Redmond Diary

By Andrew J. Brust

Blog archive

#PDC09: Here We Go Again

Until recently, Microsoft's policy toward its Professional Developers Conference (PDC), was that it should be held only once every two or three years, and should focus on Redmond's technology "futures." This meant that currently- or imminently-shipping products were not to merit much coverage; instead, emerging technologies that were at least 18 months away (or thereabouts) from shipping would get the spotlight.

Last year, that was mostly true. We got a pre-beta release of Windows 7, saw glimpses of what was then called the Azure Services Platform (a name that was introduced at the show), got demos of the Office Web Applications, were briefed on what would be forthcoming in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0, and heard great things about a project code-named "Oslo."

I guess Microsoft broke its own policy last year, because now, only a year later, Windows 7 has already shipped. Fair enough, but this year, the policy changes completely. We get our second PDC in as many years at which we'll witness the official launch of Azure. And much of the breakout coverage will focus on products and technologies covered last year, many of them shipping in 8 months or less: VS 2010, .NET 4.0, Office Web, multi-touch development for various Windows platforms and SQL Server Modeling (formerly Oslo -- still a ways off from shipping.

Will we see any true futures this year? Will we get any news about Windows Mobile 7? Microsoft's rumored tablet device? The next wave of cloud and services offerings? A clearer vision of Microsoft's move toward applications in the browser? Cool new stuff about Bing? Some more news about Xbox's project Natal?

I don't know, but I sure hope so. And I'll do what I can to pass on the news. On Monday, I will be presenting an all-day, pre-conference workshop at PDC, so I'll likely take that day away from the blogosphere and Twitterdom. But starting Tuesday, I'll be tweeting the keynotes in real-time (as the hashtag in this post's title suggests -- just follow me @andrewbrust) and I'll be posting daily blog reports on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at brustblog.com as well as RedDevNews.com and VisualStudioMagazine.com. Please post comments on any of the three sites and I'll do my best to respond. Likewise, I'll work to be interactive on Twitter and always appreciate a RT if you feel the tweet is deserving.

Posted by Andrew J. Brust on 11/16/2009


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