Symantec 1996 Annual Report Download - page 16

Ten years ago, the typical information repository
was a small drive on a user’s desk. To d a y, thanks
to the Internet, it is virtually the entire universe.
Unlike companies that are merely riding
the current Internet wave, Symantec continues
to be an integral part of it. In fiscal 1996, we
we r e active on several online fronts, perhaps none
m o re significant than our efforts to bring
f o rth Symantec Ca f é, the first Wi n d ows- b a s e d
integrated development environment devoted
e xc l u s i vely to Sun Mi c ro s y s t e m’s Ja va
p ro g r a m m i n g language.
Based on our award-winning Symantec C++
d e velopment environment, Symantec Ca fé–o u r
visual Java development and debugging tools–
p rovides substantial enhancements to Su n’s
Ja va Development Kit. With Café, programmers
can create programs that add interactivity to
t h e i r Web pages. Or, they can create standalone
applications such as corporate Intranet pages
that can then be delivered to any Java-supported
environment without recompilation.
Café’s platform independence, along with
the ability of Ja va applications to communicate
over the Internet, has created an explosion of
i n t e r est on the part of active developers on all
platforms. In recognition of the huge prop o r-
tion of Web development performed on the
Macintosh, the Company in April 1996
i n t r oduced Sy m a n t e c Café for Macintosh.
The growing popularity of theWorld Wide
Web has, howe ve r, been accompanied by an
i n c rease in the infection rate of client systems
f rom viruses traveling over the Internet. To
a d d ress this, the latest version of our No rt o n
A n t i Vi r us software will offer free, automatic viru s
updates over the Internet. Ad d i t i o n a l l y, our
Symantec AntiVirus Research Center has devel-
oped the first native-Ja va virus scanner for Ja va
applets sent over the Internet, as well as an
in-house automation technology that can be used
to analyze, replicate, detect, and define a large
subset of the most common computer viru s e s .
The new Web platform also represents a
significant opportunity for Symantec in the
emerging area of online software distribution.
Although we will not see the end of the re t a i l
p a c kage anytime soon, more and more customers
are demanding the ability to purchase software
d i r ectly over the In t e r n e t . With our expertise in
distributing utilities over networks, we are well
positioned to provide the products and serv i c e s ,
such as automatic updating, that will enable
and enhance this new capability.
In the near future, we expect most Sy m a n t e c
p roducts to have a Web-based component to
facilitate their smooth integration into this new
medium. Until then, we will continue to set
the pace not only in online development, but
also in helping to define the new dynamics of
personal computing.
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