Ballmer Says MS Will Release a New Version of Windows for the Cloud at PDC 2008

October 01 2008

The Register and InfoWorld both reported today that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stated that Microsoft will release a new version of its Windows operating system as part of its anticipated platform for cloud computing. Ballmer made his announcement at... read more

Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server Coming to EC2 this Fall

October 01 2008

Late yesterday, Amazon announced that coming this fall, developers will be able to run Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server instances on its EC2 cloud services. The implications are many, especially given the anticipated rollout of Microsoft's own cloud computing... read more

CodePlex Announces Support for TortoiseSVN and Other Subversion Clients

September 14 2008

In a move to encourage more developers to use its CodePlex open source project hosting site, Microsoft announced today that the CodePlex repository will now support TortoiseSVN and other Subversion clients without the need for special client software. With this enhancement, developers can work with CodePlex as if it were… read more

David Chappell's Taxonomy of Cloud Platforms and Microsoft

August 22 2008

Microsoft's response to the emerging cloud computing platforms of Amazon, Google, and Yahoo has been spotty to say the least. Now a new white paper from distributed computing maven David Chappell proposes a taxonomy for classifying what's available today and offers a map of where Microsoft may be headed. read more

MIX08: Deep Zoom, Deep Fish, Deep Mystery

March 07 2008

I've been looking for additional detail on Deep Zoom, a new Silverlight feature and the subject of one of the coolest demos shown in the MIX08 keynote: Hard Rock Memorabilia 2.0, a photo montage of rock and roll items found at Hard Rock restaurants, hotels and casinos around the world.… read more

From MIX08: Three Use Cases for Novell's Mono

March 06 2008

John Osborn, Senior Editor, .NET and Windows for O'Reilly Media blogs talking points from Microsoft MIX08. What's the case for Mono, Novell's open source implementation of the .NET Framework? I was surprised by the answers I heard from Joseph Hill, Mono product manager at Novell, in the course of a… read more

MIX08 Panel Notes: Challenges and Opportunities of Mashing up the Web

March 05 2008

I'm sitting in on a panel discussion at MIX08 on the Challenges and Opportunities in Mashing up the Web. Panelists include Sam Ramji of Microsoft, Andy Gutmans of Zend Corporation, Shawn Burke, Director, .NET Platform and a developer of the AJAX Control Toolkit, Mike Schroepfer of Mozilla, and Aaron Fulkerson… read more

Silverlight Available on Mobile Devices and More, Live from MIX08

March 05 2008

John Osborn, Senior Editor, .NET and Windows for O'Reilly Media blogs talking points from Microsoft MIX 08. In this edition: You've Got Mail, Courtesy of Silverlight, Olympic Apps, A Way Cool Hard Rock Demo, and SharePoint Extensions. Plus Cirque deSoleil & Silverlight. read more

Microsoft MIX08 Talking Points

March 05 2008

John Osborn, Senior Editor, .NET and Windows for O'Reilly Media blogs talking points from Microsoft MIX08. Among the topics emerging from the event: a new Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, a new Silverlight 2 Beta 1 and the news that Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend will support Silverlight 2… read more

Codename "Jasper": Rails or Django for .NET?

August 03 2007

Codename “Jasper” is an incubation project at Microsoft that aims to deliver the advantages of Rails-like dynamic database application programming to .NET developers. Database expert Julia Lerman, well-known to the Microsoft community as a speaker and trainer, explains the new technology with a hands on example in a new Windows… read more

Live Earth: Of Pledges and "Wedges"

July 10 2007

[Note to readers: Ever the editor, I have taken the liberty of updating this blog and tightening its arguments since first posting it last weekend. — John Osborn] If you were among those who attended one of the seven Live Earth concerts held around the world on 7/7/07, or tuned… read more

Partying with Jeff Palermo at Tech Ed 2007

June 03 2007

Yes, I’ll be there, along with O’Reilly User Group maven Marsee Henon from our Sebastopol office. O’Reilly’s a sponsor this year and we’ve got books to give away, including the just release “Learning WCF” by Michele Bustamante. Be sure you look for Marsee and me, the lint on our our black… read more

Microsoft developers ponder the ALT.NET credo

May 21 2007

Is the growing availability of open source, free and third-party tools, as well as the passion of their users, finally getting the attention of .NET developers? Or to ask the question differently, can any .NET developer these days afford ignore a solution like Rails or a tool like NHibernate? David Laribee,… read more

MIX 07: Wrapping Up and Returning to Earth

May 08 2007

The 72-hour conversation known as MIX 07 is over, and I’m home again, with a real lawn that’s filled with unplanned violets and dandelions and neighbors who are still asleep when I step outside to pick up the morning paper. What’s the right Las Vegas image to press into service as… read more

MIX 07: Wrapping Up and Returning to Earth

May 07 2007

The 72-hour conversation known as MIX 07 is over, and I’m home again, with a real lawn that’s filled with unplanned violets and dandelions and neighbors who are still asleep when I step outside to pick up the morning paper. What’s the right Las Vegas image to press into service as… read more