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How MAPI Beat VIM (an historical footnote): "In a post on ZDNet today, David Berlind points out that Microsoft’s grip on the desktop market is due not only to the Office Suite but also to MAPI.  MAPI? You ask if you’re not a messaging nerd.  Yup, MAPI – Messaging Application Program Interface. David is kind enough to ask “Tom Evslin where are you?” when he first mentions MAPI (and then even kind enough to point to this blog in answer to his question). So I thought I’d also answer another question for history buffs: how Microsoft fought back a coalition of Lotus, Apple, Borland, IBM, MCI, Novell, Oracle and WordPerfect who were pushing VIM (Vendor Independent Messaging), won the messaging API war, and, partly because of this victory, overtook Lotus, which offered Notes at the high end and cc:Mail at the low end, to become the world leader in messaging. I was running the Microsoft Mail group when we developed MAPI and defeated VIM. So you can blame me (partly) if you hate your Exchange Server or your Outlook client. Just as a refresher, APIs are the interfaces by which one program tells another one what to do.  A good set of APIs turn a product into a PLATFORM.  Other developers write and MARKET their own products which use the platform.  Platforms (like Microsoft Exchang"