Several open/free alternatives to Microsoft’s .Net available

“There’s some pieces of .Net that are really interesting to us, from a developer’s standpoint,” de Icaza says. “We basically want to have better tools for creating applications, and we saw that Microsoft was getting this cool technology, and we’re not getting it. We decided we had to get a piece of that cake.”

Mono will allow developers to program in any language to create applications that will run both in Linux and Windows. He’s also interested in the potential for Mono to allow development of Web-based services. “You can choose the language you’re most comfortable with to develop applications,” he says. “For the the first time, you don’t need to have an XML implementation for Perl, an XML implementation for Python, another one for C++, another one for Pascal …”

de Icaza’s goal is to have the run-time development platform available by the end of the year and database and Microsoft API functions available by mid-2002. He says he hasn’t heard much about DotGNU yet, but he believes the two projects can complement each other.

de Icaza’s team has written part of the C# compiler so far, and part of the run-time engine. The team has about 70 class libraries out of an estimated 1,000 written. He expects interest in the project to start slowly, then pick up after it shows more progress.

“There’s a lot of people who realize the potential of .Net, and they’re interested in contributing,” de Icaza says. “As with any other Open Source project, I would expect that it’s going to have a slow start, until we have something people can use. At that point is when the development accelerates.”

However, de Icaza doesn’t want developers who’ve already played with .Net’s tools. “If you have looked at the source code for .Net, and you feel tempted to cut and paste code into Mono, then you may taint the whole project,” he says. “It’s the same care you have with a new project — please do not bring any proprietary technology to the project.”

XNS: Do you want Microsoft controlling your data?

The XNS.org team has created a “global identity management, privacy control,
and XML-based data exchange technology,” according to XNSORG chairman Adam C. Engst. XNS will duplicate some of the services that Microsoft’s Passport online wallet service provides.

Engst describes XNS as a “global identity management, privacy control,
and XML-based data exchange technology.” He adds, “The main place where XNS
offers an alternative to Microsoft products is in naming, authentication, and privacy control.”

From the XNS FAQ: “Like DNS, XNS is a globally distributed service that can be implemented by any ISP, portal, corporation, university, or other network service provider. Unlike DNS, however, all XNS agencies and agents enter into registration agreements incorporating global terms specified by the XNS Public Trust Organization (XNSORG), an independent non-profit organization responsible for governance of the XNS global trust community.”

A the main difference between the Open Source project and .Net is who will have control of your personal data, he says. Instead, of a corporate-controlled information system, the XNS information is controlled by the independent, non-profit XNSORG.

“Microsoft says it will never use personal information and it will require .Net
service providers to adhere to its privacy guidelines, but in the
end, Microsoft is a corporation in business to make money,” Engst says. “Whatever
your view of Microsoft’s privacy efforts, it’s hard to argue that a single company should have such control over personal information.”

XNSORG, which governs the XNS project, is “specifically chartered
to provide non-discriminatory governance of the XNS standard,” he adds. “XNSORG isn’t handing these [standards] down from on high — we’re inviting participation at all
levels to evolve these documents as the Internet world itself evolves.”

As others including de Icaza say, it’s hard to pin down exactly what the scope of .Net will become, so Engst says he’s not sure how to answer a question about where .Net goes beyond the work of XNS. But while XNSORG hasn’t exactly trumpeted its work compared to .Net, the project has been around for several years.

“OneName Corporation developed the patented communication
agent technology that underlies XNS and recognized that it stood no chance of adoption if it was held as a closed, proprietary technology,” Engst remembers. “So [we] formed the non-profit XNS Public Trust Organization (XNSORG) to promulgate and manage the XNS standard …”

Engst continues: “The status today is that XNS is operational — you can go to
http://www.xns.org/user/services/ today and follow the links to register your own XNS agent, which is fully functional. Another simple thing you can do now is use a Web gateway we set up to see the
public profile of XNS users who’ve set them up … The two challenges we face right now are expanding the capabilities of the agents (something that’s done by adding what we
call ‘knowledgepack’ — essentially XNS applications) and attracting
additional public agencies.”

Engst says there’s mixed feelings about .Net and Hailstorm among the XNS developers.
“There’s no question that Microsoft can put more money and effort into the field than almost any organization on the planet, so we’re happy to see their validation of many of the kinds of benefits we’ve been saying XNS could provide all along. Like so many
others in the Internet community, we’re deeply troubled by the privacy and security implications of centralizing such important data and functions with Microsoft — or any one company. And finally, we would far rather convince Microsoft that supporting XNS and participating as one of many entities in XNSORG would work better for
Microsoft and the Internet community than competing directly with
XNS.”

IBM: Web-based business model

IBM’s open standards Dynamic E-Business Web-based platform, which didn’t generate a lot of attention when it was first announced in May, is a business model, as opposed to a technology, says Stefan Van Overtveldt, program director for IBM’s WebSphere technical marketing department.

The idea behind Dynamic E-Business is that a company can concentrate on its core activities and farm out its other functions to specialists offering Web-based services, Van Overtveldt says. IBM offers a suite it’s calling Web Services, which can tie the business model to specific technology needs.

Van Overtveldt uses the example of an e-commerce site using a specialist to figure out import/export fees, which nations are likely to start collecting, for items it’s shipping across the globe. Web Services would allow the e-commerce site to look for and compare specialists, and then have the best specialist could figure out the import tax for a specific country, and collect those taxes from the e-commerce site.

“Web Services is really all about allowing an application to do on the Internet what [computer] users have been able to do for quite sometime, therefore automating a task for the user,” he explains.

IBM will use open standards such as SOAP to deliver its Web Services on multiple platforms, including Linux and several Unixes, Van Overtveldt says. IBM plans to Open Source much of the Web Services work, he adds, so that companies can create their own services. “The fact that we want to implement these open standards on as many platforms as possible is not just important, it’s absolutely mandatory,” he says. “What we don’t want is a company that has put a lot of effort into developing a set of transactions against a database needing to go out and develop those same applications in another language just to publish them as a Web Service.”

IBM believes a universal registry that’s necessary for Web Services, a la Microsoft’s Hailstorm, doesn’t belong in the hands of one company, Van Overtveldt says. IBM believes companies will develop their own internal registries, then share them with partners. Ultimately, a “big registry in the sky” should be hosted by a dot-org, he adds.

IBM is also pitching its Web Services’ “intelligent transactions” as a difference to .Net. Intelligent transactions can “make decisions” about what part of your business application should link to what businesses, and remember that function over a long period of time, he says. “Our vision is that Microsoft sees .Net as … how you can extend desktop applications with additional components over the Web,” Van Overtveldt says. “Our vision about Web Services is that it really allows you to create a complete business process over the Internet.”