In 2004 Apple made its Rendezvous zero-configuration networking technology available for Windows and other operating systems. Now Apple has updated its offering to provide Bonjour for Windows, matching the technology’s name with what it’s now referred to in Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger.”
Bonjour enables computers and networkable printers to automatically configure themselves and begin communicating over a network without needing a system administrator or user to manually provide them with IP addresses or domain name service (DNS) information. It’s based on a set of technology called Zeroconf.
Originally unveiled as “Rendezvous” by Apple in its Mac OS X v10.2 “Jaguar” release, the technology’s name was changed following the settlement of a lawsuit filed by Tibco Software. Tibco first trademarked the name “Rendezvous” to describe their software in the mid-90s, long before Apple debuted the technology. Although the name has changed, the technology works the same as it did before.
The Bonjour for Windows software package includes a plug-in that enables Internet Explorer to discovered “advertised” HTTP servers and a printer wizard that can help a Windows PC find Bonjour-networked printers.
Windows developers interested in implementing Bonjour in their own products can also download the Bonjour Software Developers Kit (SDK), which contains header files, libraries and sample code.