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Windows Family Interoperability and Integration Within UNIX Environments-Contents

Presented by: Ramesh Parameswaran
Program Manager
Business Systems Division

Microsoft Corporation

icobrnch An Overview
Integration of Windows family-based and UNIX systems
What integration do end users get?
How MIS managers benefit from integration
How system administrators can integrate Windows family and UNIX systems
What integration do developers get?
Appendix A: Third-party contacts

An Overview

Organizations can become more efficient if they can focus more on business goals and less on the technologies they use. For this purpose, it is necessary to increase application usability and reuse, enable easy access to data from different sources, and reduce development time. UNIX® systems are already present in the enterprise in significant numbers while advances in information technology are occurring on inexpensive PCs. Because MIS organizations must move forward while still leveraging their investments in UNIX systems, it is necessary to integrate existing UNIX systems with the Microsoft® Windows® family of operating systems in enterprises. This integration can be achieved by enabling network connectivity, cross-platform development, object services, messaging, database access, and system management across Windows family-based and UNIX systems.

Users get network connectivity between Windows family-based and UNIX systems through technologies and products like network file system (NFS), LAN Manager for UNIX (LMU), TCP/IP, and the X-Window System™ protocol. Microsoft has made the application program interfaces (APIs) for the Windows operating system available to developers on UNIX systems through the Windows Interface Source Environment (WISE) licensing program. With WISE products, users will be able to run shrink-wrapped Windows-based applications on UNIX systems. Microsoft's object technology, OLE, will also become available on UNIX systems through WISE. Users and developers get cross-platform database services between Windows family-based and UNIX systems through Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Open Data Services. Users can send and receive e-mail between the Windows family-based and UNIX systems using products such as Microsoft Mail and Microsoft Exchange Server. System managers can manage heterogeneous systems using Microsoft Systems Management Server and third-party Windows family-based simple network management protocol (SNMP) management software such as OpenView and NetView®.

Users benefit from integration because they can focus on solving business problems without being concerned with hardware and software details. Developers benefit because they can leverage their platform-specific knowledge for multiple platforms. With integration between Windows family-based and UNIX systems, system administrators can manage heterogeneous systems easily and remove administrative problems for users and developers. Integration helps MIS managers and corporate purchasing reduce costs for software, hardware, software maintenance, and training.

Document Contents

Integration of Windows family-based and UNIX systems

The case for integration

Aligning information strategy with business goals has become one of the foremost business challenges of IT organizations. Therefore, it becomes important to provide easy access to information from multiple sources, reduce software development time, increase application usability and reuse, and incorporate new technologies while leveraging existing assets. More than 2.5 million UNIX systems are installed in enterprises while Windows has become the desktop operating system of choice with an installed base of more than 60 million.

Early implementations of client-server technologies in MIS organizations occurred on UNIX systems and this led to a major investment in UNIX systems. Meanwhile, major advances in information technology are happening on inexpensive PCs running Windows and Windows NT™. MIS organizations must move forward with new technologies while still leveraging their previous investments in UNIX systems. It is therefore necessary to integrate existing UNIX systems in enterprises with Windows family-based systems.

UNIX systems also have a significant presence in financial, scientific, engineering, and academic organizations. These organizations are also increasingly using systems based on Windows and Windows NT. Hence, it is necessary to enable Windows family-based systems to work well with existing UNIX systems in these organizations.

Forms of integration

At a minimum, integration of Windows-based and UNIX systems must provide for simple network connectivity between the systems. Users should be able to access files across platforms over a network, and applications on different systems must be able to communicate with each other. To achieve better integration, it is also necessary to enable cross-platform application development, object services, database access, messaging, and system management.

Figure 1: Integration between Windows-based and UNIX systems

With cross-platform application development, developers will be able to write platform-independent applications. Cross-platform object services enable software components to communicate across platforms easily and can help make users more productive. System administrators will be able to manage heterogeneous systems easily if system management software can provide, at one place, management information about heterogeneous systems. Cross-platform database and messaging services provide users with a means for easy, platform-independent information exchange.

This paper is organized into different sections for the following different target audiences:

Users
MIS managers
System administrators
Developers

Terminology

Throughout the paper, the Microsoft Windows family refers to Windows 3.1, Windows® for Workgroups, and Windows NT. Windows refers to Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups.

Document Contents

What integration do end users get?

Because end users in an enterprise regard technology as a means toward achieving business goals, it is desirable to hide as much software and hardware detail from the user as possible. Integration between Windows family-based and UNIX systems enables the user to transparently work with and access different systems without needing to know much about the underlying system details.

Accessing information across platforms

Users sitting at Windows family-based systems can easily access files on UNIX systems transparently. The user does not need to know details of the underlying protocol used to enable the file access across platforms. For example, a user working with Microsoft Excel on a PC can open a text file on a UNIX system across a network in exactly the same way as one would open the file on the PC using the File Open dialog box. Applications thus hide cross-platform technical complexity and users focus on the applications they work with. Similarly, users on a UNIX system can transparently access files on Windows family-based systems.

Using applications on other systems

Users in an enterprise often need to run both personal productivity Windows-based applications and some vertical or in-house developed solution on a UNIX system. In such cases, the user needs to access both applications from the same system.

With third-party products, users on UNIX systems or X terminals can run remote Windows NT-based applications or remote X-Window System applications on Windows NT. Similarly, a user sitting at a Windows family-based system can run remote X-Window applications on UNIX systems. This is made possible by third-party software from numerous vendors and users thus have a wide choice. (Section 4 describes different options for application services across systems.)

Using the same application on different platforms

Organizations with existing UNIX systems are increasingly using Windows and Windows NT for their businesses. In such organizations, users on UNIX systems who need applications such as word processors and spreadsheets either buy expensive UNIX applications or buy a PC and PC-based applications. Users who buy a UNIX application are restricted to using the application only for that particular version of the UNIX system. Users cannot change over to another UNIX system of their choice and still use the same application they bought earlier.

Windows Interface Source Environment (WISE) is a Microsoft licensing program that enables integration of Windows-based solutions with UNIX and Macintosh® systems. Microsoft has licensed Windows source code to Insignia Solutions, Inc., and Locus Computing Corporation. With Insignia's product, Softwindows, users can run shrink-wrapped Windows-based and OLE applications on Macintosh and non-Intel®-based UNIX systems. With Locus' product, Merge, users can work with shrink-wrapped Windows-based applications on Intel-based UNIX systems.

WISE emulators enable users to run inexpensive, shrink-wrapped Windows-based applications on UNIX and Macintosh systems. WISE emulators make more than 10,000 off-the-shelf Windows-based applications available to users on Macintosh and UNIX systems and increase the users' productivity.

Figure 2. Windows Interface Source Environment (WISE) provides open cross-platform flexibility

The benefits of WISE are:

Compatibility: Since WISE emulators use Windows source code licensed from Microsoft, they provide maximum compatibility with the many thousands of shrink-wrapped Windows-based applications on the market. Users can choose from several inexpensive shrink-wrapped Windows-based applications off the shelf and use them on UNIX and Macintosh systems.
Consistency: End users who need to use existing Macintosh and UNIX solutions can now concurrently use company-standard Windows-based applications to simplify their jobs. Users can thus use a consistent set of applications across several platforms.
Confidence: Users can adopt a solution that will evolve along with future versions of Windows, taking full advantage of evolving technology. Microsoft has committed to providing WISE licensees with future versions of Windows source code, thereby continuing to maximize application compatibility and performance for today's and tomorrow's applications.

Object technology

OLE

OLE is Microsoft's object technology that enables users to work easily with multiple applications and increase productivity. OLE is based on the component object model, an underlying system software model that enables interoperability between software components. With OLE-enabled applications, users get the following features:

OLE Documents: OLE Documents improve the process of creating documents and also the content of business documents. OLE Documents can contain any type of information, including text, spreadsheet tables, pictures, graphics, video, sound, or any information object. The information contained in an OLE Document can be created using any supporting OLE-enabled application, such as a spreadsheet application, graphics application, or multimedia application. These applications can be supplied by different software vendors because OLE components work together. OLE Documents not only enhance user productivity by creating a seamless computing experience, but also enable users to communicate their ideas more effectively. As a user edits an OLE Document that contains different types of information, the specific tools necessary to edit the different types of information are automatically made available to the user within the context of the document. This is called Visual Editing. With OLE Linking, a document can contain information that maintains a data link to another document.

Figure 3: OLE Document: This memo was created in a word-processing application. It contains an embedded spreadsheet table and an embedded spreadsheet chart.

OLE Drag and Drop: OLE Drag and Drop allows users to directly exchange information between applications, without worrying about saving files to disk or converting information to different formats. For instance, a user can point to an embedded spreadsheet in a document and drag it over to another document in another application. By making data exchange graphical and intuitive, users can increase productivity.
OLE Controls: OLE Controls are OLE-enabled software components that users can purchase to extend and enhance an application's functionality. Users can utilize OLE Controls in custom or off-the-shelf OLE-enabled applications. Most popular development environments, including the next version of the Microsoft Visual Basic® programming system, will support OLE Controls as an efficient means to build business applications using high-quality, prefabricated software components.
OLE Automation: Automation enables applications to expose command sets that operate within and across applications. For example, a user can invoke a command from a word-processing program that sorts a range of cells in a spreadsheet created by a different application.

OLE is available today on Windows family-based and Macintosh systems.

OLE on UNIX systems

Through the WISE licensing program, Microsoft will enable full OLE support on all major UNIX systems. Users can use OLE-enabled applications on UNIX systems and realize all the benefits of OLE on UNIX systems also.

Common object model (COM) and distributed COM

COM is a superset of the OLE component object model. It was defined by Microsoft and DEC® in order to provide cross-platform interoperability. Working with DEC, Microsoft intends to make COM available on HP-UX®, SunOS, IBM® AIX®, OpenVMS, Ultrix™, and OSF/1.

Distributed COM will enable users to utilize components across networks. For instance, a user working on a Microsoft Excel worksheet could get real-time stock information directly into the cells of the worksheet from a remote UNIX server that supports distributed COM. The source of the information would be transparent to the user, and the user would work as if the information were being generated locally.

Messaging across platforms

With the increasing number of companies using heterogeneous systems for solving their business problems, it becomes more and more important to facilitate easy communication between users working on these systems. Users should be able to send messages from one system to another independent of the systems being used. In addition, communication between users on different systems becomes easier if the users make use of similar applications.

Microsoft Mail enables users on PC, Macintosh, and UNIX systems to exchange messages with each other. With WISE emulators, users on UNIX and Macintosh systems can send and receive e-mail using the same Windows-based mail application on all systems. With WISE emulators, users on the different systems would be communicating using the same e-mail application, thus improving communication and increasing productivity.

Microsoft Exchange Server, the next messaging product from Microsoft, will also enable messaging between PC, Macintosh, and UNIX systems.

Using databases across platforms

Users sitting on PCs can access databases such as ORACLE®, SYBASE®, Informix®, etc. running on UNIX servers. The user sitting at the PC does not need to know anything about the system on which the database resides. Users on UNIX client systems can also transparently access database servers such as Microsoft SQL Server™ running on Windows NT™ Server.

Several UNIX system-based databases such as ORACLE and Informix are also available on Windows NT; users can therefore choose from a wide variety of inexpensive database systems.

Document Contents

How MIS managers benefit from integration

Early implementations of client-server technologies in MIS organizations occurred on UNIX systems and this led to a major investment in UNIX systems. Meanwhile, technological advances in information technology are happening rapidly on inexpensive PCs running Windows and Windows NT. MIS managers must move their organizations forward with new technologies while still leveraging existing investments in UNIX systems. Integration between Windows family-based and UNIX systems helps MIS managers ease the transition to open systems and reduces costs resulting from a heterogeneous environment.

Reducing software and hardware costs

Several MIS professionals use UNIX systems for running some applications and PCs for personal productivity applications. Such users can use Windows Interface Source Environment (WISE) products to run the personal productivity applications on their UNIX systems. WISE thus eliminates the need for extra PCs used in this manner.

Since Windows-based applications are inexpensive, MIS can use WISE products to run them on Macintosh and UNIX systems and thus reduce costs.

Since solutions are available for application services between Windows family-based and UNIX systems, MIS does not need to buy multiple systems for a user needing access to both Windows family-based and UNIX applications.

Reducing product cycle time and software maintenance costs

Using WISE, MIS departments can easily develop and maintain applications simultaneously for Windows-based, Macintosh, and UNIX systems. Developers write to Windows APIs and OLE and use the resulting applications on Windows-based, Macintosh, and UNIX systems. Developers maintain a single code base for an application running on Windows-based, Macintosh, and UNIX platforms.

Similarly, developers already proficient with UNIX systems can write to UNIX APIs and still use the application on Windows NT with the help of the UNIX environments available for Windows NT.

With the availability of cross-platform object technology, developers can reuse software components across platforms and be more productive.

Developers writing database applications that need to run on multiple platforms can take advantage of ODBC, which is available on Windows family-based, Macintosh, and UNIX systems.

Developers need to maintain only one code base for the same application to run on different platforms. MIS managers thus reduce product cycle time and maintenance costs for such multiplatform application development.

Reducing training costs

With integration, users can access information across platforms transparently. For instance, a user on Windows can work with Microsoft Excel on a PC and open a file on a UNIX system across a network in exactly the same way as one would open the file by using Microsoft Excel on the PC. The user does not need to know anything about UNIX systems to perform this task. Hence, users do not need to be trained in different systems to access information on these systems. Similarly, Windows NT provides file access utilities such as FTP, TELNET, and so on, which are already familiar to UNIX system users. UNIX system users thus need not be trained in new techniques for information access.

Developers writing database applications can write to Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) on both Windows family-based and UNIX systems and access more than 50 database servers. Developers need not be trained for the different databases they are accessing, or for the system they are using; all they do is write to the ODBC APIs.

With WISE products, users and developers need to be trained in Windows and OLE, and they can leverage their training in Windows and OLE for Macintosh and UNIX systems also. Similarly, developers and users already proficient on UNIX systems can use UNIX environments on Windows NT and will not need much training on the Windows NT operating system.

Since users need not learn to use different technologies, they will need less help from MIS in day-to-day activities. MIS management can thus reduce the number of help requests from users to the MIS help desk.

Making communication easier

Since several cross-platform messaging solutions are available, users on different platforms can easily exchange messages between Windows family-based, Macintosh, and UNIX systems.

MIS professionals can use the same applications used by senior management and the sales force, even though MIS may be working on different platforms. This is because WISE emulators enable shrink-wrapped Windows-based applications to run on Macintosh and UNIX systems. This helps ease communication of information between MIS, senior management, and the sales force.

Choosing from several vendors

MIS professionals can choose from more than 10,000 inexpensive shrink-wrapped Windows-based applications offered by a large number of vendors. They can run these easy-to-use applications on Windows-based, Macintosh, and UNIX systems and increase their productivity.

Reducing client-server migration costs

While downsizing to a client-server system, MIS may need to migrate mainframe applications to heterogeneous systems. This requires expertise in the targeted platforms and the extra work of migrating the same mainframe application to multiple platforms. With WISE products, MIS professionals can migrate mainframe applications once to Windows and use WISE products to run the migrated software on UNIX and Macintosh systems also. On the other hand, MIS can choose to migrate mainframe applications to UNIX systems and use UNIX environments on Windows NT to run the applications on Windows NT.

Document Contents

How system administrators can integrate Windows family and UNIX systems

System administrators in a multiplatform environment need to enable users to access information, run applications, access databases, and exchange messages across platforms. In addition, system administrators need a means of managing heterogeneous systems from a single place.

Providing file services across platforms

At a minimum, system integrators must arrange to provide users with a means of accessing files between the Windows family-based and UNIX systems. System integrators must enable Windows family-based systems to provide file services to UNIX clients and vice versa.

Windows NT Server as a file server for UNIX clients

Windows NT Server provides file services to PCs through the server message block (SMB) protocol. File service for UNIX clients is available through the network file system (NFS) protocol and the FTP service.

NFS: Third-party NFS servers such as DiskShare from Intergraph Corporation®, BW-Connect from Beame & Whiteside, Inc., NFSWare from Process Software, and Chameleon32NFS from NetManage, Inc., are available for Windows NT. These servers enable Windows NT Server to provide file service for PCs, UNIX workstations, or other systems acting as NFS clients. They provide support for the NTFS, FAT, CDFS, and HPFS file systems and some also enable the exporting of network drives. A Windows NT Server-based system could, for instance, connect to a NetWare® server and share out the NetWare server's files to NFS clients. Support for the Intel, Alpha AXP™, and MIPS® platforms is available and PowerPC™ support will be available in future.

FTP, RCP: Windows NT Server provides the FTP service, which enables bidirectional transfer of ASCII and binary files. The FTP service is not installed by default because the service could cause a security breach to the Windows NT-based system. UNIX users are already familiar with the FTP service, so they can easily access files from Windows NT Server. A third-party RCP server for Windows NT is available from Software Innovations, Inc.

UNIX servers as file servers for Windows family-based clients

UNIX servers can provide file services to Windows family-based systems through NFS, SMB, FTP, and RCP.

NFS: Third-party NFS clients such as PC-NFS®/Windows from Sun Microsystems®, PC-NFS/Windows NT from Intergraph, BW-Connect from Beame & Whiteside, and Chameleon32NFS from NetManage are available for the Windows family. With such software users on PCs, users can access files from PCs, UNIX systems, and other systems acting as NFS servers.

Microsoft Networking: Users from Windows-based or Windows NT-based systems can access files on UNIX systems running LAN Manager for UNIX (LMU). Microsoft has licensed to AT&T® GIS the source code for LAN Manager for UNIX and the source code for Windows NT Server. AT&T will sublicense the code to other vendors so as to provide Microsoft networking on UNIX systems. Advanced Server for UNIX (ASU) is the next generation of LAN Manager for UNIX being developed by AT&T. The ASU technology is fully interoperable and functionally compatible with the networking technology incorporated in Windows NT. ASU is equivalent to Windows NT Server in terms of establishing and managing accounts and providing support for trusted domains. System administrators can use the Windows NT Server tools to administer the UNIX servers. DEC has a license for Advanced Server for UNIX and has stated that it will implement it on the OSF/1 and VAX systems. Unipress will provide Advanced Server for UNIX on Solaris. SCO® announced an agreement to license ASU from AT&T GIS and provide it on SCO-UNIX. Bull, SNI, and Olivetti® will also provide Advanced Server for UNIX on their UNIX systems.

Figure 4: Microsoft networking

FTP, RCP: Windows NT provides FTP and RCP clients; FTP and RCP clients for Windows are available from third parties such as Walker Richer & Quinn, Wollongong, and Frontier Technologies. Both FTP and RCP clients are functionally similar to the ones available on UNIX systems. With the FTP client, a user on Windows NT can access ASCII and binary files on remote systems. RCP provides a mechanism to unidirectionally copy files between two systems of which one or both can be remote. The remote system(s) must be configured to trust the RCP requests by configuring a file such as an .RHOSTS file.

Enabling printing across platforms

Windows NT provides TCP/IP printing services based on RFC1179, which contains the communication specification for line printer remote (lpr) and line printer daemon (lpd) printing. The lpd and its components in RFC1179 are known as Berkeley-style daemons. Windows NT enables printing to UNIX servers that support the Berkeley-style TCP/IP printing daemons. Windows NT provides an lpd server that allows UNIX machines with Berkeley-style lpr daemons to send print jobs to Windows NT.

Third-party lpr and lpd support for Windows is available from third parties such as NetManage, Wollongong, SunSelect, Walker Richer & Quinn, and Frontier Technologies.

Running applications across a network

Corporate users often need to use personal productivity applications on Windows as well as vertical workstation applications available on UNIX systems. In such situations, system administrators need to arrange a means of providing users with a means of accessing both the personal productivity applications and the UNIX applications from the same system.

Windows NT Server as an application server for UNIX clients

Windows NT Server can provide application services to Windows family-based systems over a network. Users on Windows family-based clients connect to a sharepoint on a Windows NT Server-based machine and use applications on the server. Application services to UNIX clients are provided by:

TELNET, RLOGIN, RSH, REXEC: TELNET and RLOGIN offer basic terminal emulation to remote systems over TCP/IP. RSH provides a simple mechanism to execute a process on a remote system supporting remote execution over TCP/IP. REXEC provides functionality similar to RSH with the addition of cleartext password authentication. Windows NT does not provide any of these services itself because these could cause a security loophole. When a user on another system needs to use TELNET, RLOGIN, RSH or REXEC to get access within a Windows NT-based system, the password for the Windows NT account will be passed in cleartext over the network. A malicious sniffer on the network could get hold of the user's password and compromise security. If users still desire these services on Windows NT, they can use third-party TELNET and RLOGIN server software available from Altaman Software, Seattle Lab, and Software Innovations. With this software, users on UNIX clients can use TELNET to get into a Windows NT environment and run applications on the server. Software Innovations also provides RSH and REXEC servers for Windows NT.
X-Window System clients on Windows NT: X-Window System client software on Windows NT is available from third parties such as Datafocus, Inc., and Data Micro Systems. Users sitting on UNIX systems can run X-Window System applications on Windows NT over a network.
Running Windows-based applications remotely: Citrix Systems, Prologue, and Adonis Corporation will make multiuser versions of Windows NT available to customers. Using software being developed by these companies, users sitting at UNIX systems or X terminals can run Windows family-based applications on Windows NT Server-based systems over a network.

UNIX servers as application servers for Windows family clients

TELNET, RLOGIN, RSH, REXEC: Windows NT provides TELNET, RSH, and REXEC clients. Third-party RLOGIN, RSH, REXEC, and TELNET clients are available for the Windows family from vendors such as Wollongong, Walker Richer & Quinn, FTP Software, and Frontier Technologies.
X-Window System servers on Windows NT: Users on Windows-based and Windows NT-based systems can run X-Window System applications on remote UNIX systems using X server software. Third-party X server software - such as XoftWare from AGE Logic, eXcursion from DEC, X-One from Grafpoint, eXceed from Hummingbird Communications, Multiview/X from JSB Corporation, Chameleon from NetManage, PC-Xware from Network Computing Devices, X/Vision from VisionWare, Reflection/X from Walker Richer & Quinn, and eXodus from White Pine Software - is available for the Windows family.

Connecting to the Internet

Internet services

Windows NT provides the FTP service that enables users on the Internet to transfer files to and from Windows NT. This FTP service is similar to the one in use on UNIX systems on the Internet and UNIX users can thus easily make use of this service.

Windows NT Server provides support for the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). With this service, Windows NT Server can automatically provide IP addresses, subnet masks, and default gateway information to Windows family-based systems on a Windows NT-based network. This makes administration of TCP/IP networks easier.

A Windows NT-hosted domain name service (DNS) server will be included in the Windows NT 3.5 Resource Kit. The DNS server handles mapping between host names and IP addresses and makes the information available over the entire Internet. The DNS server thus enables communication between Windows family-based and UNIX networks.

Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) servers configure and maintain the mapping between IP addresses and names of machines in a TCP/IP-based Microsoft network. The DNS server provides a transparent gateway of DNS queries to WINS servers. Hence, UNIX systems can look up names of Windows family-based machines in the WINS database and need not use IP addresses for communication with Windows family-based systems.

Windows NT 3.5 Resource Kit will contain two public domain Internet information servers: a World Wide Web (WWW) server and a Gopher server. Gopher offers distributed file-serving features with a good user interface. Web servers provide plain and hypertext documents with links to other documents around the world. These servers are available for Intel, MIPS, and Alpha AXP platforms. Public domain WWW and Gopher servers are available as shown in this table:

Application   Site                Directory                Filename     
GopherS       emwac.ed.ac.uk      pub\gophers              gs*.zip      
              sunsite.unc.edu     pub\packages\infosystems GS*.zip      
                                  \                                     
                                  gopher\servers\nt-goph                
HTTPS         emwac.ed.ac.uk      pub\https                hs*.zip      
              sunsite.unc.edu     pub\packages\infosystems HS*.zip      
                                  \                                     
                                  www\servers\https

Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) servers offer content-indexing services to clients who connect over the Internet. A public domain WAIS server will be available in the Windows NT 3.5 Resource Kit. This server is also available on emwac.ed.ac.uk.edu in the directory pub\waiss.

Internet clients

Windows NT Workstation ships with FTP, TELNET, RCP, FINGER, REXEC, and RSH clients.

Public domain Gopher clients are available from several sites as follows:

Application   Site                Directory                 File name    
Gophbook      boombox.micro.umn.e pub\gopher\               gophbook*.*  
              du                  Windows\gophbook                       
              sunsite.unc.edu     pub\micro\pc-stuff\       gophbook.zip 
                                  ms-windows\ winsock                    
BCGopher      bcinfo.bc.edu       pub\bcgopher              bcg08a3.exe  
WSGopher      boombox.micro.umn.e pub\gopher\               wsg-11.exe   
              du                  Windows                                
HGopher       gopher.ic.ac.uk     Networking                (see index)

Public domain WWW clients for Windows NT are available as shown in this table:

Application   Site                Directory                 File name    
NCSA's        ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu   Web\Mosaic\Windows        wmos20a7.zip 
Mosaic                                                                   
              sunsite.unc.edu     pub\packages\infosystems\ wmos20a7.zip 
                                                                         
                                  www\clients\Mosaic\Mosaic              
                                  -NCSA\Windows                          
Cello         ftp.law.cornell.edu pub\LII\Cello             *.*          
WinWeb        sunsite.unc.edu     pub\packages\infosystems\ winweb.zip   
                                                                         
                                  www\ clients\WinWeb                    
Mosaic        ftp.mcom.com        pub\netscape\windows      nscape09.zip 
Netscape

Using different network protocols

System administrators are increasingly faced with the situation of having to provide interoperability between systems supporting different networking protocols. With the Windows family, system integrators get support for protocols like TCP/IP, NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, NetWare Core Protocol (NCP), systems network architecture (SNA), LAN Manager, X-Window System, and NFS. Using this rich protocol support, system administrators can integrate Windows family-based systems into a heterogeneous environment in an enterprise.

Managing heterogeneous systems

System administrators can effectively manage heterogeneous systems in an enterprise if they can get information about the systems at one place. Administrators can use management software on Windows family-based or UNIX systems to get information about UNIX and Windows family-based systems on the network.

SNMP-based system management

SNMP is part of the TCP/IP protocol and is used for exchanging management information among UNIX systems. SNMP management software runs on central servers and enables system administrators to get information from client systems by using the SNMP service running on UNIX client systems. HP® OpenView, Sun SunNet manager, and IBM NetView are examples of SNMP management software. These products are available on a variety of operating systems.

In order to enable the Windows family to integrate with UNIX systems, Microsoft provides the SNMP service in Windows NT and will provide the SNMP service in Windows 95. Windows NT and Windows 95 systems will thus be able to provide SNMP management software with information about themselves. System administrators on UNIX systems can thus use SNMP management software like HP OpenView to manage Windows NT-based and Windows 95-based systems.

The SNMP service in Windows NT provides support for the Internet Management Information Base-II (MIB-II) and LanMan MIB II. In future, support in Windows NT for the Ethernet MIB, X.25 MIB, and Host MIB is planned.

HP OpenView and IBM NetView are examples of SNMP-based management software available on the Windows family. Using such products, system administrators on Windows NT Server can manage UNIX clients.

Microsoft Systems Management Sever

Using Microsoft Systems Management Server, system administrators on Windows NT Server can distribute and install software, get hardware and software configuration, and do remote performance analysis and troubleshooting for Windows family-based systems. Using Microsoft Systems Management Server with DEC Polycenter AssetWorks on Windows NT Server and on UNIX client software from DEC, system administrators on Windows NT Server can get hardware/software information from and distribute/install software to UNIX systems. DEC provides Systems Management Server clients for OpenVMS, Ultrix, SunOS, and OSF/1. Clients for Solaris, HP-UX and AIX will be available in the future.

Systems Management Server also enables information exchange with system management software such as OpenView and NetView.

Figure 5: System management using Microsoft Systems Management Server

Messaging across platforms

System administrators can enable users to send e-mail between Windows family-based and UNIX systems by using Microsoft Mail and gateways. Microsoft Mail can be used to send mail to e-mail applications based on SMTP, X.400, and UUCP on UNIX systems using the Microsoft Mail Gateway to SMTP and the Microsoft Mail Gateway to X.400. The SMTP Gateway supports Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), several attachment-handling options, message forwarding, and multiple local account aliases. The X.400 Gateway is compliant with the 1984 X.400 standard.

In addition to sending mail to UNIX systems, users can use Microsoft Mail and gateways to send e-mail to Macintosh, MVS™, VMS™, and several other systems.

Microsoft Exchange, the next messaging product from Microsoft, will provide clients for Windows family-based, Macintosh, and UNIX systems. Using these clients, users can send and receive messages between PC, Macintosh, and UNIX systems. Microsoft Exchange Server provides native support for SMTP and X.400. System administrators can thus set up communication between Microsoft Exchange and both X.400-based and SMTP-based messaging applications on UNIX systems.

Enabling database access across platforms

System integrators can enable users sitting on PCs to access databases such as ORACLE, SYBASE, and Informix running on UNIX servers. Users on UNIX client systems can also access database servers running on Windows NT Server. Microsoft has enabled this integration between Windows family-based and UNIX systems through Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Open Data Services (ODS).

Gateways between Microsoft SQL Server and a wide range of databases on MVS, UNIX, VMS, and AS/400® systems are also available from third parties such as Micro Decisionware®. Using these gateways, users can transparently access data from MVS, UNIX, VMS, or AS/400 systems. For instance, an organization could store information in two different databases - a Microsoft SQL Server database on a Windows NT Server and an ORACLE database on a UNIX server. A user sitting at a Windows family-based or UNIX client system could request data from the Microsoft SQL Server database. If the user requests data that is not present in the Microsoft SQL Server database, the gateway communicates with the UNIX server and gets the data from the ORACLE database and passes it back to the client. This integration with the UNIX server is completely transparent to the user, who is just aware of getting data from Microsoft SQL Server.

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What integration do developers get?

Developers benefit from integration between Windows family-based and UNIX systems because they can build solutions and leverage them for multiple platforms.

Developing cross-platform solutions

Corporate developers in a multiplatform environment either develop applications separately for each platform or develop applications for one platform and manually port the applications to the other platforms. Such developers need to understand the differences between the Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX operating systems as well as the differences between the several UNIX systems themselves.

Windows Interface Source Environment (WISE)

Windows Interface Source Environment (WISE) is a Microsoft licensing program that enables integration of Windows-based solutions with Macintosh and UNIX systems. Microsoft has licensed the Windows family source code to Mainsoft Corporation and Bristol Technology, Inc. By using the products being developed by Mainsoft and Bristol, developers will be able to write to the Win32® API and OLE on different UNIX platforms.

WISE Software Development Kits (SDKs) enable developers to write to Windows APIs and use the resulting applications on Macintosh and UNIX systems. To get a Windows-based application running on a Macintosh or UNIX system using a WISE SDK, the application source code must be compiled on those systems. Some benefits of WISE SDKs to developers are:

Compatibility: Developers build and maintain one code base compatible with several platforms and can use tools provided by WISE SDKs to easily port existing Windows-based applications to Macintosh and UNIX systems.
Consistency: Developers write to a standard, consistent, and well-documented set of APIs and leverage their solution across the Windows family-based, UNIX, and Macintosh platforms.
Confidence: Developers can build solutions that will evolve along with future versions of the Windows family, taking full advantage of evolving 32-bit technology. Microsoft has committed to providing WISE licensees with source code for future versions of Windows family, thereby continuing to maximize application compatibility and performance for today's and tomorrow's applications.

A WISE/UNIX SDK provides the Windows libraries, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) for UNIX, a Help compiler, resource compiler, and tools for porting Windows-based applications to UNIX systems.

Figure 6: WISE SDK enables Windows-based applications to be compiled and run on UNIX systems.

UNIX environments on Windows NT

Developers can write to UNIX APIs on Windows NT by using either the POSIX subsystem of Windows NT or by using third-party products such as NuTCRACKER from Datafocus Corporation and Portage from Consensys Corporation.

The POSIX subsystem of Windows NT is certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to be compliant with the IEEE 1003.1 POSIX specification.

NuTCRACKER provides support for UNIX APIs on the Win32 subsystem of Windows NT and Portage provides UNIX System V Release 4 support on top of the Win32 subsystem. Both of these third-party products provide several UNIX utilities on Windows NT. The products can be used either as porting tools to port UNIX applications to Win32 or for simultaneous cross-platform development. NuTCRACKER and Portage provide support for UNIX processes, signals, semaphores, message passing, sockets, file management, and the C run-time libraries.

Developing components using OLE

OLE is Microsoft's object technology that enables developers to integrate off-the-shelf components with custom software to build solutions. OLE is based on the component object model, an underlying system software object model that allows complete binary interoperability between components written by different companies, possibly in different languages. These software components can be purchased, replaced, enhanced, and reused at any time during the business-system life cycle. By writing to OLE, developers can build applications that offer users features such as:

OLE Documents
OLE Linking
Visual Editing
OLE Drag and Drop
OLE Controls

With OLE Automation, developers can create macros and other command sets that work across applications. OLE Automation enables developers to programmatically use components and functionality provided by other applications. Existing application macro languages can be extended easily to include new sets of commands and function calls that other applications can execute. For example, a word-processing document can send commands to a spreadsheet document to automatically open a worksheet, create a chart, and embed or link the chart into the word-processing document. As another example, a spreadsheet application could use OLE Automation to send commands to a statistical analysis package to perform special analysis functions.

OLE is available today on Windows family-based and Macintosh systems.

Developing with OLE on UNIX systems

Through the WISE licensing program Microsoft will enable full OLE support on all major UNIX systems. Mainsoft and Bristol will provide OLE support on all major UNIX systems. Developers can realize all the benefits of OLE on UNIX systems also.

Common object model (COM)

COM is a superset of the OLE component object model. It was defined by Microsoft and DEC in order to provide cross-platform interoperability. Working with DEC, Microsoft intends to provide COM on HP-UX, SunOS, IBM AIX, OpenVMS, Ultrix, and OSF/1. With distributed COM, developers will be able to build solutions that use components across platforms over a network.

Interoperability with Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)

CORBA is a specification defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) defining interfaces for distributed object computing services. Microsoft plans to provide interoperability between OLE and CORBA across a network when consistent implementations of CORBA become available. Microsoft, DEC, and Candle Corporation have provided a proposal to the OMG to use the COM wire protocol as the wire protocol for interoperation between OLE and CORBA. This will require an object adapter on the CORBA server. With this interoperability, developers will be able to write applications that use components developed by using CORBA-compliant object technologies.

Writing distributed applications

Developers can use the remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism provided by Windows NT to write distributed applications. Since Microsoft RPC interoperates with the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) RPC, developers can write applications that communicate with UNIX applications that make use of DCE RPC.

Using the Windows Sockets interface provided by Microsoft, developers on Windows family-based systems can write applications that communicate with UNIX systems. Since the Windows Sockets interface is similar to the Berkeley sockets interface available on most UNIX systems, developers already proficient on UNIX systems can easily use Windows Sockets on Windows NT.

DCE on Windows NT is available from DEC. This provides RPC, directory, time, security, and thread services. A DCE client for Windows is available from Gradient Technologies.

Developing database applications across platforms

Developers on PC, Macintosh, and UNIX systems can write software to access a Microsoft SQL Server database running on Windows NT Server. Similarly, developers on Windows-based and Windows NT-based systems can write client software to get data from databases such as SYBASE and ORACLE running on UNIX servers.

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)

ODBC is an open, vendor-neutral, and powerful interface that application writers can use to transparently access database systems from different database vendors. Developers need not learn multiple programming interfaces since they can use the universal set of interfaces provided by ODBC. By using ODBC, developers can write software to access more than 50 database servers including ORACLE, Informix, SYBASE, and Microsoft SQL Server. ODBC support is available in many popular front-end applications and development tools such as Microsoft Visual Basic, Powersoft PowerBuilder™, and Knowledgeware® ObjectView. ODBC support on UNIX systems is available from Visigenic software. ODBC support on the Macintosh is available from Apple.

Open Data Services (ODS)

ODS is an event-driven application program interface that enables a variety of server applications to be written. Developers can use ODS to build gateways between Microsoft SQL Server and a wide range of databases on MVS, UNIX, VMS, and AS/400 systems. For instance, an application could be written on Windows NT Server using ODS so that when a Microsoft SQL Server client requests data, the application sends the request to another system and passes the reply back to the client. For the client, the reply seems to come from Microsoft SQL Server but the information actually comes from the ODS application that could, for example, be getting the data from a UNIX server.

ODS can also be used to build server applications such as a security application to verify login to a Microsoft SQL Server database, an auditing application to maintain a record of client transactions, or an application for notifying a user of changes in a Microsoft SQL Server database.

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Appendix A: Third-party contacts

Adonis Corporation          (206)          
                            827-6467       
Ataman Software             (801)      
                            583-9132           
Beame & Whiteside           (919)          
                            831-8989       
Bristol Technology Inc.     (203)          
                            438-6969       
Citrix                      (800)          
                            437-7503       
Consensys Corporation.      (905)          
                            940-2900       
Data Micro Systems          (503)          
                            520-6985       
Datafocus Inc.              (703)          
                            631-6770       
Digital Equipment           (603)          
Corporation                 881-2223       
(for Polycenter Asset                      
Works)                                     
Frontier Technologies       (508)       
                            851-5700           
Gradient Technologies       (508)       
                            624-9600           
Insignia Solutions          (415)          
                            694-7600       
Intergraph Corporation      (205)          
                            730-6112       
Locus Computing             (310)          
Corporation                 670-6500       
Mainsoft Corporation        (408)          
                            774-3400       
Micro Decisionware          (303)          
                            443-2706       
NetManage                   (408)          
                            973-7171       
Process Software            (800)          
                            722-7770       
Seattle Lab                 (206)       
                            828-9001           
Software Innovations Inc.   (800)          
                            946-6688       
SunSelect                   (508)          
                            442-2300       
Unipress                    (908)          
                            287-2100       
Visigenic Software          (415)          
                            286-1900       
Walker Richer & Quinn Inc.  (800)       
                            872-2829

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