Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft announced Tuesday a
close technical collaboration with Zend, the programming language vendor
that currently dominates Web-based scripting with the open source Latest
News about open source PHP language.
Microsoft and Zend said their collaboration would provide a
production-level PHP runtime environment for the next rev of Windows
Server (Longhorn), Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Vista.
"This is a good fit," Interarbor Solutions Principal Analyst Dana
Gardner told LinuxInsider. "It's an area where Microsoft can embrace
open standards. This is the way developers prefer to work."
Open Source on Windows
Outlining improved PHP and Windows interoperability, integration,
functionality and performance, Microsoft and Zend said the partnership
is a product of customer demand.
"Interoperability continues to be an important requirement for our
customers, particularly when it comes to open source applications that
run on Windows," said Microsoft General Manager of Technical Platform
Strategy Bill Hilf.
The collaboration should improve the experience of PHP-with-Windows
users, according to Zend co-founder and CTO Andi Gutmans, who indicated
that a majority of PHP developers work on Windows, though until now the
solution has been tuned mainly for Linux.
Microsoft has embraced more open source solutions -- including Xen
virtualization technology, SugarCRM and now PHP -- and seems to be
seeking a peaceful co-existence of its proprietary platforms with open
source software.
In the process, both users and developers are getting more choices, said
Gardner.
Dwarfing All Others
Microsoft's alliance with Zend emphasizes that PHP is the most widely
used scripting language for the Web, according to Burton Group Senior
Analyst Richard Monson-Haefel.
"If you look at all of the external-facing Web sites and PHP sites, they
absolutely dwarf everything," he said, referring to Java Latest News
about Java, Cold Fusion, and .Net programming tools. "It makes a huge
amount of sense for Microsoft."
Monson-Haefel added that Microsoft realized its operating system must
support more than .Net if it is to remain popular among Internet users
and developers.
Night and Day
Although there is always skepticism over Microsoft's moves in regards to
Linux and open source, the software giant is simply responding to
present market and software development realities.
"This is night and day from what we saw 10 or 12 years ago, or even five
years ago," said Yankee Group Senior Analyst Laura DiDio.
In the past, Microsoft may have attempted to buy-out or overpower its
industry peers, but Redmond is reacting to what users want, the analyst
added.
"It's a pragmatic move," she said. "Users are demanding this. It's about
customer satisfaction."
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