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Microsoft's Windows NT is evolving to better accommodate graphic artists, desktop publishers, and Web designers, the software company's president told the Seybold Web Publisher Conference on Wednesday.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's president and chief product booster, said the next version of Microsoft's business-oriented Windows NT operating system will include improved publishing features. He also stressed the company's involvement with standards bodies, and its efforts to work with Apple Computer (AAPL), the leader in publishing applications.
"Windows is coming from behind in many ways in the publishing sphere," Ballmer told a crowd of at least 1,000. "But we are excited at the momentum Windows has.... We are delighted that 41 percent of publishers today are using Windows NT server."
Ballmer took an informal audience poll and found that the majority of attendees still use Macs as their publishing platform.
But Ballmer said Windows NT is gaining market share. He said companies are moving toward a "digital nervous system" where they use the Web and intranets to communicate with customers and partners. To improve online communications, companies need robust publishing capabilities, he said.
Ballmer acknowledged that the release of Windows NT 5.0 was still "a bit away, longer than we would like." It will contain "nice improvements" that are "directly targeted at needs that have been expressed by the publishing community."
One of the publisher-geared features is Chromeffects, a software developers' kit that allows PCs to display sophisticated 2-D and 3-D graphics and animation within a browser. The technology would make it easier for developers to create graphics, animation, and videos viewable without plug-ins, Ballmer said.
An audience member asked Ballmer if Chromeffects was similar to its ActiveX initiative, what the questioner called an attempt to make Microsoft's proprietary technology ubiquitous.
"I don't think anybody can turn the Net into a proprietary system," Ballmer said. "It would be a shame to say all innovation should stop at this stage in the game and not give developers the option to take advantage of advanced capabilities."
Separately, Ballmer called Jeff Ward, senior system business analyst for Eddie Bauer, up to the stage, to demonstrate how the clothing company uses Microsoft technology to publish its catalog in print and online. Ward said it only takes six people to run the site, which is the most lucrative of all Eddie Bauer outlets.
To assuage Mac users' suspicions, Ballmer also said Microsoft is "100 percent committed" to the Macintosh. Ballmer cited Microsoft's releases of Internet Explorer and Office software for the Macintosh and the Windows NT server's support of Mac clients.
But the Mac-loyal audience was still skeptical.
"It's interesting that Microsoft would go to such great lengths to define their position of endorsing cross-platform, Internet-based standards," said one developer, who asked not be named. But Microsoft doesn't provide the tools that developers on non-Windows platforms would need to use their technology, the developer said.
