A new family of highly distributed, programmable developer services that run across standalone machines, in corporate data centers and across the Internet. Services include Identity, Notification and Messaging, Personalization, Schematized Storage, Calendar, Directory, Search and Software Delivery. Different instances of these services can cooperate and exchange information through a process called federation, which allows organizations to decide whether to run their own infrastructure or host it externally without compromising their control or access to services across the Internet or when offline. Microsoft will deliver new versions of Windows supporting the .NET platform technologies that maintain and extend the PC's role as an optimum way to take full advantage of the Internet. In addition to these core underlying platform technologies, Microsoft will also offer a selection of .NET experiences for individual audiences.
NET is the next generation of Windows.
NET will be a product that supports productivity, creativity, management, entertainment and much more, and is designed to put users in control of their digital lives. It incorporates new .NET user experience technologies, is tightly integrated with .NET building block services including identity and search and provides integrated support for digital media. NET will be self-supporting, featuring services that provide ongoing support and updates as users need them. NET will provide a rich foundation for developers who want to create new .NET applications and services. It will offer a programmable user experience that can be customized by corporations and individuals and programmed by .NET services including MSN.NET, bCentral for .NET and Office.