Microsoft needs a stronger foothold in the market for software delivered as an Internet service. So the company is tuning Longhorn Server and future versions of its database software, development tools, and run-time environment to better support hosted applications.
The moves come as Microsoft tries to convince Web companies to choose Windows over Linux and as Google opens its computing infrastructure to other companies. The engineering work is a result of CTO Ray Ozzie's mandate to get Microsoft's server products in better shape to run Web applications. Microsoft is expected next week to release a second beta version of Longhorn Server that could contain some of the changes.
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