs, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and MSDN. Other event sponsors include Attachmate Corp, Dell, Gemplus, J.D. Edward, Rational Software Corp., AMD, Compuware Corp, InstallShield Software Corp., Level8 Systems, MuTek Solutions, Sharp Electronics Corp., Simware, Summit Software Company and Wrox Press.
This year’s PDC focuses on how developing with NT 5.0 will help lower the cost of deploying and managing applications, and the advanced features of NT 5.0, such as Directory Services, Security Services, Component Services and Installation Services. Windows NT 5.0 is the only operating system with a complete set of system services necessary to meet the requirements of today’s developers of distributed applications.
“From a developer perspective, this year’s PDC is vital,” said Andy Staffer, director of research and development for Executive Software. “NT 5.0 is all about providing greater ease of use and lower TCO (total cost of ownership) to the end user.” Executive Software will demonstrate its Diskeeper defragmenter for Windows NT 5.0 at the PDC.
“With Windows NT 5.0 and COM+, Microsoft offers the best integrated platform for building distributed applications in the marketplace,” said Bread Wunder, vice president of research and development for Avio, a provider of information technology for physicians’ organizations.
Microsoft made several announcements at the PDC including the following:
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An agreement with Level8 Systems to help large organizations address that complex interoperability issues in their enterprise. With this agreement, Microsoft furthers its commitment to support the increasing needs of enterprise developers deploying distributed applications across heterogeneous applications.
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New guidelines to help developers integrate their applications with the ActiveDirectory of Windows NT Server 5.0. Baan Company and SAP AG will be demonstrating for the first time versions of their applications that are integrated with ActiveDirectory. By integrating applications with ActiveDirectory, developers can build applications that deliver greater functionality and lower TCO to their users.
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A draft of the requirements for the Windows NT Workstation 5.0 Logo Program presented by Microsoft for industry review.
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A showcase of independent software vendors who are already building applications optimized for specific Windows NT Workstation 5.0 technologies.
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Visual Studio support for COM+. Announced on Monday, attendees saw a technology preview of Visual C++ that includes a new technology called attributes. Attributes is a new development functionality that enables developers to easily create COM+ components.
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A VBA licensing agreement with Corel. Corel plans to integrate VBA across its product line including Corel WordPerfect Suite and CorelDRAW.
Developers attending the event saw a sneak preview of MSDN Start, the new home page for MSDN Online, designed to give one single point of entry into all Microsoft programs and offerings for developers. Based on feedback Microsoft will relaunch MSDN Online early next year to provide improved searching, easier access to technical information and a richer online membership program. More than 2 million developers use resources provided by MSDN to create applications and solutions for the Windows operating systems, the Microsoft BackOffice family server application suite, Microsoft Office desktop applications and the Internet.
MSDN offers something to meet nearly every developer need, including programs like the MSDN Online membership, a free program that provides programming information and technical resources to nearly 700,000 developers; MSDN Subscriptions, a CD-ROM based subscription product that provides online delivery of technical documentation, sample code, technical notes, SDKs and other materials that will help developers write software for Windows or use Microsoft development tools, the MSDN ISV Program, a free program provides business and technical information to more than 6,000 Windows ISVs, the MSDN Startups Program, which offers specific benefits and marketing activities to help young high-tech companies jump-start their business; the MSDN User Group Program, which provides information and support to developer-centric user groups and special interest groups interested in Microsoft’s Visual Studio family of tools and other developer offerings; as well as many other resources and opportunities for developers.
For more information on MSDN resources for developers, please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/developer/default.htm.
