 eWeek. Allchin on the future of PCs. Sounds similar to my conclusions. Since Allchin is the guy calling the shots at Microsoft and the person behind the retreat from .Net, this is important.
>>> Microsoft Corp. is sticking to its belief that the PC will remain at the forefront of technology for years to come and that it will serve as the hub for a range of devices for homes and offices.<<< Sure, but Jim doesn't understand that it will be webapps and webservices that will invigorate the PC platform and not Windows native apps bundled into the O/S.
>>>I have seen an ultra-mobile PC running Windows XP, and this will be a breathtaking step forward. It is the size of a Pocket PC with all the power of Windows XP.<<< He must have seen OQO too.
>>>We're making deep, deep investments in Longhorn. So what we plan on showing at our [Professional Developers Conference] later this year will be a set of new managed APIs that will let them have access to the new graphics architecture. Today, most machines ship with 3-D, but the Windows interface only uses 2-D. So, imagine if you had all the capabilities to do 3-D that the shell actually uses as well as make it easy for all applications to get to—not just games but any type of visualization.<<< I don't think he has played a sufficient number of 3-D games on a 2-D screen to understand that this doesn't work well for most people. It's confusing. For this to work, the interface needs to migrate to an immersive display using head-mounted glasses, where the users POV is natural extension of head movement (which will open up a whole new class of repetitive neck injuries). This isn't going to happen in the next 5 years. I can see why he is hopeful about this: this is a direction webapps can't go.
>>> The hot patching technology will not find its way into the upcoming .Net Server family, but we have made progress on reducing reboots. <<< Radio already does this.
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