The changes at Microsoft are both in the organizational structure and Windows Vista components (called "foundations" by Microsoft) available for beta test. Specifically the Communications foundation (formerly called Indigo) and the Windows Workflow Foundation. Both foundations will be found in Windows Vista (whenever that comes out?). "Go Live" licenses for developers for each of these new foundations have been released in Mid-January.

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With Beta 2 of Windows Vista coming out in February, this gives developers a chance to see how these new components work. For communications developers, they can learn how to call Indigo components. For workflow Microsoft will use a group of APIs, the engine to make it run, and Visual Studio tools to enable developers to take advantage of business workflow within their applications.

The other news from Microsoft is that they are merging the Exchange and the RTC group into one group run by Anoop Gupta (who runs the RTC group currently). This new group will be called the United Communicaitons Group (UCG) and will report to Jeff Raikes in the Business Division. This would put, e-mail, IM, VoIP, and Audio/Video/Web conferencing all into one group at Microsoft.

The question I have on the components for Vista is simple: is this the right direction? We are seeing more and more applications that are uncluttered, simple and offered as a service getting the highest rate of uptake. In this model, collaborative applications are really using the Web as the OS (just need a browser on your client machine) kind of like what a dumb terminal used to do (only better interface).

What we are not hearing is a cry for a new OS with a variety of components that will enable collaboration for any applications that runs on top of it. Just as the new version of King Kong has what we call "gratuitous special effects" (and we liked the movie anyway). Microsoft is adding complexity and features to an OS that will require more computing power (on the desktop) and is a great way to drive the sale of Intel chips and new computers, but is it really necessary?

In terms of the re-organization at Microsoft, which since September seems to be an ongoing process, this combination of communication and collaboration technologies under one person makes some sense to us. Since all the other vendors are merging their synchronous and asynchronous collaboration tools why not Microsoft? So combining these technologies under one person and having the group in the Business Division also makes some sense to us (God knows, with other re-organizations we have been left scratching our heads).