' Microsoft's Web services technology is tailored for Windows. But the .Net technology is trying to appeal to a wide range of programmers by letting them write in many different computer languages, including Cobol, C++, Perl, Smalltalk, Java and C#, which is Microsoft's answer to Java. By contrast, the middleware of the non-Microsoft camp runs on any operating system, but it is geared toward Java programmers.'
'"Our goal is to make Web services easy for software developers, businesses and end users," said Neil Charney, a director in Microsoft's platform strategy group.' -- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/technology/03SOFT.html http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/technology/03SOFT.html?pagewanted=all&position=top
