Microsoft, Security, and .NET
.NET: The software platform that never was; the platform
shift that never happened. Well, a little surprise awaits the
disbelievers. Microsoft might have scaled back on its .NET
advertising, but the company never stopped working to ensure that
.NET, silently and behind the scenes, made its way into every
important software project the company is creating.
Why? Because .NET applications and services can be secure by
default. Unlike the Win32 code underlying the majority of today's
Windows applications, the .NET Framework was designed correctly, with
a security substructure that prevents the common security problems
present in Win32 code. Not coincidentally, each major platform wave
from Microsoft during the next several years will be accompanied by a
new Visual Studio .NET release, giving .NET developers better tools
and capabilities and keeping them up to speed with the best that
Microsoft has to offer.
If you're a .NET developer today, you're playing a role in making
computing more secure for all of us. Each .NET-based Web site,
service, and application is just one more small step toward this more
secure future. If you're a consumer, picking .NET services and
applications over alternatives is a vote for better security going
forward. It's a future that all of us, as Microsoft customers and
technology consumers, should face willingly.
[ Paul Thurrott, thurrott@winnetmag.com ]