``We often mention distributed computing models: JavaSpaces, Sash, BizTalk, WebL, and so on. Our lead column in August gave particular attention to the technical prospects for Microsoft's .NET initiative. Piper is an alternative to those models, and .NET in particular, on both engineering and business levels. Microsoft, for example, has specific business motivations with .NET that involve licensing issues and how the company is paid for its products. Crudely, Microsoft wants to use .NET capabilities to ensure it receives payment every time its software is used. Piper, in contrast, is a free software project to make `anything and everything buildable by linking small components,' even across a network, according to J.W. Bizzaro, director of Bioinformatics.org.''

Full story:
http://www.sunworld.com/sunworldonline/swol-09-2000/f_swol-0915-regex.html

Piper is hosted here at The Open Lab and coordinated by yours truly. It was also presented at ISMB and BOSC as a way to distribute bioinformatics applications.

URL

http://bioinformatics.org/piper