Microsoft's new Designed for Windows NT and Windows 95 Logo program
is an outgrowth of the original Designed for Windows 95 Logo program, which the
company is discontinuing. The new combined logo lets users mix and match
hardware and software products designed for NT and Win95 with the confidence
that these products use technologies integrated into the Windows family of
32-bit operating systems.
Although the old Win95 logo theoretically required NT compatibility, some
products (such as games, communications software, and utilities) were exempt
from the NT requirement because of architectural differences. Most important, NT
3.51 did not support DirectX or Telephony API (TAPI) and did not supply the
Win95 user interface (UI).
The new logo requires that vendors test their products in NT 4.0, which
supports most Win95 technologies, so no products will be exempt from supporting
both environments. Products with the new logo must provide good user experiences
in both environments.
The new logo certification will keep some independent software vendors
(ISVs) from bundling the same executable in two different boxes (one for Win95
and one for NT) with different price tags. The new logo will also help ensure
that utilities provide comparable (although not identical) functionality and
that games provide a comparable user experience for both operating systems.
Microsoft has changed the setup and installation requirements and
recommendations for the new logo--most significantly for NT compatibility. The
new logo program clarifies Registry entry information and defines core system
components such as DLLs for each operating system (for a list of core
components, see http://www.veritest.com/core.htm).
Microsoft has also added new accessibility, TAPI 2.0, and Internet requirements
and recommendations. Finally, the new logo program includes an appendix for NT
and Win95 API and architectural differences for developers to reference.
Keep in mind that this new logo is not The Good Housekeeping Seal
of Approval. The logo implies nothing about product quality or performance--with
the notable exception of 32-bit vs. 16-bit. The logo does, however, guarantee a
certain amount of functionality, signify overall product stability, and ensure a
high degree of compatibility and interoperability with other products bearing
the logo. The logo program simply creates a critical mass of products that work
together predictably and reliably, and that exploit the capabilities of the
respective operating systems.
All ISVs (including Microsoft) that apply for the new logo must submit
their products for testing (and retesting for major product revisions) to
VeriTest, a third-party testing company that ensures basic compatibility with
the logo. As NT changes, some applications will continue to work well, others
will not. The new logo program can help users migrating from Win95 to NT know
what products have been tested and work in Win95 and NT. For a detailed
description of the new logo requirements, visit
http://www.veritest.com/microsoft.htm.
—Warren Pickett
Apache Leads in Web Servers, but Microsoft
Gaining
The latest Web server study by Netcraft, a UK company that provides
Web services, shows that Microsoft's (and therefore Windows NT's) share of the
market grew from 9.52 percent to 10.59 percent in January 1997. NCSA's market
share fell from 12.63 percent to 10.85 percent, and Apache's freeware Web server
continues to dominate the competition with 41.59 percent of the market, based on
the 646,162 servers Netcraft polled.
Netcraft's Web Server Survey canvases the Internet and interrogates each
server for its characteristics. The survey doesn't quantify the size of the
servers in pages or volume of hits, and it doesn't specify the amount of money
spent on the server. The cost of each server, especially the price of software,
is difficult to measure because most Web server vendors, including Microsoft,
provide their basic servers for free or at a low cost to entice users to buy
other modules, such as electronic commerce and SQL Server linkages.
The latest survey shows that overall, the percentage of NT-specific servers
running Internet Information Server (IIS), WebSite, WebSitePro, Purveyor, EMWAC,
Commerce Builder, Alibaba, Domino, or WebQuest is 16 percent. Netcraft is unable
to determine how many other servers such as Netscape and Navisoft may be running
NT because these servers don't provide a separate ID for their NT and UNIX
versions.
Interestingly enough, Netcraft does not mention Novell's NetWare 4-based
server in the survey listing, although Novell is pushing its newly named
IntranetWare as an economical intranet and Internet server. For information on
the ongoing survey results, see http://www.netcraft.com/survey.
—Alex Pournelle