NT News Network - 01 Dec 1997

Intel's New Alpha Processors?
Did you hear the rumor in early October that Digital Equipment mightsell its Alpha chip technology to Intel? That initial report created quite an uproar­but the news for Alpha fans soon improved.

Digital says it wasn't interested in selling the Alpha to Intel, but inshaping a licensing agreement with Intel to take over the Alpha's manufacturing.Digital started the negotiations in an effort to settle the patent infringementsuit that it had brought against Intel. Digital has been seeking a manufacturingpartner for the Alpha for a couple of years. The company wants to lessen thefinancial burden of owning and operating the Massachusetts semiconductor plantthat produces the Alpha chips. Digital's lawsuit claims that Intel infringedDigital's patents on cache management, branch prediction, andinstruction-processing technology within the Alpha processor.

According to sources at Digital, the company will not turn its back onAlpha technology, but instead will ensure that the Alpha continues to reign asthe king of speed and that the Alpha quickly becomes the platform of choice forhigh-end Windows NT systems. Digital says that no matter how the lawsuit issettled, Digital will continue to deliver Alpha-based 64-bit enterprisesolutions to its customers. As of mid-October, the companies said that they hadnot entered into any firm agreements.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

NDS for NT
Directory services are coming to Windows NT in the form ofMicrosoft's Active Directory (AD). But Novell has beaten Microsoft to the punchby recently releasing its new Novell Directory Service (NDS) for Windows NT.Novell's new philosophy toward NT is to not fight it, but to use it to Novell'sadvantage. Novell claims NDS for NT is a strategic solution for dealing withproblems introduced by NT domains­problems that Microsoft is acutely awareof and intends to address with AD.

If you use both NetWare and NT, Novell's offering might help you managethose dissimilar operating systems. Novell claims that using NDS will lowersystems administration costs, create higher system and applicationsavailability, result in fewer Help desk calls, and offer tighter networksecurity and reliability.

You must host the initial release of NDS for NT on a NetWare server, but asof NDS 1.1 (due out by second quarter 1998), you'll be able to run NDS on NT.Novell says that in the future, NT 5.0 will fully support NDS, and NDS willcomplement AD in managing heterogeneous networks. In addition to many otheruseful features, NDS can bring single-sign-on capabilities to a heterogeneousnetwork today­a feature most administrators would love to have available ontheir network.

Like Microsoft, which wants AD running on as many UNIX systems as possible,Novell is recruiting UNIX partners for moving NDS into the marketplace. Novellwants to see NDS ship on as many as 75 percent of all UNIX platforms sold.Novell has also reached an agreement with IBM to use NDS on IBM's 390 seriesmainframes.

—Mark Vernon

Pssst, Wanna Buy an OS?
Continuing its effort to displace UNIX and preparing for theeventual release of Windows NT 5.0 next year, Microsoft is campaigning for theproduct space of about 3000 UNIX Value Added Resellers (VARs) that happen tocurrently be major Sun Microsystems resellers. The effort includes a nationaltour with HP and Tech Data in a quest to transform the quasi-religious UNIX vs.NT debate into a practical business discussion. Microsoft is offering the VARsan opportunity to get their hands on NT; that way, they can begin settingthemselves apart from the crowd by offering NT solutions in addition to UNIXproducts. Microsoft is telling its field reps to target Sun VARs everywhere.

And while Microsoft mounts its assault on Sun's turf, Sun is strengtheningrelations with its VARs. Sun's computer hardware division recently doubledreseller development funds after VARs complained they could make more moneyselling Compaq servers. Sun is educating VARs on how to increase their profitsby selling applications, services, and peripherals, and is conducting its ownroad show demonstrating Sun hardware and UNIX-NT integration.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

News Analysis:
NT 5.0: Who Wants It?
Microsoft has released Windows NT 5.0 in its first beta version, butwho's chomping at the bit for this new platform? No one knows for sure yet, butI'll offer some insight.

Dataquest recently revised its NT forecast. The company once predicted thatby the end of 1997, NT would run on 11 million desktops; now the company saysthat only 8 million desktops will run NT. Granted, the prediction isn't tied toNT 5.0, but you can see it as an indicator of NT 5.0's effect on the market. Howmany of those desktops will retool to NT 5.0 after recently converting to NT4.0? Chances are that not many firms will retool quickly, unless they've alreadyrealized their investments in NT 4.0. Companies might not be able to justify theexpense of moving to NT 5.0 until they've milked NT 4.0 for a while. Dataquestsays that some firms are moving to NT 4.0 slowly because of the hype about NT5.0. Although some firms have bitten the bullet and installed NT 4.0, otherfirms are waiting for NT 5.0. In a nutshell, don't expect to see many NT 4.0shops immediately upgrading to NT 5.0 when Microsoft releases it in mid-1998.

Another factor governing who will use NT 5.0 is legacy system integration.Some shops believe that Windows 95 (Win95) doesn't function well with legacysystems, and software vendors are pointing those shops to NT instead of Windows98 (Win98). Therefore, expect to see many shops skip Win98 and go straight to NT5.0.

But with IBM's commitment to NT, some forms of legacy interoperabilitymight get easier. Remember, IBM has released an add-on card for the AS/400 thatwill let those systems run NT--albeit on a standalone card and not directly onthe AS/400 chipset. Rumors abound that IBM will eventually retool the AS/400 sothat it can run NT on the main hardware, without the use of an add-on card.Perhaps IBM will even port portions of NT, if necessary. This speculation, ofcourse, is only a rumor; however, that the AS/400 is key to IBM's current andfuture success is no big secret, so don't assume IBM will let the NT 5.0enthusiasm pass by. Some confusion still exists about the propermigration path for users still running Windows 3.x. Where do those users go? Theanswer depends on what they need. Users who run Windows 3.x on older hardwareand need access to legacy systems can upgrade to Win95 or Win98, which providebackward and forward compatibility. Users with newer hardware and software whowant higher performance and stronger security can migrate to NT. Analysts saythat heterogeneous environments can split users into two groups: Power userswill run 32-bit applications under NT, and other users will run Win95 or Win98.

An International Data Corporation (IDC) NT adoption study in the USrevealed some interesting surprises. According to Tom Harris, IDC researchdirector, the study shows that firms are devoting as much as 25 percent of theirtotal IS budget to NT. The study also shows that large firms are adopting NTmore quickly and extensively than small companies because firms that have largerIS staffs can more readily take on new projects. Perhaps this factor is adriving force behind Microsoft's NT Small Business Server (SBS) package, whichthe company recently released to beta. The study shows that small businesses arenot as likely to make frequent changes, and that large companies are more drivento keep up with technological advances, so they're more likely to migrate to NT5.0 when it becomes available.

Deregulation and consolidation in many markets has made NT's marketentrance easier. In many shops, NT's presence comes at the expense of UNIX andNovell NetWare systems. But NetWare customers are very loyal, and with much oftheir network already paid for, Netware shops may be more resistant to changingto NT than UNIX shops.

UNIX is more vulnerable to replacement because NT and UNIX applications aremore interchangeable than NT and NetWare applications. NT 5.0's features(Kerberos security, directory services, etc.) will cause companies to look at NT5.0 more closely than at NT 4.0. IDC's Tom Harris said NT 5.0 is a veryhigh-stakes bet for Microsoft, and Active Directory and security are two keypoints that NT 5.0 must handle adequately for the bet to pay off.

According to IDC, NT 3.51 shops are well on the way to adopting NT 4.0,especially for desktop systems. Microsoft sold 2.2 million copies of NTWorkstation in 1996, and the company expects to sell even more copies in 1997and 1998. The UNIX community has essentially lost the race for the desktop, andfrom a corporate development standpoint, NT workstations will gain ground inmarkets in which systems such as UNIX used to prevail. Nonetheless, nay-sayersand die-hards will always refuse to abandon their legacy systems, no matter whatan IS department recommends or mandates.

IDC's study shows that NT adopters perform a lot of data warehousing,provide customer support, and maintain messaging support. Although some shopsscream for terabyte data warehouses, other companies say the key issue in thedecision to adopt NT is that NT security hasn't yet arrived. Of interest to allparties is how Cisco Systems' incorporation of NT 5.0's Active Directory (AD) inits routers will play a role in the grand scheme of things--especially withregard to security. IDC's Tom Harris says two outcomes of Cisco's use of AD areincreased ease of use and more solid bandwidth guarantees. On the downside,potential router vulnerabilities could become NT network risks, too. One thingis certain: As big companies adopt NT, they'll definitely have very highexpectations for interoperability, performance, and security.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

Out to Pasture
The verdict is in: Windows 9x will become a thing of the past verysoon. After the release of Windows 98, Microsoft will shift its focus completelyto Windows NT technology for both business and consumer products. From 1999 on,NT will be Microsoft's only operating system. In preparation for this move, NT5.0 and Windows 98 will have the same device model, Plug and Play technology,and the same use interface. By the way, Microsoft says you won't see Windows 98until second quarter 1998, and some analysts are now telling us not expect thefirst release of NT 5.0 until 1999.

How will consumers react to this phase-out of Windows 9x? I'd venture toguess you'll hear a lot of grumbling mixed in with a dash of strong complaint,not to mention the inevitable threats from companies to drop Microsoftcompletely. Windows 3.x is still widely deployed, and Windows 95 isn't farbehind. Many firms aren't ready to let go of those investments, and many don'tneed a more powerful, more feature-rich operating system. I think you'll seeMicrosoft bend a bit on its proclamation to pacify some of its major accounts.And you'll probably also see Microsoft making really sweet deals on NT upgradesto further entice the nay-sayers.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

Active Desktop Gets Some Competition
Those of you who have already installed Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0have witnessed the new Active Desktop feature that turns your standard desktopinto a Web client. Netscape is moving in a similar direction. The companyrecently previewed next-generation client software technology for integratinginformation from the Internet and the desktop. According to Netscape, theproduct, code-named Aurora, will provide one easy-to-use user interface thatseamlessly integrates and manages information from multiple sources (Web sites,push channels, personal bookmarks, email, legacy databases, documents, and localdesktop files). Aurora takes advantage of Resource Description Framework (RDF),an emerging standard framework for metadata that provides one mechanism fororganizing, describing, and navigating information on Web sites.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

ActiveX, Java, or DHTML?
September's rumor is today's fact: Microsoft has ordered hundreds(as many as 750) Java applets removed from various Microsoft Web pages. Youmight think this action is part of the ongoing fight between Sun Microsystemsand Microsoft for technological dominance, and to some extent you're probablyright. But Microsoft isn't positioning the situation that way.

Microsoft believes that Dynamic HTML (DHTML) provides a better answer thanJava or even ActiveX. Microsoft says Java just doesn't work well on allplatforms and that when broad platform support is the issue, DHTML and scriptingare the answer. With DHTML and scripts, you can build a Web page and completelychange it on the fly. Microsoft believes that the Java evolution is a scenariosimilar to that of Windows running on top of DOS (an OS running on top of anOS); eventually developers will have the same situation with Java, a full-blownJava OS running on top of some other full-blown OS.

So while Microsoft tones down its ActiveX campaign in favor of DHTML andscripting, Sun and Netscape forge ahead with Java. Netscape purportedly isbuilding a Java-based browser that does not require a preloaded OS.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

Hey Sun, Give It Up!
Once again, firms are asking Sun Microsystems to give up control of theJava programming language. Microsoft, Digital Equipment, and Compaq (among other firms) all asked Sun to give the language to the International StandardsOrganization (ISO) for current and future regulation. Sun has made no public comment on the request yet, but Intel representatives say Java is importantenough to become an open standard. The firms say that Sun needs to make the Java name available for free use. Analysts say Java is pivotal to Sun's futuresuccess, and they doubt Sun will cede control anytime soon. If Sun gives upcontrol, competing firms might cannibalize or stymie Java in an effort to gain popularity for other competing technologies.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

NT Stands for No Touching
Microsoft is cracking down on the use of the letters NT in domainand company names. Several individuals and companies that include NT in theirname received written notices from Microsoft attorneys, asking them to renametheir firm and domains immediately. A quick check of the InterNIC WHOIS databasereveals hundreds of domains that incorporate NT directly into their names.

For some entities, this simple request could turn into an identity crisis;many firms have used NT in some form for years. So, does Microsoft have theright to make this request? I'm not certain, but I know that Northern Telecomowns the US trademark to NT and that Microsoft pays heavily to licenseit from them.

Upon hearing of this activity, some companies have voluntarily changedtheir domain names, with the expectation that Microsoft would have asked them todo so anyway. Other entities say they'll challenge Microsoft's professed rightsof enforcement in court.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

UNIX and Directory Services
I previously reported that Cisco Systems is licensing ActiveDirectory (AD) for use in its products. Now I've learned that Cisco willspearhead development of AD for UNIX systems. Cisco gave no time frame, but thecompany will release a beta of non-Windows NT AD during the first quarter of1998 to coincide with the second beta release of Windows NT 5.0. Cisco isn'tsaying which UNIX variation the company will develop AD for first.

On another front, Novell is moving toward UNIX with its Novell DirectoryServices (NDS) software. HP, Sun Microsystems, Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), andIBM are either offering or planning to offer NDS for their UNIX-OS platforms.

As you may already know, directory services provide a central repositoryfor all network resources such as printers, applications, shared disk resources,and others. Directory services simplify administrators' tasks.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

Speed Up the Presses!
QuarkXPress rules the desktop publishing industry when you'relooking at serious professional output. You probably already know that Quarkruns on the Macintosh and Intel-based Windows NT systems quite well, butperformance is about to get even better­on a different platform. DigitalEquipment has just announced a strategic partnership with Quark that includesporting QuarkXPress 4.0 to Digital's smokin' fast Alpha-based NT Workstations.The two companies will start taking applications for beta testers this month,and the production goal is to debug and release the product no later than firstquarter 1998. Quark will also port its Quark Publishing Platform to the NT-Alphaplatform, but the company gave no time frame for this product release. Quarksays it chose Digital because of the Alpha's speed and stability and because ofDigital's worldwide service and support capabilities.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

Safe from Prying Eyes
You may know that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies arguethat criminals and terrorists use encryption to avoid various types ofsurveillance. Because of this belief, the agencies have been pushing forencryption key escrow laws. The laws would require all encryption users toprovide copies of their private keys to law enforcement officials for use in theevent they need to tap your communications. Of course, the FBI says the keyswould be used for taps only under court order, but citizens argue that a keyescrow is simply too much temptation for abuse of power and a complete reversalof the citizen's right to privacy.

The people against key escrow laws won a major battle in September when theUS House Commerce Committee approved, by a 35-16 vote, the Security and Freedomthrough Encryption (SAFE) Act. Observers consider the bill's passage a majorvictory for proponents of privacy on the Internet. The committee rejected anamendment that might have required all users to give copies of their privateencryption keys to the FBI. Instead, the committee amended the SAFE bill tocreate a special government body to assist law enforcement officials in dealingwith encryption encountered during the course of an investigation.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

COM+, The Sequel
With the release of Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0 in late September,Microsoft says IE 4.0 will serve as a cornerstone for the next generation ofWindows and will let developers move away from their three-tiered-applicationmodels, favoring Web interfaces and component-based models instead. Componentsare small pieces of prewritten code that you can modify for easy reuse insteadof writing new code from scratch.

To make these components work together, a developer needs a bit of glue: theCommon Object Model (COM). At its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoftrechristened COM as COM+ and will extend the architecture by incorporatingadditional infrastructure to facilitate building cross-platform applications.COM+ will be part of upcoming releases of Windows, and Microsoft will shipprerelease versions to developers by the end of 1997.

Everyone knows that Sun Microsystems, Netscape, Novell, and others supportthe Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) object model instead ofCOM. Recently, Netscape's Mark Andreessen predicted Microsoft would drop COMsupport by 1999, but Microsoft's actions refute that prediction. Enterprisesoftware developers SAP, Baan, and PeopleSoft (among others) have all pledgedtheir support for COM in their products.

—Mark Joseph Edwards

SGI Cries Uncle!
Acknowledging the inevitable, Silicon Graphics (SGI) has confirmedthat it will deliver a new line of computers next year based on the Windows andIntel (WinTel) technologies. SGI says that resisting the growing dominance ofthese two firms and their technology is futile and that to become a leader ingraphics, you must have a Windows NT product line.

SGI will design its new workstations around Intel processors and will runNT software. The machines will incorporate SGI's software and hardware systemsfor generating graphics. Alias/Wavefront, an SGI unit, is already developinggraphics-editing applications for NT.

Analysts think SGI's NT systems could become superior to competingproducts, such as those from Sun Microsystems. The industry expects SGI systemsto make their debut, with a big splash, in the second half of 1998.

This announcement leaves Sun as the sole UNIX-only vendor of any size. EvenSequent, longtime champion of multiprocessor UNIX-based transaction servers, hasannounced plans for NT-based products.

—Mark Joseph Edwards and Alex Pournelle

Siggraph '97: NT, More Than Ever
If the Special Interest Group on Graphics (Siggraph) conference usedto be an all-Silicon Graphics (SGI) show, it is no longer. Windows NT users madea strong showing at the August Siggraph conference. Attendees appeared to beconcentrated more in the corporate MIS camp than in creative endeavors. Thecomputer graphics market has gone mainstream and is poised to use NT as astepping-stone to the office desktop and corporate communications department.

The show announcements went across the board, too. Major vendors, includingHP, Intergraph, Compaq, and Digital Equipment--even Dell and Gateway2000--introduced true NT workstations, designed to compete directly with SGI'spremier products for creating complex visuals. Companies that had previouslyconcentrated on NT products for the server market have declared visual computinga significant market and moved into workstations. NT workstation integration,technical support, and internal expertise have matured to rival the UNIX market.

Although the NT workstations are impressive, the graphics cards in them arefar more innovative. Both Intergraph (with RealiZm II) and HP (with VISUALIZEFX4) announced new high-end, NT-based, graphics cards for the OpenGL market,boards with performance that should give SGI a run for its money. Evans andSutherland Computer, a pioneer in UNIX-based graphics products such as flightsimulators, is quietly moving its entire line to NT. Even Intel has decided 3Dgraphics are important, announcing the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) rightafter the show.

What impact will this graphics performance level have on the NT community?First, it will be a boon for all current 3D users: engineers, scientists, andcreators of graphics for corporate communications, commercials, Web sites, TV,and film. Second, PowerPoint-type slideshows will become 3D, if only to spice upboring presentations; the more 3D, the more graphics power required. (Improvedgraphics will also boost the PC games market, which has an insatiable thirst for3D power.)

This change in the graphics universe reached well into the software arena.The biggest news in NT graphics software was the unveiling of Kinetix's 3DStudio MAX 2.0, with 1000 new features, including scripting and much fasterrendering.

Microsoft wasn't showing anything new in its Digital Studio initiative, anyattempt to unify the 3D production process in one product line, nor anything onSumatra/SoftImage 4.0. Microsoft demonstrated SoftImage 3.7 and relatedproducts, used extensively in motion pictures and game development.

—Alex Pournelle