Re: Microsoft may back off of .NET languages


| The future looks like applications running
| as scripts on top of platforms on top of the OS instead of actual
| programs running on top of OS. Is the fundamental concept invalid or
| contaminated?

It seems unstoppable, doesn't it? Lately there's
Google and Verizon trying to nudge us all toward
a system better suited for selling services. Google
has transformed into a sales company. Apple is trying
to sell everything that happens on their hardware.
Microsoft is trying to play catch-up, restricting
Windows and pointing developers at .Net web apps
running on Azure -- where MS can get paid by everyone
involved while they run nothing more than glorified
web hosting.

So many big companies salivating over the possibilities.
And they all want to cash in by becoming some sort
if Internet middleman, rather than improving their
respective products. Unfortunately, the ability to control
what happens on the PC -- and install good, cheap software
locally -- is standing in the way of their plans.

What surprises me is how many people (like our local
DotNettiac salesmen in general, and Cor's last post in
particular) see themselves in an entirely passive role.

In some ways the phone market is starting to remind
me of the PC/shareware heyday of circa 2000. Back then
people were having fun exploring PCs and the Web. They
were installing shareware for fun and adventure. The PC
was a very malleable thing. A few shareware companies
came out of that as major software companies, but most
made little money. Now the smartphone is the new PC.
People are buying smartphones and installing as many
"apps" as they can fit. But it doesn't look like a promising
situation for developers to get involved in. First, it's just
plain too ludicrous squeezing so much onto a phone. And
like the PC craze, it's mostly just for fun. Most of the
developers will never make any notable profit. In a couple
of years the novelty will wear off. People will realize that
it really doesn't make sense to watch movies on a 2" screen,
and that there are better, much cheaper flashlights than
iPhones with a flashlight app. (Which is not even getting
into the silliness like making one's iPhone screen look like
a glass of beer or a fogged-up shower door.)

I did come across a voice of reason, recently, though:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367202,00.asp

John Dvorak, as usual a voice in the wilderness, speaking
up for common sense amidst the din of fashion and
commerce. :)


.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Microsoft may back off of .NET languages
    ... Google and Verizon trying to nudge us all toward ... people were having fun exploring PCs and the Web. ... were installing shareware for fun and adventure. ... "apps" as they can fit. ...
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  • Re: Microsoft may back off of .NET languages
    ... The first computers I was working with did not even have something what could be called an OS. ... Windows and pointing developers at .Net web apps ... people were having fun exploring PCs and the Web. ... People are buying smartphones and installing as many ...
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