Not every application in the world is yet written under a Microsoft Corp operating system or with its software, but Visual Basic developers are about to get under the bonnet of the world’s non-Microsoft applications following the Redmonder’s licensing agreements with 40 Independent Software Vendors. The 40 vendors will integrate Microsoft’s Visual Basic Applications Edition version 5.0 scripting language into future versions of their applications. This will enable developers to extend applications using Visual Basic and to incorporate ActiveX components into existing systems. The agreements follow a pilot program announced in June (CI No 2,927), after which eight companies, Adobe Systems Inc, Autodesk Inc, Micrografx Inc, Netmanage Inc, Rockwell Software Inc, Sagent Technology Inc, SAP AG and Visio Corp said they would license and integrate the technology into their applications. Microsoft says the 40 new licenses cover a cross section of the software industry and will deliver more than 100 applications composed of tens of thousands of individual ActiveX components generating over $6bn per year in revenue. Seems the richest man on earth just can’t help getting richer. Bill Gates says the company is already witnessing the positive feedback loop among ActiveX tools, components and applications – growth in one segment enhances the business opportunity in the others. The addition of 40 new ISV’s will only serve as an accelerant to the ActiveX component software industry. The 40 include Great Plains Software Inc, Antares Alliance Group, Cognos Inc, Information Builders Inc, Texas Instruments Software, Documentum Inc, Seagate Software, NetManage Inc, Symantec Corp, McAfee Associates and LogicWorks Inc. Microsoft is licensing Visual Basics for Applications through Mystic River Software Inc and Summit Software Co, two embedded technology specialists that will offer integration support and implementation consulting. While many companies will no doubt see the advantages of having one set of developers capable of customizing and extending both Windows applications and other third party software, there will no doubt be those that see this as handing over yet more control to Microsoft.
