All Microsoft or None?

Microsoft has put its mighty market weight behind integration between the desktop and the server, to culminate in the release of the Longhorn versions of Office and Windows in 2006.

But it’s also betting on the server side of its business in order to wring more revenue from a saturated OS market; the high cost of its server software could send some customers in the direction of open source, according to Jupiter Research.

In a report released on Monday, the research firm said Microsoft’s integration approach could provide opportunity for partners and ISVs. Open source groups see similar opportunities in their direction.

Microsoft’s new software, including Visual Studio 2005, the development tool to be released by the end of 2005, offers a new level of integration, but only to businesses not afraid of being locked into a single vendor environment, according to Joe Wilcox, lead author of “Microsoft 2005: Uncovering Partner and Competitor Opportunities.” (Jupiter Research and internetnews.com are owned by Jupitermedia.)

“Microsoft has offered some cool stuff,” Wilcox said, “but some of its customers may be cool on the price.”

The open source software industry has a radically opposite vision: mix-and-match applications from a variety of vendors that interoperate because they’re built on open standards.

“The original concept of Web services was platforms and development frameworks that were application-independent,” Wilcox said. Now, Microsoft is making Web services an essential tool of virtually all the products, “but it’s either Microsoft’s way or the highway.”

Microsoft is building Web services via the .NET Framework <.net>

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