Whither .NET - additional ramblings
Well, my little article on “Whither .NET” certainly prompted a variety of responses! I suppose it was to be expected that most of my regular readers are fellow FoxPro travelers and are probably pre-disposed to agree with my point of view. However what I found revealing was the comments from some people who obviously read something into my article that simply was not there.
Remember, I started out by saying that not only did I consider ASP .NET a huge leap forward, but that I could only see it getting better and that I, personally, am a big fan of the ASP .NET initiative. However, that is a very small and highly focused part of the humungous and unwieldy .NET environment that Microsoft is continuing to try to force us to accept.
Interestingly several comments refer to the fact that .NET is still “only at Version 2” and repeat the maxim that “it takes Microsoft 3 versions to get it right”. To me, this is a specious argument. As I understand it, in order for someone to sell something that product must be “of marketable quality and fit for the purpose intended” – I don’t ever recall seeing a caveat that excludes software in general, or Microsoft in particular, from this (legal) requirement…
Another response that appeared in various forms is that .NET is a more productive environment (some even claimed it was “easy to use” – I’d hate to see their idea of difficult) and that may even be true in some circumstances. However, as I said, when confronted with the issue of whether to throw away an existing proven set of tools in favor of a totally new and unfamiliar set there has to be some clear benefit. I can only repeat what I said in the original article: My problem with .NET (in this context) is that I do not see anything that could possibly be construed as “new capabilities”. All I see is different ways of doing things that we can do already.
There was even one comment, you can find it if you want to read it in its entirety, that finished up with the admonition that I must “either get on board and benefit from the .NET momentum, or you'll be left in the dust in a few years (once Longhorn and other services will be available to .NET API's only)......”. I was so pleased to see this response! It felt that it totally vindicated my decision to post this article since it offered no refutation of any point that I made and even finished with a classical threat of impending doom. My only reply to this is that, apart from having no technical merit whatever, it makes three totally unsupported assumptions, namely that:
· That Longhorn will be the first Microsoft product that does NOT require 3 versions and that immediately on the release of Longhorn all other operating systems and environments will be redundant and no-one will ever use anything else ever again
· That customers and end-users will demand solutions developed on the Longhorn platform to the exclusion of all else
· That .NET will be the only possible development environment for applications based on Longhorn
My fellow VFP developers, and latterly VB6 developers, can all attest to how likely it is that these assumptions are valid! Even now there are significant numbers of applications running on Win95 platforms, using DOS-based products and that platform has been ‘dead’ for several years!
Sure Longhorn, and the limitations that it imposes may become a significant factor – but not any time in the near future (my guess would be five years minimum). What’s interesting to me is that an alternate view of the Longhorn/ .NET linkage is that it is yet another attempt by Microsoft to lock developers into their own product range and to exclude anything else. If that view gains widespread acceptance then who knows? Longhorn may even flop!
I saw another really interesting article on the “success” of .NET – this time in the context of how Venture Capitalists view companies that are basing their future on .NET. Besides offering a different perspective on the issue, I believe it asks some significant questions. You can read the full article “Is .Net Failing to Draw Venture Capital Loyalty?” here:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1837730,00.asp
I urge you read the full article but here are a couple of quotes to whet your appetite –
· “They (…venture capitalists) don't believe that Microsoft publishes the right numbers about .Net adoption”
· "Now I think there are legitimate questions in the software development community about investing in .Net.—such as to what extent will there be overlap with Microsoft's own efforts and to what extent is Microsoft creating opportunities for others as opposed to creating opportunities for itself?"
· “They (Microsoft) speak as if it (.NET) IS the right answer for everything, but are they an equally heavy internal user? They seem to speak with one voice, that .Net is the programming model, but is SQL server written in .Net? What about Word? Excel? Windows? All of MSN…? ”
If only Microsoft would be satisfied with the widespread acceptance that ASP .NET is the way to go for Internet/Intranet (thin client) applications and stop trying to tell us that .NET is the ONLY tool set we should be using to develop any application, for any environment, then I would probably not be writing either the last, or this, article.
(Warning: It appears that posting comments on this (.NET based <g>) Blog is a little tricky. If you don't include the HIP code, or mis-type your E-Mail address so that it looks invalid your comment simply goes off into oblivion. I have taken to copying my text before posting the comment - just in case it doesn't “stick“. I am assured that this is being investigated but trust me, there is no censorship, by me, or anyone else, on this blog)