Visual Studio .Net Developers are lucky. They may work with an integrated environment. Imagine for a second that you would have to use several separated tools to get your job done.

Do remember this situation from early days of software development or from other legacy like platforms?

 

Yes, then you will understand how an ordinary users feels when they have do use software to accomplish their goals. Sure, this software is steadily improved by adopting smart client technology. But this is only one step to the desired “integrated productivity environment”.

 

No, then your environment has made you blinded for the users needs.

 

I think smart clients are the next step for improving the user experience. But additionally it would be great the have few smart client frameworks for certain smart client solutions. The ultimate goal might be an integrated environment based on smart client technology that unifies user interaction principles.

 

Likely the same evolution of integrated environments as we have seen in software development IDE's will take place also with desktop applications for ordinary users. Perhaps we will talk about smart clients in future as the early components of the “integrated productivity environment”.
Longhorn promises to deliver on this vision.