Blackbird promised to make web applications function more like those users were accustomed to on the desktop, by using distributed OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) rather than HTML markup.
[2] The project was soon scrapped, after Microsoft realized that there were performance problems and it became clear that HTML was gaining in popularity.
Meanwhile, Netscape, Sun, Oracle and IBM (referred to as the "Gang of Four") proposed turning Java into a similar type of distributed object platform that would form the basis of an Internet OS which could compete with Windows.
Such an OS would rely on web applications that were run through a browser and constructed using Java software components.
ActiveX became strongly criticized for security problems, and Microsoft later abandoned further development in favor of the .NET Framework.