If you're a parent (like me) or even a pet owner (again, like me), you know
that a name can mean everything.
My daughter Maggie is a case in point. Named after her energetic maternal great-grandmother,
young Maggie is a credit to the name. A real pistol, she earned the nickname
"Beast of the East" for her ability to just wear people down. And
yet, at 4 years old, she's completely enamored of ponies, unicorns and rainbows.
My point -- I had a point in there somewhere, I know it -- is that once something
you've been thinking about for a while gets a name, everything changes. Things
lock into focus and you begin to mentally associate the product with the name,
and the name with the product.
Which is why I was excited to hear the announcement this week that Visual Studio
"Orcas" will officially
be called "Visual Studio 2008." It's a serious sign that Microsoft
has moved to the next stage of delivering the product. And for us, we can finally
get around to packing all the mental baggage that will eventually be associated
with this IDE.
Also at the show, Microsoft rolled out a scaled-down version of Visual Studio,
called "Visual Studio Shell," which is intended to allow developers
to build VS functionality on top of their own vertical tools. VS Shell will
also enable integration of languages such as Fortran, Cobol, Ruby and PHP. A
beta is due out this summer. The final version will be free for download. Read
more here.
Another product earned its official title at Tech-Ed this week -- specifically,
the next version of SQL Server. Code-named "Katmai," the new version
will be called "SQL Server 2008." The new SQL Server will continue
to press business intelligence features, as well as introduce the Entity Framework
(EF) data conceptual access technology, which was pulled back from the Visual
Studio 2008 release timeframe. Here's more.
The impending arrival of these two products are important milestones in that
they prove Microsoft's commitment to deliver more frequent and iterative product
updates. Gone are the days of five- or six-year spans between releases, as occurred
with SQL Server 2000 and, of course, Windows XP.
What are you most looking forward to with SQL Server and Visual Studio? E-mail
me at [email protected]
Posted by Michael Desmond on 06/06/20070 comments
This year's spring Microsoft Tech-Ed event in steamy Orlando, Fla. may not
have been as product- and news-packed as previous iterations of the show. But
representatives for Redmond were able to hit a few high notes over the week.
Certainly, Bob
Muglia's opening keynote on service-enabled environments and what Microsoft
is calling "Dynamic IT" offers a concrete sense of the direction Microsoft
is going -- even if we're still not sure of the final destination.
Microsoft continues to play coy with SOA, borrowing much of the terminology
while trying to craft a blended message that incorporates packaged applications,
hosted applications and Web services.
More to the point, it seems Muglia and company are determined to deliver a
more granular and incremental service-centric vision. The goal: Encourage IT
to service-enable development, without marching into the kind of epic corporate
trek that can so often wreck careers and obliterate IT budgets.
What do you think? Is Microsoft stalling for time with its vision-in-progress?
Or are we looking at an honest attempt to right-size the utopian promises of
SOA? E-mail me at [email protected].
Want to learn more? Check out RDN's in-show coverage by Executive Editor
Jeffrey Schwartz and News Editor Chris Kanaracus at our Web site at http://reddevnews.com/news/.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 06/06/20070 comments
A few weeks back, Microsoft security expert (and co-author of the book
Writing
Secure Code) Michael Howard
lamented
about the quality of young coders coming out of university computer science
programs.
In Howard's case, the concern was over the utter lack of security awareness
and training among newly minted post-graduate programmers. In fact, the situation
is so bad that Howard says Microsoft pulls every new programmer aside for several
weeks of security-specific training before they can even begin working on live
code.
Security, of course, is an ongoing concern, as reflected in our upcoming cover
feature on secure development in the age of Windows Vista (coming in our June
15 print issue). But U.S. colleges face a challenge just getting kids in the
door. Since 2000, the Computing Research Association found that enrollment in
computer science (CS) programs has dropped
70 percent.
So perhaps it's no surprise that colleges are looking for ways to spice up
CS studies, as reported in a recent
Associated Press story.
At Georgia Tech, computing professor Tucker Balch heads up a robotics curriculum
that includes cheap, Frisbee-sized robots called Scribblers that students program.
The story notes that students get to write code to control the behavior of the
tiny robots -- a far cry from traditional exercises like cracking prime numbers.
At the University of Southern California, the GamePipe
Laboratory offers students a chance to blend coding and creative skills
as they study the art and science of computer game design.
Do you think universities are on the right track? Or do alternative approaches
like these threaten to undermine core skills and fundamentals that are critical
to producing able programmers? E-mail me at [email protected].
If we publish your response in our magazine, you'll receive a free RDN
T-shirt.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/30/20070 comments
Late last week, Microsoft let slip via MSDN that the 2007 Professional Developer's
Conference, scheduled for Oct. 2 to 5 in Los Angeles,
would
not be taking place. Microsoft called it a case of bad timing, with testable
versions of upcoming products like Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio "Orcas"
and the "Katmai" update of SQL Server all due in programmers' hands
ahead of the forward-looking event.
But frequent RDN contributor Mary Jo Foley thinks the sudden cancellation
could be related to an information lockdown around Windows client OS development
-- something she noted in a May
15 blog post ahead of the WinHEC conference.
Wrote Foley at the time: "Execs are not talking at all about Windows Vista
Service Pack (SP) 1 or 'Fiji,' the Media Center update expected later this year.
And don't even think about hearing/seeing anything on Windows Seven, aka Windows
2009."
With PDC off the docket, where should developers look for guidance? How about
Barcelona, Spain? The TechEd Developers 2007 conference takes place in Barcelona
during Nov. 5 to 9 and should provide a venue for covering at least some of
the ground vacated by PDC in October. You can find more information at the Web
site here.
How valuable has Microsoft's PDC been for you in the past? Give us your opinion
about Microsoft's premier developer conference and shoot us some ideas on what
Microsoft might do better going forward. E-mail me at [email protected].
If we publish your response in our print magazine, you'll receive a free RDN
T-shirt!
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/30/20070 comments
Microsoft is getting busy trying to make its Silverlight rich Internet application
platform more attractive for developers and users alike. Last week the company
announced an
alpha
release of Popfly, a vehicle for developing mashups, Web sites and Silverlight-driven
rich content through drag-and-drop chunks of code called "blocks."
The alpha will be open to about 2,000 testers.
The Popfly effort has two main parts. Popfly Creator is the toolset. Popfly
Space is an online "community of creators," in the words of Developer
Division head S. "Soma" Somasegar, for hosting and sharing projects
built with the technology.
According to Microsoft statements, Popfly is intended to appeal to a broad
audience, from nontechnical users pushing together dynamic Web experiences to
coders sharing Windows apps. Users write their Popfly blocks in JavaScript and
use AJAX, DHTML or Silverlight for the user interface, Microsoft said. A Block
Builder SDK includes pre-built blocks and source code, as well as tools for
writing custom blocks, according to Microsoft.
Popfly doesn't provide any support for server-side processing, nor does it
support Silverlight 1.1, which includes a version of the Common Language Runtime
for more robust application delivery. Still, Popfly should help Microsoft counter
recent mashup rollouts, such as Yahoo Pipes, while providing a vehicle for promoting
Silverlight uptake.
Do you plan to get on the Silverlight bandwagon? E-mail me at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/23/20070 comments
When SQL Server 2005 hit the pavement a couple of years ago, it was a major
-- and majorly overdue -- upgrade to Microsoft's flagship database management
system. Now, the
next
version of SQL Server, code-named "Katmai," is gathering steam
as it approaches its first Community Technology Preview (CTP). And where SQL
Server 2005 focused heavily on scalability and business intelligence, Katmai
is attacking the proliferation of data types and structures, offering ways to
move unstructured and spatial data from warehouse to devices.
According to Microsoft SQL Server Product Manager Francois Ajenstat, Katmai
users will be able to "natively store documents within SQL server. You'll
be able to query it and do standard things you do in a database -- select, inserts,
updates, deletes -- to documents. It means you'll be able to use our standard
management tools. You'll able to use the security policies that you implement
in SQL Server directly on those documents."
Currently scheduled to ship some time in 2008, Katmai may also end up debuting
Microsoft's ADO.NET Entity Framework (EF), which enables developers to program
against data defined in a conceptual fashion instead of directly interacting
with traditional table-and-column data. The framework is based on Microsoft's
Entity Data Model specification, and was originally slated to launch with the
next version of Visual Studio, code-named "Orcas." But delays in the
EF Designer prompted Microsoft to pull the functionality. At the moment, it
appears EF could debut with Katmai.
Microsoft has been busy on the data access front, what with LINQ, EF and now
the Katmai version of SQL Server. What are your thoughts on Microsoft's data
efforts? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/23/20070 comments
Microsoft's war with Linux and open source software has run hot and cold for
years. The company has see-sawed between outright hostility and warm-minded
cooperation. Whether it's Steve Ballmer threatening to crack kneecaps or Ray
Ozzie offering olive branches, the signals coming out of Redmond have been decidedly
mixed.
Well, they're not so mixed any more. On Monday, Fortune magazine reported
that Microsoft claims 235 software patent violations by open source software
products and that companies using Linux could face the prospect of paying up
for their use of infringing technologies. See our coverage here.
Given that Linux accounts for a sizable percent of enterprise servers, the statement
was a nuclear FUD strike that seemed designed to chill any corporate interest
in Linux in specific and open source solutions in general.
Microsoft's tough stance is hardly a slam dunk -- far from it. The company
seems to be on shaky ground, at least legally, when it comes to the stage of
actually enforcing its claims. For one thing, the U.S. Supreme Court recently
weakened the case for software patents -- a recognition that many software patents
are absurdly broad or based on flawed premise. Experts say that the vast majority
of patent claims Microsoft might make will simply prove unactionable. More telling
is the fact that Microsoft isn't revealing the specific cases of infringement
or even the patents being infringed. Instead, it's throwing impressive-looking
numbers into the media and leaving well-intentioned OSS developers to guess
at the problem.
Why? It's a good question. On the one hand, perception is definitely reality
when it comes to corporate software acquisition, and Microsoft's statements
could chill Linux uptake. Just days after leveling a legal threat at companies
using Linux, Microsoft promised not to sue them. But the threat is now out there.
The analogy I'd use is a masked man with a gun pointing the weapon at your head
and then saying earnestly: "I promise not to shoot you with this gun."
Can you afford to take him at his word? A lot of large corporations will no
doubt say no.
On the other hand, Microsoft faces a pinch from the open source General Public
License 3 (GPLv3) currently in the works, and this could simply be an effort
to fight back. GPLv3 would essentially prohibit deals like the Microsoft mixed
marriage with SuSE Linux distributor Novell, in which Microsoft indemnified
Novell of any patent infringement while taking a cut of Novell's revenue. With
GPLv3 in effect, such an agreement would be impossible.
Most experts think there's little chance of a RIAA-like scorched-earth, sue-and-screw
campaign against Linux customers (many of whom, after all, are profligate users
of Microsoft products). But after this latest broadside, it's clear that we
are now entering a period of business as unusual. In short: A lot can happen.
What do you think Microsoft is trying to accomplish with its broad threats?
And what should open source developers and customers be doing in response? E-mail
me at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/16/20070 comments
Looks like the long-awaited Longhorn Server is starting the long roll down
the runway. One telltale sign: The new product has an official name. And no
surprise, it's Windows Server 2008.
As reported by Executive Online Editor Becky Nagel here,
Bill Gates announced the name during his keynote speech at the Windows Hardware
Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Los Angeles. News of the new name had actually
leaked the
week before, after Microsoft accidentally published it in press materials
on its Web site.
Windows Server 2008 is a radically retooled version of Windows Server that
employs a modularized architecture to let IT shops enable role-specific servers
around the Windows Server core. The new OS may require developers to do some
retooling of their own, since Windows Server 2008 presents significant changes
to the driver model and kernel OS. Beta 3 of Windows Server 2008 was released
in April and the final version of the OS is expected to be released to manufacturing
late this year.
Have you worked with the Windows Server 2008 beta? Let us know your thoughts,
at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/16/20073 comments
Research In Motion's BlackBerry has captured a huge market of corporate users
determined to stay connected. Now, RIM is in the middle of a software push that
it hopes will extend the world's addiction to its e-mail- and 'Net-friendly
devices and smart phones.
In April, RIM announced a software suite that would enable
a "virtual" BlackBerry experience on phones running Microsoft
Windows Mobile 6 (WM6). The move would do more than simply provide a consistent
UI to users across the BlackBerry and WM6 platforms; it would also enable the
growing fleet of WM6-enabled phones to tap RIM services, including the push
e-mail service at the heart of BlackBerry's success.
Then, just yesterday, RIM announced that it was releasing
a Visual Studio plug-in that would enable developers to build BlackBerry
apps in Microsoft's flagship IDE. As reported by RDN's Chris Kanaracus,
RIM says the plug-in lets developers build "rich client applications with
a flexible user interface, offline data storage, asynchronous push and secure
data access."
More important, it opens the floodgates for thousands of .NET developers to
become active writing applications for the BlackBerry platform.
Posted by Lee Pender on 05/09/20070 comments
Impressed as I am by the Silverlight story Microsoft is telling, I've been
disappointed by two things. One has been the lack of support for the excellent
Opera Web browser. Well, it seems Microsoft has addressed that blind spot. Check
out the Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Developer Reference graphic
here.
Looks like Opera users can look forward to running Silverlight apps and content.
You can read more about this in Chris
Kanaracus' report.
The other issue is lack of Linux support. Microsoft's response to pointed questions
on Silverlight supporting Linux has been consistent: "We listen to our
customers and if our customers say they want Linux support..."
That's code for "Don't hold your breath."
Or maybe you can. Because Miguel de Icaza, the man behind the open source Mono
project for running .NET apps on Linux, plans to produce
a Linux version of Silverlight by the end of 2007.
Known for the time being as "Moonlight," the effort will build atop
the existing Mono infrastructure, adding the components needed to make Silverlight
apps and content playable on Moonlight-enabled systems.
What do you think? Is Microsoft hurting itself by passing on Linux and leaving
the platform to Adobe? Let me know your thoughts on this and de Icaza's efforts
at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/09/20070 comments
I can sum up the results of the MIX07 Web development conference in two words:
Game On.
Microsoft protests consistently that Silverlight is not just a Flash competitor.
After all, the company wired Silverlight to leapfrog the mass-market concept
of a multimedia runtime engine to deliver a rich Internet application platform
in progress. And while today's working version of Silverlight won't pay off
on these promises, the upcoming Silverlight 1.1, currently in alpha, almost
certainly will.
Yet, for all the synergies being baked into Silverlight by way of XAML, Expression
Studio and Visual Studio, a simple fact remains: Microsoft has committed itself
to the Web development space in the biggest possible way. Witness the way Redmond
pushed the ASP.NET AJAX toolkit (formerly code-named "Atlas") out
the door ahead of the Orcas wave, or the way XAML has become a common theme
across Silverlight, Visual Studio, Expression Blend and Windows Presentation
Foundation.
The pieces and tooling are snapping into place. Now the question becomes: Can
Microsoft lure a critical mass of Web content developers to its freshly minted
platforms?
I'm betting it can. Wooing developers is a game Microsoft knows well. Many
of the company's greatest victories -- including that over Netscape -- were
the result of doing more for the customers at the root of Microsoft's success:
developers.
What do you think? Can Microsoft wrest the attention of developers and designers
away from Adobe? And will Adobe have to change its game plan if it hopes to
keep Microsoft at bay? E-mail me at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/09/20070 comments
It's barely spring, at least up here in the Northeast, and yet it seems like
we've been talking about the next version of Visual Studio, code-named "Orcas,"
forever. That's why we're running a cover story on the first Visual Studio "Orcas"
beta in our May 15 issue of
Redmond Developer News, and it's why we've
been keeping close tabs on the highly anticipated update to Microsoft's flagship
IDE since the day we launched.
As we draw closer to ship (some time late this year or early next), we're starting
to play the timeless game of Name That Missing Feature. You probably remember
all the madcap hijinks around Windows Vista, as the development team tossed
one function after the next off the floundering Vista boat in an effort to make
shore. Now, I'm not saying Orcas is in anything approaching the rough shape
Vista found itself in, but a few features may not make the final version of
the IDE.
Foremost among them is the .NET Entity Framework, the advanced data-access
technology built atop ADO.NET 2.0 that will enable programmers to develop against
a conceptual domain model, rather than work against the relational database
layer. As Senior Editor Kathleen Richards reports here
the Entity Framework was baked into Orcas beta 1, but the Entity Data Model
Designer that's needed to take full advantage of it wasn't ready. Microsoft
says it plans to introduce the EDMD as a Visual Studio extension in the first
half of 2008.
Microsoft contends that all is well and that we'll see the .NET Entity Framework
fully implemented and accessible within Visual Studio Orcas. But a lot of folks
are probably thinking...ObjectSpaces. The technology was supposed to bring object-relational
mapping (OR/M) to the .NET Framework as part of Visual Studio 2005, but got
scuttled along with the demise of WinFS.
Personally, I think it's too early to rush for the exits. Microsoft has a determined
and strategic data access effort afoot in the LINQ Project, and other key LINQ
components are in place. What do you think? Is your faith in Entity Frameworks
shaken? Write me at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 05/02/20072 comments