First, I find the conclusions of this article HIGHLY unlikely. They give no source as evidence for Microsoft's planned take over of Macromedia, and the reasons they give for their speculation are specious at best.
For instance:
"Microsoft's own scripting efforts are regarded as relatively inferior to the cross-platform Flash, which now supports XML, Unicode, MP3 and HTML and which was taken closer towards Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) in 2002."
Huh? What do they mean by scripting efforts? Window's has perhaps the best scripting support of ANY OS thanks to Windows Scripting Host and COM. Do they mean ASP? ASP is not simply scripting, it's a platform for dynamic web sites (as most of you know), and was never regarded as inferior to Flash, because Flash is completely different. At any rate, ASP "supports" XML, Unicode, MP3, and HTML. Oh, and J2EE has NOTHING TO DO WITH FLASH... one is a presentation layer component, and one is a standard that defines backend software design.
"Flash would give Microsoft access to tools for building rich interfaces on both desktops and mobile devices, furthering .NET."
What mobile devices currently support flash other than PocketPC? Microsoft has long been a proponent of DHTML as a ubiquitous user interface. (Probably because they were so stung by their ActiveX Controls in browsers strategy of a few years back.) Also, Microsoft is targeting WinForms as the "rich client" interface of choice, which is one reason why they've been supporting multi-platform .NET stuff, and the .NET compact framework for mobile devices.
"The ColdFusion web application server is regarded as superior to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASPs) and even Santa Clara, California-based Sun's Java Server Pages (JSPs) because of its simplicity, power and completeness."
Modern CF might be superior to ASP, but only because ASP is a 7+ year old technology that has not really changed. It hasn't been until the most recent release of CF that I would even consider using it over ASP. But guess what... ASP IS IRRELEVANT. ASP.NET has entirely replaced ASP (as far as Microsoft is concerned, at least), and is FAR superior to CF in almost every possible way.
CF does have a less dramatic learning curve, but that's only because it's a platform meant for RAD, not for serious applications. (Of course, they market it for everybody.) Nobody who has done any serious development in CF and in ASP.NET honestly considers CF a real option for enterprise development. Really, the same goes for JSP and CF... JSP is for enterprises, CF is for dinky sites that need dynamic abilities quickly... but nothing fancy.
This has, to some extent, changed with the integration of J2EE stuff into CF... but the integration between the two is clumsy (at least from my experience), and a pure JSP/J2EE solution is almost always a better choice.
"The J2EE community sorely lacks a programming environment that can make Java more accessible to mainstream developers."
What does that mean? Stupid developers? If you can't write Java, you shouldn't be considering yourself a developer at all. Java is a very simple and powerful language, and while applying J2EE technologies can take some thinking, it's certainly not brain surgery. Also, IBM offers an EXCELLENT IDE called Eclipse that in many ways rivals VS.NET.
"A Microsoft acquisition of Macromedia would inevitably see Flash, and Macromedia's other cross-platform tools, tailored purely for Windows and .NET."
Then what would be the point!? If Microsoft wants Macromedia so they can target cross platforms with rich UI, but they plan to make it Windows only, why buy Macromedia? Why not just use WinForms, which is, for the time being, primarily Windows only... and is FAR more powerful than Flash.
Get a clue The Register... or at least get a developer on the writing team to check your drivel.
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