Now that the first ActiveX implementations on non-Microsoft Corp operating systems have hit the streets, Software AG expects Microsoft’s Active Group of companies supporting ActiveX – something of an oxymoron we’d argue given it’s been completely inactive up to this point – to start getting much more vocal, either this quarter or next. So far not a peep has been heard from the multi-vendor organization created under the pretense of enabling other parts of the industry to influence the future shape of ActiveX specifications (CI No 3,010). Microsoft admits Active Group is purely a vehicle to make COM/DCOM [ActiveX] available on all commercial computing platforms. Much of Active Group’s public focus is expected to be explaining how Microsoft’s new component and services framework, Windows DNA, plus the COM+ enhancements to the Windows component programming model will affect DCOM and ActiveX. In its efforts, the original, unwritten aim of Microsoft’s Active Group initiative will likely be exposed according to insiders: namely the advancement of Windows NT.
