Implementations of DCOM are available today on the Microsoft Windows NT platform in Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0. DCOM for Windows 95 is currently in beta and due for release before the end of 1996.
Microsoft is working on an implementation of DCOM for the Apple Macintosh. A beta version will be available in early 1997.
Versions of DCOM for UUNIX platforms are under development (Software AG and Digital in close cooperation with Microsoft) and have been previewed publicly interoperating with implementation on Windows NT 4.0.
Beta versions for Sun Solaris, AIX, MVS, and Linux will be available in late 1996. Release versions arescheduled for the first half of 1997.
Microsoft provides the reference implementation of the Java Virtual Machine for the Windows platform. This Java VM is included in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and provides full support for COM and DCOM.
Any Java applet is automatically exposed as a DCOM component and can be used within a Web Page or as a standalone component.
Java applications can also use most DCOM components by simply importing a Java-compliant description of the component, a description that is automatically generated from a type library. See Most of the papers referenced in this whitepaper are available on the Technology Preview CD. URLs to documents which are available for download are listed below.
[DCOM - Architecture] for details. The DCOM component appears to the Java programmer like any other Java class.
As DCOM becomes available on other platforms, the Java VM on these platforms can easily be extended to provide the same level of DCOM integration.