.Net will be one of Microsoft's biggest mistakes.....

I think this sums it up best......

"Now Microsoft has so many developers cranking away that it's not enough to reinvent the entire Windows API: they have to reinvent it twice. At last year's PDC they preannounced the next major version of their operating system, codenamed Longhorn, which will contain, among other things, a completely new user interface API, codenamed Avalon, rebuilt from the ground up to take advantage of modern computers' fast display adapters and realtime 3D rendering. And if you're developing a Windows GUI app today using Microsoft's "official" latest-and-greatest Windows programming environment, WinForms, you're going to have to start over again in two years to support Longhorn and Avalon. Which explains why WinForms is completely stillborn. Hope you haven't invested too much in it. Jon Udell found a slide from Microsoft labelled "How Do I Pick Between Windows Forms and Avalon?" and asks, "Why do I have to pick between Windows Forms and Avalon?" A good question, and one to which he finds no great answer."

Joel Spolsky - http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

.Net hasn't given us a straight answer to anything yet. .Net 1.1 is not backwards compatible with .Net 1.0. .Net 2.0 will not be backwards compatible with either of its siblings either.

.Net can't use all of the COM components that you spent a fortune amassing and is limiting the reach of valid technologies like ActiveX in the browser by no longer supporting the creation of activeX controls.

And, all of that scratching and clawing that you have done learning Winforms and Webforms? Hell, we'll just throw that out like we did Visual Basic 6 in favor of Avalon and WinFX.

Don't be concerned that Avalon and WinFX will ONLY run on Longhorn - everybody will upgrade as soon as it comes out. Right? I mean, everybody is on XP and 2003......aren't they? So, what else could you possibly need?

What's needed is a big fat wakeup call for Microsoft. I'd love to see Borland get the Os/2 source code from IBM, package the compiled OS with Borland's Delphi (or even C++) and give it away. Yes, GIVE THE OS AWAY - including all of the associated APIs. (I'd still hold back the actual source code for the OS - after all, somebody has to keep things compatible - look at the fragmentation of Linux and you just might agree with me.)

There would be a stampede of Visual Basic developers, open source champions and (most importantly) schools, teachers and students that would begin writing for this "new" platform.

The catch? They'd need to promise to ALWAYS provide backwards compatibility for 2 versions. Keep the changes limited. Value stability and compatibility over new and "shiny". And don't copy your competition like Microsoft's .Net has tried to copy JAVA. Actually innovate and lead - don't just use the words as a slogan to skirt lawsuits.

Borland could sell development tools (compilers and components) for a FREE OS that was years ahead of Microsoft years ago and make a killing. They've seen what people want and will use - simple tools like VB. Most "programmers" don’t write code for a living, they write code to make making a living easier. Even with all of its flaws, people loved VB.

When something works, and the originator abandons it, usually another company will come along and use the tried and true formula to make themselves wealthy. Well......Microsoft abandoned VB. It was simple. Non-programmers could hack out tools to make their jobs easier. The 3rd party component market for VB was a huge money-maker and it made the "programmers" happy too, because it made development even easier!

If only somebody with the infrastructure in place for such a task would step up to the plate...a home run is virtually guaranteed.

A Borland or an ORACLE would mop Microsoft up within 5 years if they simply did not adandon their user base as Microsoft is doing in favor of what the Redmond programmers want (and will, no doubt, get).

HEY BORLAND!!!! YOU LISTENING?

Let's face it. Microsoft wrote .Net for Microsoft......no one else. They wrote .Net to help themselves reach their dream of all Microsoft products as services by the year 2010.

Just step back and look at .Net. It's a great first stab at writing subscription software. And, they did a great job of selling an unfinished product to the world's largest beta test group. But the interface still sucked and remoting didn't deliver outside the intranet......so here comes Avalon.

You see, Microsoft knows that applications that look like crap sell like crap. That's why they are doing the whole Avalon thing. Their subscription-based software HAS to look as good as desktop software and that's what Avalon is for.

Abstraction of the desktop is NOT the goal. You'll still have to buy the latest, greatest Microsoft OS to enjoy the freedom of being tied to a new desktop with a new (surely to be replaced soon) framework like Avalon, or its replacement.

Hey! Maybe this OS programmer torture rack will have a window next to it! I can hardly wait!

But, NEVER forget, .Net was (and is) not about you, or me, or any other everyday developer. It's about Microsoft and their control of your desktop. It's about a company with $50 BILLION in cash reserves saying "That's not enough." Plainly put.... .Net is about greed and losing touch with reality.

Funny thing.....greed. When it takes over.....well, that's when you start LOSING money. You start making decisions that put the company before the customer. And, ever so slowly, the customers notice....and begin trying new things - at your competitors place of business. And, by the time you notice what you've done, you've destroyed the loyalty and faith that your customers had for you.....along with your bottom line.

And, all the Dean-ish "Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!" rants in the world won't bring them back. After all, they never did listen to what you said. They were too busy watching what you did.

As for losing touch with reality.... Microsoft has become like the TV and movie "stars" that we are all so familiar with today. They live so far removed from everyday reality that it begins to affect their ability to think rationally. They've surrounded themselves with people whose very livelyhood depends on being liked enough to be kept around and given a paycheck for agreeing that the star's every idea is a stoke of genius.

Then they wind up on the front pages of the tabloids....and we all laugh at the people we worshipped yesterday.

It's true. Microsoft developers have created their very own Neverland.

If we all developed Microsoft operating systems and sold Office as a service, perhaps .Net, Avalon and WinFX would be good things.

We don't.

They aren't.

Well......you know what they say......"What goes up...."

(BORLAND! Call me!)