The Lava Lounge Interview

To kick-off our interview series, we would like to introduce you to one of the people that is responsible for changing the face of computing at Synon forever...

Introducing Marshall Goldberg, Principal Evangelist for Enterprise Computing at Microsoft...

Marshall Goldberg bears an uncanny resemblance to several well known figures throughout history -- he just keeps popping up all over the place -- just visit the AT & T exhibit at EPCOT and you'll know what I mean. Joking aside, Marshall Goldberg is the Microsoft evangelist assigned to Synon by Microsoft with the mission of getting Obsydian to generate applications for Windows NT and BackOffice.

Marshall Goldberg works as a Principal Evangelist focused on the enterprise computing space. In this position, he has responsibility for working with enterprise computing vendors in building a strong relationship with Microsoft. He is the founder of the Windows ISV Enterprise Advisory Board designed to help Microsoft and the enterprise ISVs succeed in the marketplace. Mr. Goldberg had as a roommate, and learned to program with Soul of a New Machine's Carl Alsing at the University of Massachusetts on an IBM 1620 in 1962. After a stint at MIT Lincoln Laboratory working on the TX-2 with such
industry illuminati as the Sutherlands, Larry Roberts, and Thomas Stockam, Marshall owned a small company building loudspeakers using computer analysis. Before joining Microsoft, Mr. Goldberg worked at the Digital Equipment Corporation as an original PathWorks PC network developer. He holds two U.S. Patents and considers his "Bitstream Filter" the most notable.

During the Synon International Users Conference in Orlando at the beginning of May, we pulled him aside and asked him some questions.

Wasim Ahmad: What's on your mind these days ?

Marshall Goldberg: The Internet - that's easy. I've succeeded in my initial vision to accelerate Windows NT adoption in Corporate and ISV sites, but it seems to me that Corporations and ISVs are incredibly ignorant about Microsoft's Internet Strategy.

WA: What has Windows NT got that should get developers excited ?

MG: Consistent environment. Reliability. Lots of hardware options, a bunch of software tools. A neat interface. Visual Basic 4.0 with 5.0 to come and Obsydian.

WA: Have you used Obsydian yet ?

MG: Not yet ! I'm waiting for the Windows NT version !

WA: It's on its way Marshall, I'll send you the pre-Beta release as soon as it's ready ! Do you read Wired magazine ?

MG: Wired - Not often.

WA: Then I won't ask you what you think of Nicholas Negroponte and Medialab's publicized concept of wearable computing and how this relates to Microsoft's goals of interactive computing and Windows everywhere ! Have you seen Gate's kid yet ?

MG: No

WA: How are developers supposed to keep up with changing Microsoft technology- first there was Win32s, then OLE2, now there's DCOM and ActiveX, soon there'll be other things like Viper ?

MG: DCOM is COM, ActiveX is OLE. Programmatically these technologies are identical. Viper is a no-brainer, you can drag existing COM components (produced in Visual Basic) and drop them into a Viper environment (this is probably NDA...). It already leverages your investment in COM. The best way for developers to keep up with the technology is to subscribe to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and to log onto the website (http://www.microsoft.com). The Microsoft web is huge and it changes each and every day.

WA: You mentioned MSDN - we're going to be bundling this with the first 100 copies of the Obsydian for Windows NT starter kit. Can you quickly explain what's inside MSDN ?

MG: There's several levels of subscription which entitle you to different things, but basically you get a library CD, quarterly updates for operating systems and other benefits like Technical Support calls.

The Microsoft Developer Network recognizes that different developers have different needs. That's why we've established four different subscription levels. But all four share the virtue of delivering what you need, right to your doorstep, on a regular schedule--all for a guaranteed price that you know from Day One. And all four come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Our goal is to make your life--at least when it comes to your development efforts--simpler and more productive.

• Instant access to information is the key to an MSDN Library subscription. No matter which Microsoft development tool you're using or which Windows platform you're targeting, you'll have all the information you need to build more robust applications in less time.
• In addition to the encyclopedic information offered with a Library subscription, Professional subscribers get all the API-level systems technology that Microsoft offers--and an MSDN Professional subscription is the only way to get it.
• An Enterprise subscription delivers an integrated environment for developing and testing Client-Server solutions using Microsoft BackOffice: comprehensive information, client- and server-side toolkits, and the most current versions of the BackOffice products.
• The Universal subscription adds the Office Test Platform and select Microsoft Visual Tools to provide comprehensive, one stop shopping for all the developer tools and programs from Microsoft.

WA: Marshall, let me get this straight, Microsoft Technet is a CD resource of technical support issues on all Microsoft products and should be used by Help Desks and MIS departments. MSDN is a resource for software architects and developers who are concentrating on Windows technology.

MG: Yes, that is correct

WA: Which level of subscription would you recommend for Obsydian developers ?

MG: It depends on what level of development is going on, certainly anyone doing BackOffice development should consider an Enterprise level subscription (Level 3) if not the Universal subscription which will give them everything they need to be successful -- including Visual C++.

WA: Well I have to get going, I'm off to JavaOne this afternoon. Tell me Marshall what about Java ?

MG: It's a great environment, we support it fully and we've made that known publicly - no mysteries there.

WA. Thank you very much Marshall for your time. Tell me would you like me to add a link to your dogs's home page ?

MG: http://131.107.1.233:80/marshalg/dogs.htm

 Marshall Goldberg recently spoke at the International User's Conference in Orlando. Click here to see his presentation on-line. For more information on Synon's joint relationship with Microsoft click here.