While I still haven't seen many of the videos (hell, I haven't even been able to see the keynotes!), when I read between the lines I make the following insights:
. Microsoft's focus this year has been on capturing the device market. The metro skin on windows reflects global trends towards mobile (accessible anywhere?) computing on a variety of interfaces, and Microsoft is positioning itself to be the go-to company for consistent look, feel, and development in this space. . Those of us waiting for big news in desktop technology advancement will be comforted somewhat that there is some attention to XAML as an ongoing investment, but will still be struggling to shake off the feeling that continued investment is a risky proposition, and that Microsoft will drop its support of technologies like XAML and .NET even further (if that is even possible) in years to come. Personally (as a heavily invested .NET and WPF developer and designer), I'm still not overly concerned about the future. Microsoft is a hulking behemoth of a company, and getting such a beast to move in a unified direction takes more time than external influences (such as hardware advances and products releases by partners and competitors) take to influence that direction. I continue to be impressed with them as a cohesive corporation, despite some obviously transparent divisions where you can see the hamsters running like mad to keep things moving. Microsoft, like any company, has to bet on what the future will bring and build towards that vision. They are strengthening their position and appear to be covering their bases by having at least two options in every line of business (at least in the spaces I'm interested in). Particularly, by swinging in HTML5 and Java capabilities, they have opened themselves up to a much wider developer and consumer audience, reducing the risk that they as a company will collapse. I see the current focus is on compelling for HTML and Java developers to build for Windows while trying to ease the XAML and .NET developer community that they are not being forgotten, left out of the vision, or dropped like a rotten fish. Finally, it's my opinion that there will never be a single development technology that will kill its rivals. Further, neither HTML nor XAML are perfect in their own right, and the future appears open for yet another technology that will improve on the foundations and development experiences of both. For Microsoft at least, I think the day they release another such solution is a loooooong way off and we'll be stuck with HTML and XAML for years to come. I hope that Microsoft will continue to look for such a solution however, as they are perfectly placed to take advantages of the lessons they have learned from XAML to successfully produce one. While things appear to be moving fast, change is really quite slow. In 20 years or so we'll all look back on all this and tell our grandkids how easy they've got it. All opinions expressed are my own and not of my company etc, Carl. Carl Scarlett Senior .NET/WPF Developer, UX Designer | Genesis IT & Change Management | Bankwest A: Level 5, 199 Hay Street | Perth | Western Australia | 6004 P: (08) 9449 8451 M: 0408 913 870 E: [email protected] Description: test From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Patrick Klug <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, 21 September 2011 9:12 PM To: ozWPF <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Build Well, I'm quite disappointed about the lack of innovation for 'traditional' Desktop applications. It seems that apart from some house keeping and a few useful additions in .NET 4.5 there is zero in terms of features for users or windows software developers. The biggest disappointment for me is the announcement of the AppStore and the fact that it focuses mostly on Metro. I've written about this on my blog: Windows 8 and the (disappointing) new app store: http://www.patrickklug.com/2011/09/19/windows-8-and-the-disappointing-ne w-app-store/ and Why the Windows 8 App Store will fail: http://www.patrickklug.com/2011/09/21/why-the-windows-8-app-store-will-f ail/ Other than that I like Metro and WinRT looks like a good change under the cover but it just feels like Microsoft throws yet another framework against the wall and as always the framework is probably good for a few things and not so good for most other things. All I want is a high performance modern UI framework that let's me create what I want. Unfortunately such a thing doesn't seem to exist on Windows. Anyway, I haven't digested all of this yet and haven't had the chance to look into any of the detailed sessions. cheers, Patrick On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 7:12 PM, Stephen Price <[email protected]> wrote: Hey all, So most people have probably absorbed the stuff shown at BUILD and so I thought I'd kick off a new thread and see what people think. (I'm yet to spend any time watching videos but have read a few blog posts about it) A couple of things spring to mind. Silverlight will soon be (if not already) legacy code. I liked the quote I saw somewhere "The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. - Silverlight" Being a developer/designer/devigner, I think its great that XAML will be available for C++, HTML5 and .Net. I'm wondering if it's time to rebadge/rename/reinvent the SDDN user group. I'm thinking XUG would be a good name. (Or perhaps XUGXUG, said in the voice of a peon from warcraft 3 - pronounced Zug-zug). thoughts? 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