Customers buoyed by Microsoft direction

LOS ANGELES - End users say security, management and interface upgrades that Microsoft is building into the next versions of its client operating system and Office suite appear to make a compelling case to consider upgrades when the software ships late next year.

At its Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) last week, Microsoft tried to reassert the importance of its core technologies by displaying its Windows Vista client operating system, Office 12 suite and Longhorn Server. It also enticed developers with new tools to build feature-rich applications to complement the foundation components.

Microsoft highlighted a number of tools for traditional developers, including the forthcoming Visual Studio 2005. It also showed off its new Expression suite for designers to build slick interfaces, and tools for end users to share and route files.

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LOS ANGELES - End users say security, management and interface upgrades that Microsoft is building into the next versions of its client operating system and Office suite appear to make a compelling case to consider upgrades when the software ships late next year.

At its Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) last week, Microsoft tried to reassert the importance of its core technologies by displaying its Windows Vista client operating system, Office 12 suite and Longhorn Server. It also enticed developers with new tools to build feature-rich applications to complement the foundation components.

Microsoft highlighted a number of tools for traditional developers, including the forthcoming Visual Studio 2005. It also showed off its new Expression suite for designers to build slick interfaces, and tools for end users to share and route files.

The software giant hopes the tools will spur developers to tap into the platform's improvements, including a common workflow engine, also introduced last week.

That platform is key for corporations that plan to move into the next era of distributed computing, involving service-oriented architectures.

Vista and Office are scheduled to ship late next year. Longhorn is expected to follow in 2007.

Microsoft is trying to persuade users that Office will become a rich-client alternative that will add features to server-side computing, and it is starting to spur interest.

"You are seeing how all this stuff is adding up," says Ferdy Khater, managing director for application development for a transportation company he asked not be named. "Vista and Longhorn represent change, but they fall in line with what Microsoft has been telling us would happen."

Khater says that fact would make upgrades easier, because he has known Microsoft's overall plan for the past few years. "My current investment in Windows will not go to waste," he says.

Others also welcome changes introduced at PDC. They include those made to the Office interface and the addition of back-end servers for its productivity applications.

"I am impressed with the Office 12 user interface," says Brad Clements, vice president of engineering for netdocuments, an application service provider that hosts corporate document management environments.

Microsoft has updated Office with graphics designed to make it easier to find features and functions. The interface replaces traditional drop-down menus and toolbars. "It will make a big difference, because all of our users are Office users, and they are users that don't know Office that well," Clements says.

But he cautions that not everything Microsoft is doing is a bull's-eye, especially the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which provides developers with dramatic visual options on the desktop, such as 3-D rendering. "I think this may bring less consistency across the Windows interface, because now developers and designers can do just about anything they want." Clements says the inconsistency will be jarring to end users and could mean a rise in training costs.

Analysts say that Microsoft faces a challenge proving WPF has value to corporate users.

"A case can be made for [WPF], but so far Microsoft has not made it," says Greg DeMichillie, senior analyst for development platforms and tools at consultancy Directions on Microsoft. He says WPF has mostly been shown as "eye candy" and not how it might aid usability. "That is the single biggest hole in terms of execution that they need to fill."

Some independent software developers say the platform may have more appeal to corporate users than it does for them.

"At the PDC in 2003 we heard about the pillars of Longhorn, but what is left is a GUI, a workflow engine and Office 12 with SharePoint on the back end," says Steve Wong, senior software scientist with Avamar, which develops back-up and restore technology. SharePoint includes technology for building online workspaces around collaboration and document sharing. "I'm not troubled by what they are trying to do; I just think it is more oriented for corporations."