Microsoft and some of its backers claim that Microsoft has been doing Ajax-style development for years and had never gotten the credit for it. They point to Outlook Web Access as an example of an Ajax-style application developed by the Redmond software maker.

Microsoft is continuing to advance the Ajax concepts and principles with forthcoming products, as well, Microsoft officials said.

They point to ASP.Net Version 2.0, which will ship as part of Visual Studio 2005 later this year, as one example. Microsoft also is planning how to evolve the "Orcas" (the version of Visual Studio that will follow Visual Studio 2005) programming model, in terms of taking XHTML and CSS even further, company officials said earlier this year.

In April, Scott Guthrie, product unit manager for Microsoft's platform and tools team, said that Microsoft was "looking at how to take advantage of Ajax." He said that ASP.Net 2.0 already implements some "Ajax-style" programming techniques, such as "out-of-band callback." He added that Microsoft might possibly field some sample templates, or Starter Kits, around Ajax in the not-too-distant future, Guthrie added.

At least one large enterprise customer said he'd welcome more Microsoft-Ajax synergy. He said his IT shop already has built "several significant apps which use Ajax." But they were built using Visual Studio and SQL Server and target Internet Explorer, the customer said.

"I do intend to use Ajax more frequently in the future. I am actively looking for solutions which seamlessly integrate Ajax development with ASP.Net and Visual Studio. I believe there is a big business opportunity there," the customer noted.

At the same time as it is pitching itself as a player in the Ajax space, Microsoft is seeking to put into context its ongoing "smart client" strategy vis-à-vis its Ajax one.

A key premise behind Microsoft's more than 2-year-old "smart client" programming strategy has been that Web apps are not as useful as fat/rich/locally based ones.

When talking about the benefits of smart client, Microsoft execs have emphasized that Web apps can't do all the complex tasks that smart-client apps can. They can't gracefully switch between connected and disconnected states. And they can't take advantage of all the rich graphics and processing power that smart-client apps can, according to the Microsoft.

But now Microsoft is positioning smart clients as just one point on the development continuum, rather than as the ultimate goal.

"Microsoft is really the only company that spans the continuum, from the simplest Web client through he smartest client," said Fitzgerald.

Microsoft is able to address all of these points via the "Microsoft platform," Fitzgerald said. When asked what constitutes this platform, Fitzgerald said everything from ASP.Net over simple HTML, to Microsoft's .Net, Visual Studio Tools for Office, and Microsoft Office technologies.

"We just needed the clever name" – like Ajax, Fitzgerald said, to explain the various things that developers have been able to do for almost a decade with Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft has yet to finalize a distribution vehicle for Atlas, Fitzgerald said. "It's a discrete technology that we haven't figured out how we'll distribute yet. It would make sense to deliver it as part of ASP.Net 2.0, but we haven't made packaging decisions yet."

Microsoft plans to make available to developers the first Atlas bits at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in mid-September, he said. Atlas will be integrated with Visual Studio 2005, which is due to ship this fall.