A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft hosted a Technology Summit and invited many prominent members from a variety of different platforms (Linux, Java, Flash, etc.) to our campus in Redmond. They spent two-and-a-half packed days listening to presentations, learning about our products and tools, asking hard questions, and providing great feedback. The founder of Javalobby, Rick Ross, has recorded a summary of his insights and thoughts based on the summit. A downloadable PDF version is also available (free registration required).
Here are a couple of interesting quotes:
The VS.NET 2005 and Avalon demos simply show the power that this company wields. Their tools and the Windows platform as a whole are evolving rapidly to keep pace with developer and customer expectations. Again, I know I was not the only one thinking to myself, “Wow, those are some serious tools!” and wishing we could enjoy fully-compatible Java development plugins for the Visual Studio environment.The ASP.NET 2.0 examples were a case in point: the modular blocks of functionality you get with ASP.NET 2.0 had all the leading Java guys in the audience drooling. No Joke, they really did.
The VS.NET 2005 and Avalon demos simply show the power that this company wields. Their tools and the Windows platform as a whole are evolving rapidly to keep pace with developer and customer expectations. Again, I know I was not the only one thinking to myself, “Wow, those are some serious tools!” and wishing we could enjoy fully-compatible Java development plugins for the Visual Studio environment.
Of course, I chose those quotes, because it's great to hear nice things about your own company and its products. However, there's a lot more to learn from Rick's summary, and it's definitely worth a listen.