* First book on a controversial topic critically important to many large organizations * Authors are among few in industry with relevant experience The first book to describe how Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) can be supported on computer systems other than Windows. Drawing on Compaq's groundbreaking work of porting COM/DCOM to its OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX Alpha platforms, COM Beyond Microsoft explains how the COM standard can help enterprises integrate their applications across a heterogeneous computing environment. This book details the innovative COM support now native on Tru64 UNIX and OpenVMS and reveals how developers can exploit COM on OpenVMS and COM on Tru64 UNIX to create portable software components that run virtually unchanged on OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and other major computing platforms.