If you need solutions that will work on different platforms, Java-based software is a popular choice. However, it can be slower than "native" (e.g. Windows-specific) programs.

Consider:

• How many people will be working with XML?
• What machines (= Operating System) will they expect to use?
• How can we get our XML documents to the people who need them?

The XML documents themselves are platform-independent (= Unicode), but the software and network has to cope too.