Keith Pleas on Longhorn: ... if Microsoft wants to hear about cool new applications next year, they need to articulate an equivalent “Go Live License“ right now.
While I am totally convinced that WinFS will have what it takes to be successful... we are not there yet. I know there are many things we have to change and finish before we are done.
I do want to hear about (and use) cool new applications that leverage WinFS... but I also don't want people to become frustrated and disillusioned with what we are doing in Longhorn by investing too heavily in it too soon. It is a fine line we all need to walk.
11/12/2003 8:59 AM
# re: It's Alive
Well, I didn't have opportunity to go to PDC but I read/watched as much as I could about it.
But I am bit concerned with the way MSFT keep pushing new stuff on developers.
First there was this:
"..COM is not good. It has problems... blah blah ... thats why there is .NET, ASP is no good, use ASP.NET 1.1"
Now it is " ASP.NET 1.1 is no good, use ASP.NET 2.0"
I sometimes get feeling that new products and new features are added not because anyone needs them but because MSFT needs it.
Just a opinion from a humble programmer
11/12/2003 7:22 PM
# re: It's Alive
yes i totally agree with you.
i spend alot on my training on .NET in london and now MS says sorry we have to change alot of things , so how the hell i could use all my training . every time i study something and begin working with it , MS decides that they should change it in the next version . i really got bored of this . i am the most loyal person on earth to MS but now i think i will change my strategy . none of the other vendors do this !!!!
11/13/2003 6:23 AM
# re: It's Alive
To EAEP
I agree improvement is good. You can improve whatever you have - improve your Windows OS. I don't mind getting a new OS but if you tell me throw away whatever you have and now use this - in normal situation I would say "NO" - but since MSFT rules s/w industry I have no choice.
That being said, I am not against MS at all. I love MS and I think they are great- in fact I am one of the strongest defenders of MS at my job. but truth needs be said.
I bet if you open a forum and ask every developer what they think about all these *new* *improvements*, you will know how many people share my views.
Again , just an opinion from a humble programmer.
11/13/2003 11:38 PM
# re: It's Alive
I don't think it's about the foodchain. I think that the statement is simply incorrect. New things come, old things go. Sun doesn't encourage people to write to Java 1.3.x, they encourage people to write for 1.4.x. Apple encourages development for OS X, not for OS 9. Microsoft encourages dev with 1.1 today and 2.0/WinFX in the future.
Here's a question...how does the progression of the industry harm your investment in training when the platform maintains backward compatibility? Are you in love with VB6? Those apps will still run under Longhorn. Those apps can be wrapped (RCW), so .NET apps can talk to them. .NET apps can be wrapped (CCW), so COM apps can talk to them. Where's the loss in training investment and existing skillset? I don't see it.
Another thought on training...with respect to .NET, 2.0 will offer many new things, but how many breaking changes will there be? I suspect that most 1.1 apps will run without recompile on the 2.0 framework, just as most 1.0 apps run without recompile on the 1.1 framework. That type of compatibility is even better than that offered via COM interop.