Microsoft Corp. has announced plans to team up with former rival Corel Corp. to build a “shared source” implementation of its C# programming language and a companion runtime environment, two of the key pieces of the software vendor’s new Internet-based .Net computing services strategy.
Tony Goodhew, a .Net marketing executive at Microsoft, said the shared source code versions of the software will be freely available for non-commercial development projects, such as those undertaken by “academics and researchers.” But companies that are building .Net-compatible tools will also be able to use the code for purposes such as debugging. Microsoft said the shared source implementation will run on Windows and the open-source FreeBSD operating system, a derivative of Unix. The code for C# (pronounced C-sharp) and Microsoft’s Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) will be published under a shared source licensing framework. Under the program, Microsoft lets companies view, but not modify, the source code for its products.
IBM sees 30 per cent hike in apps for Linux
Calling it a “major milestone” for Linux, IBM Corp. reported that the number of enterprise-level applications available for the open-source operating system has grown 30 per cent since the start of the year.
The growth is indicative of the growing acceptance towards business applications running on Linux, said Scott Handy, director of Linux solutions and marketing at IBM’s software group. The number of Linux-based business applications available from independent software vendors stands at 2,288 as listed in IBM’s Global Services directory, up from 1,700 at the start of the year, IBM officials said.
Study predicts US$333B in Bluetooth sales by 2006
Though products featuring Bluetooth have been slow to hit the market, the wireless technology is still expected to generate worldwide revenue of just under US$2 billion in 2001, growing to U.S. $333 billion by 2006, according to a study.
The study, published by market research company Frost & Sullivan Ltd., the U.K. branch of U.S.-based Frost & Sullivan Inc., predicts that 4.2 million products using the Bluetooth technology will be shipped to market by the end of this year, with 1.01 billion Bluetooth products making it to market by 2006, said Frost & Sullivan analyst Michael Wall.