“个人电脑时代已经让位于以网络作为我们的体验中心的时代,”微软首席软件架构师Ray Ozzie在一份微软上周发布的备忘录中写道,“在这个新时代,我们的使命就是利用软件的魔力在全球的各种设备上创造结合了互联网强大功能的引人注目的无缝体验。”
Live Mesh目前仅仅提供给有限的测试者,它看来就是完成这一使命的主要组成部分之一。这个平台将让人们能够轻松和自动地在个人电脑或设备上与网络以及任何其它的个人电脑或设备同步内容以及数据,与其他人共享内容和数据,并利用客户软件和网络服务软件的结合,远程访问各种联网设备。它还将让开发商能够创造离线功能以及用于网络应用的、不需要浏览器的体验,把在线体验拓展至离线应用,以及对两者进行同步的功能。然而,Live Mesh仅仅是微软透露的一件产品。
在Ozzie的备忘录中,他指出微软正在采取重大业务方式的调整,以利用向网络转移机会。“两年多以前,当我撰写题为‘互联网服务破坏’的备忘录时,大多数公司仍然把重点放在把Office 2007以及Vista产品推向市场,”Ozzie写道,“那完全是软件,而不是服务,而服务才是最高精神境界。”
微软早就创造了把软件和服务结合起来的产品,如Exchange和Outlook,这两种软件均具有客户和网络体验；而Office则推出了Office Online提供帮助以及定制模板。然而,只是最近公司才开始为它的一些现成应用软件创造完全基于网络和服务的体验,如SharePoint Online和CRM Online。
微软在给像Office这样的应用软件添加在线协作功能上有点行动迟缓,这种功能目前仅仅限于Office Live和Office Live Workspaces。该公司在网络广告以及搜索上也远远落后于谷歌,这也就是微软最近豪赌几十亿美元谋求吞并雅虎的原因。
Ozzie的备忘录并没有作为对微软的某种记过,但是,与此相反,它展示了公司在跨越多个设备进行网络信息链接上的伟大想象力,从而使协作成为可能,赋予业务和客户选择他们希望的部署其应用软件的方式,并提供各种开发工具。
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Microsoft admits Web, Not PC, is now central to computing
In announcing Live Mesh, a broad software, services and development platform that aims to use the Web as a vehicle to synchronize and share data and content among devices and people, Microsoft has finally admitted that the PC is no longer the central element of everyone's computing experience.
"The PC era has given way to an era in which the Web is at the center of our experiences," Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie wrote in a memo to the company that Microsoft released last week. "It is our mission in this new era to create compelling, seamless experiences that combine the power of the Internet, with the magic of software, across a world of devices."
Live Mesh, which for now is only available to a limited number of testers, appears to be one of the major parts of this mission. The platform will allow people to easily and automatically synchronize content and data on one PC or device with the Web and any other PC or device, share content and data with other people and remotely access Internet-connected devices with a combination of client software and Web services. It will also allow developers to create offline capabilities and out-of-browser experiences for Web apps, online extensions to offline apps, and synchronization capabilities for both. But Live Mesh is only one piece of Microsoft's admission.
In his memo, Ozzie notes that Microsoft is making significant adjustments to the way it does business to take advantage of the shift toward the Web. "More than two years ago when I wrote the memo entitled The Internet Services Disruption, much of the company was still focused on bringing our Office 2007 and Vista products to market," Ozzie writes. "It was truly 'software', not 'services', that was top of mind."
Microsoft had long had functionality that mixed software and services in offerings like Exchange and Outlook, which have both client and Web experiences, and Office, which polls Office Online for help and custom templates. However, only recently has the company begun to create full Web and service-based experiences for some of its applications available, such as SharePoint Online and CRM Online.
Microsoft has also lagged a bit in adding online collaboration capabilities to applications like Office, which are for now limited there to Office Live and Office Live Workspaces. The company has also fallen far behind Google in Web ads and search, which is one of the main reasons Microsoft recently bid billions in an attempt to acquire Yahoo.
Ozzie's memo doesn't serve as any sort of mea culpa from Microsoft, but instead lays out the company's grand vision for its role on the Web linking information across multiple devices, enabling collaboration, giving businesses and consumers choice about how they want to deploy their applications and providing development tools.
（电子工程专辑）
