MSDN Information
The current logo of Microsoft Windows, one of the
company's best-known products. This division
produces Microsoft's flagship product, the Windows
operating system. It has been produced in many
versions, including Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows
98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows Server 2003,
Windows XP and Windows Vista. Almost all IBM
compatible personal computers come with Windows
preinstalled. The current desktop version of Windows
is Windows Vista. The online service MSN, the cable
television station MSNBC and the Microsoft online
magazine Slate are all part of this division. (Slate
was acquired by The Washington Post on December 21,
2004.) At the end of 1997, Microsoft acquired
Hotmail, the most popular webmail service, which it
rebranded as "MSN Hotmail". In 1999, Microsoft
introduced MSN Messenger, an instant messaging
client, to compete with the popular AOL Instant
Messenger. Along with Windows Vista, MSN Messenger
became Windows Live Messenger.[9]
Microsoft Visual Studio is the company's set of
programming tools and compilers. The software
product is GUI-oriented and links easily with the
Windows APIs, but must be specially configured if
used with non-Microsoft libraries. The current
version is Visual Studio 2008. The previous version,
Visual Studio 2005 was a major improvement over its
predecessor, Visual Studio.Net 2003, named after the
.NET initiative, a Microsoft marketing initiative
covering a number of technologies. Microsoft's
definition of .NET continues to evolve. As of 2004,
.NET aims to ease the development of Microsoft
Windows-based applications that use the Internet, by
deploying a new Microsoft communications system,
Indigo (now renamed Windows Communication
Foundation). This is intended to address some issues
previously introduced by Microsoft's DLL design,
which made it difficult, even impossible in some
situations, to manage, install multiple versions of
complex software packages on the same system (see
DLL-hell), and provide a more consistent development
platform for all Windows applications (see Common
Language Infrastructure). In addition, the Company
established a set of certification programs to
recognize individuals who have expertise in its
software and solutions. Similar to offerings from
Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Novell, IBM, and Oracle
Corporation, these tests are designed to identify a
minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role;
this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified
Solution Developer"), system/network analysts
("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers
("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators
("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and
"Microsoft Certified Database Administrator").[9]
Microsoft offers a suite of server software,
entitled Windows Server System. Windows Server 2003,
an operating system for network servers, is the core
of the Windows Server System line. Another server
product, Systems Management Server, is a collection
of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch
management, software distribution and a
hardware/software inventory. Other server products
include:
Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database
management system;
Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain
business-oriented e-mail and scheduling features;
Small Business Server, for messaging and other small
business-oriented features; and
Microsoft BizTalk Server, for business process
management.[9]