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Microsoft

Microsoft Cancels Major Developers' Conference 114

Posted by kdawson from the don't-distracte-me-from-Vista dept.
Kurtz'sKompund writes "Microsoft has cancelled its autumn Professional Developers Conference, citing bad timing in light of the launch of important infrastructure and platform products. This isn't the first time they have cancelled a PDC, for similar reasons."
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Microsoft Cancels Major Developers' Conference More

Microsoft Cancels Major Developers' Conference

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  • Gotta Fix 'Em All! (Score:4, Funny)

    by andrewd18 ( 989408 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @05:46PM (#19314829)

    from the don't-distracte-me-from-Vista dept.
    Sorry, no developer conference. We're still too busy working out all the typos.
    • is theat why MS code is so bad poeple there can't sepll?

    • Re:Gotta Fix 'Em All! (Score:5, Funny)

      by alx5000 ( 896642 ) <alx5000&alx5000,net> on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @06:28PM (#19315295) Homepage
      I only have a couple words...

      !developers, !developers, !developers...

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Sounds like you're suggesting we get together and gang! the developers... is that right?
    • They should come out and say it, due to lack of interest, we are canceling this gig. Man, so much money and what a waste. These bunch needs new blood!

    • Re:Gotta Fix 'Em All! (Score:4, Funny)

      by Divebus ( 860563 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @08:51PM (#19316519)
      The Microsoft Developer Conference happens on June 11-15 in San Francisco where they can pick up the beta of Vista SP1.
      • Apples worldwide Developer Conference is on June 11-15. It would be embarrassing for MS if more developers showed up at SJ's event than SB's beside they need a few more days for there secret new OS features to be copied ^H^H^H^H^Hentered into powerpoint

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by vlad30 ( 44644 )
          Note to self Don't read Slashdot while on the phone while at work and making a coffee and listening to anoying user, GP was being funny, must kill that annoying user at least

  • Insert obligatory Steve B. quote here (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nybble's Byte ( 321886 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @05:46PM (#19314845) Journal
    By the way, who was chairing the conference?
    • FTFS (from the fine submission):

      This isn't the first time they have cancelled a PDC, for similar reasons."
      Translating into Ballmerese: "I'm going to fucking bury PDC, I have done it before and I will do it again. I'm going to FUCKING KILL PDC!"
    • Reminds me of that TMBG song "Thank You for Coming to the Show"

      "Thank you Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, thank you for chairing the show!"
    • Actually they had to cancel the conference because they couldn't 'squirt' it.

  • Wouldn't that be when it's needed most? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by moderatorrater ( 1095745 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @05:50PM (#19314883)
    Between the office's ribbon interface and the actual launch of Vista, you'd think that now would be the most important time to have a developers conference. With all the new challenges and the conference still several months away, wouldn't it be wiser to schedule the time now and make sure that critical issues are dealt with early?
    • Probably they don't want to brief their would-be developers on buggy platforms, or API's still subject to change. The veterans wouldn't hold it against them (they're hardened to such things) but the journeyman-level coders would say the hell with it and turn to Java or Ruby.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anarchysoft ( 1100393 )

      Between the office's ribbon interface and the actual launch of Vista, you'd think that now would be the most important time to have a developers conference. With all the new challenges and the conference still several months away, wouldn't it be wiser to schedule the time now and make sure that critical issues are dealt with early?

      I totally agree. This is exactly when they should be promoting development on Vista including things like how to get the most out of Windows Presentation Framework with XAML, handle porting issues, the new security features, etc! A peek at how Apple hypes 10.5 to developers should illuminate the strategy.

      • See MIX, TechEd US, TechEd Europe and others (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        MS has multiple conferences aimed at developers. MIX [visitmix.com] just recently gave developers a chance to learn about Silverlight. TechEd [msteched.com] has hundreds of sessions for developers, and there's a dedicated European version of TechEd in Barcelona [mseventseurope.com]. PDC is always focused on showing off future technology (~2 years down the road), and not training on the stuff available today. Given that Vista has only recently shipped, and that the new versions of Server, SQL and VisualStudio aren't shipping til next year, it's not surpr
    • As a developer I agree with you, but lets not forget that Vista was delayed, the Zune has been sucking ... MS shareholders don't care about "critical issues", they care about revenue for the current quarter and fiscal year. A developers conference, in the eyes of a shareholder, is a distraction and misalignment of priorities.
  • Microsoft has cancelled its autumn Professional Developers, Developers, Developers Conference, citing there are too many chairs near the podium. This isn't the first time they have cancelled a PDC, for similar reasons.
  • Microsoft has given you another opportunity to show us your great anti-Microsoft wit.

    On a serious note: Has another company come close to supporting it's developers better than Microsoft?

    So, they cancel a PDC. So what?

    I keep reminding people that Microsoft is a MARKETING driven organization. No doubt, when they schedule the next PDC, it will be for THEIR benefit, not yours.

    Dont like it? There are other options available.

    Why bitch, bitches?

    • quitting smoking and have had too much coffee! You're just asking to be modd'ed Troll or Flamebait!
    • Put down the chair Steve and come out with your hands up.
    • But do Microsoft really support their developers that well these days? I mean compare VS2005 (note the year folks) with what is coming out of eclipse (let alone the commercial extensions to eclipse) and its hard to justify the claim that VS is the "best" developer IDE, its just that VS folks haven't used the alternatives whereas the Java folks can switch like the wind. So IDE wise they aren't supporting their developers. Even things like the testing framework are an issue, most people use the open source

  • I work with MS products. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ushering05401 ( 1086795 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @06:02PM (#19315043) Journal
    VS2005 targeting Win 2000 through Vista to be exact. Nice product VS2005. I can write very nice apps with c# and the .NET framework.

    I adopted MS because the shop I began working IT with served mostly MS customers, and now my shop does as well... just a reality of working in a niche market where MS has been the accesible OS for so many years.

    Why, I ask, am I pulling my hair out every other week?

    Does a properly run company cause a dedicated client to want to pull his already diminishing supply of hair from his head every time he reads their press releases?

    Products that have been *both* delayed and had functionality removed in the last 8 months:
    Vista
    Viridian (virtualization)
    Server 2008 (announced that a major incremental will be released in 2009 to replace the functionality if that actually happens... so who the fuck is going to upgrade in '08?)

    I depend on this shit. Why? Because you formed a friggin monopoly and all of my potential customers use your products.

    Get your shit together.

    Regards.

    • Re:I work with MS products. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @06:10PM (#19315117) Journal

      I depend on this shit. Why? Because you formed a friggin monopoly and all of my potential customers use your products.

      Get your shit together.
      They don't have to. As you said, they're a monopoly, and you (or your predecessors) and your customers (or their predecessors) are the ones that created this ugly beast. You have all reaped what you have sowed by sticking to a one-size-fits-all solution which most people have known for over fifteen years does not in fact fit all sizes. That they are a monopoly means that they are by and large protected from market forces that would long ago have left any other company that used the same questionable marketing and development tactics that you ascribe to Microsoft bankrupt and half forgotten.

      • Re:I work with MS products. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by ushering05401 ( 1086795 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @06:17PM (#19315201) Journal
        I agree.

        Unfortunately, as I have posted on other threads here, most of my customers rely on multiple small applications to run their businesses. Porting them to OSS would be a massive undertaking and would require cash that most of them don't have, and applications that don't exist (take construction-specific management apps for instance).

        I have defended MONO and it's developers on this site and others with the stated purpose of promoting an alternative to MS. The fact remains, however, that most of my customers do not have equal options on OSS platforms at the current time.

        I would be unable to develop equal options considering the wide variety of applications that have developed in the MS ecosystem over the last 15 years or so, and that my customers depend upon.

        I would walk away from MS, but that would involve abandoning my customers who are locked in, and with whom I share the common goal of feeding our families by running our own companies instead of working for others.

        Regards.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by BeerCat ( 685972 )
          So, in a nutshell, those with the desire to change don't have the money, while those with the money don't desire change.

        • First step: admit you have an unhealthy addiction (Score:5, Insightful)

          by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) * <jmorris&beau,org> on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @07:29PM (#19315879)
          > I agree.

          No. You don't really. You like to bitch and moan once in awhile but you really don't mind taking it up the pooper whenever Microsoft wants to shaft you. Harsh? Yup. Happens to be true though, based on what you are writing.

          Because you have KNOWN exactly what Microsoft is and how your fortunes (and you customer, etc) are tied to Microsoft's whims for years (hell, decades now) and I didn't hear you mention the FIRST step towards an attempt to correct a situation you yourself realize is ultimately going to hurt you.

          Yes you are right, that you and your customers have become ensnared in Microsoft's trap of dependency. And you are at least toying with the first step of admitting you have a dependency problem. Now you need a plan to break the unhealthy addiction. You really needed to start years back to have a leg up on the smart competitors who already figured it out but perhaps it isn't too late for you to save yourself.

          Step one: When you are in a hole that is rapidly filling with water, the first step has to be to stop digging. That means make every effort to avoid adding any new dependencies on Microsoft technologies. That means don't touch Vista or any of any of it's new technologies or APIs. Same for Office 2007.

          Step two: Develop a roadmap that will lead you where you want to be tomorrow, not where Microsoft wants you to go. Many find the easy path to be web based apps, especially in this era of AJAX. Pitch your customers a client neutral web based version of the apps you currently push on them as .net IE/Windows only crap and see if they are receptive. Explore whether your existing stuff can be run under Wine and fix things until it does work. Then plant a bug in your customer's ear that you AREN'T one of those crappy little vertical vendors who only understands Microsoft. and that if they want to escape you won't be one of the vendors holding them back, that you can support other platforms. If everyone is a passive as you and waits for someone else to go first Microsoft wins.

          Step three: start finding and deploying alternatives whenever practical. OO.o instead of Office where it will work, Firefox instead of IE anywhere there isn't a lot of ActiveX BS to snarl things up. Outlook/Outlook Express should be trashed anywhere people aren't already addicted to Exchange stuff. The more of those dependencies you can break, both for yourself and your customers, the easier it will be to open up options down the road. Same for file/print servers. They can make a great first step and let you gain practical experience.

          Step four: Explore and experiment, learning what is out there is half the struggle. Microsoft crams their stuff down your craw, the free stuff is often waiting for you to go looking for it.

          Step five: Don't just look at Linux. Yes a Mac isn't any more RMS pure than Windows and they want the same power Microsoft has, but Microsoft is the threat to independent developers and users today. And a Mac can run Photoshop/etc.
          • And I have step four covered. I have tried various distros and even rolled my own Gentoo install. Not claiming to be a guru or anything.

            My issue is user adoption. My opinion is the opinion of only one of their providers.

            You are correct on most points, but like many others fail to address one thing. Users want the simplest solution. They are correct in believing that MS is the simplest solution. They don't mind sacrificing security, freedom, and mobility so that they can have something that is monocult

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) *
              > Users want the simplest solution.

              Of course, so do I.

              > They are correct in believing that MS is the simplest solution.

              They may be believe it but they would be wrong. Odds are as a developer in a vertical industry you are more computer literate than they are, but YOU believe it too so you can't correctly advise them.

              This is 2007, if there is a Windows victim left who hasn't been wiping and reinstalling (or using Ghost) end user machines at least annually I haven't met em. Add in the cost of the 'pro

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by W2k ( 540424 )
                This is 2007, if there is a Windows victim left who hasn't been wiping and reinstalling (or using Ghost) end user machines at least annually I haven't met em.

                You had me until this part. This is complete fscking hogwash. Since Windows 2000 (that's what, 7 years back now), regular reinstalls are a thing of the past. I maintain a good number of Windows end-user desktops apart from my own, including some used by complete newbies. I've told them how to avoid spyware and they run a decent anti-virus that is
              • Whatever the question, Windows is probably the wrong answer. The sole exception is a gamer who wants more than a Playstation/X-Box can offer.

                Holly fuck, surely that is why Dell, HP, Gateway, Lanix, PC-World, Best Buy and even the guy in the corner PC shop keep offering Windows XP/Windows Vista machines... and not only that *drumrolls*.... people keep buying it...

                If you haven't experienced a thin client or server hosted homes on a thick client you can't really understand the difference. In my world (with 100
            • In my brief year and a half as a consultant, my mentor basically explained to me that customers don't really know what they want, or rather, they know what they want, but they don't really understand how to get there. The job of anyone in the software consulting business is to provide the roadmap from point A to point B, and in many cases that means knowing more about what the customer needs than the customer wants. It also means protecting the customer from what will ultimately become delerious lock-ins.

        • "I would be unable to develop equal options considering the wide variety of applications that have developed in the MS ecosystem over the last 15 years or so, and that my customers depend upon."

          You don't need to, because... http://www.nbritton.org/uploads/windows_for_mac.pn g [nbritton.org]

          ---
          Yes it's real.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Sweetshark ( 696449 )
      Isnt it nice to be the squirrel with cement shoes when the 800 lbs. gorilla behind you starts to stumble?

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by secPM_MS ( 1081961 )
      You assume that customers upgrade to get major new feature sets. While new feature sets are great for marketing aimed at retail customers, who will in general use very few of the features (new or otherwise), enterprise / corporate markets tend to be much more conservative. In particular, they want MS to do as little damage as possible to their existing enterprise apps, many of which were written with little if any consideration for security or reliability. This legacy tail greatly complicates Microsoft's ab
    • I had to deal with the stress of Visual BASIC 5.0 and 6.0 and using OLE/DDE to control MS-Word 2000 objects, and when VB closed the Word document, it locked up the Word toolbar. My code did not do that, it was a bug with Office 2000. I removed the close command and the toolbar didn't lock up, but the user had to close the document by themselves. Microsoft was aware of the problem but said that SP1 or SP2 of Office 2000 might fix the problem, and my managers wanted it fixed right away so they could migrate f

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by yabos ( 719499 )
      I don't know what's wrong with MS but they have some serious problems producing software. Maybe it's trying to support legacy software all the time. Perhaps they should just bite the bullet and break all the old clunky programs that use undocumented APIs etc.. I'm actually pretty happy that they are bombing on everything though because I truly hate using Windows.
    • I depend on this shit. Why? Because you formed a friggin monopoly and all of my potential customers use your products.

      Sounds like your market is ripe for a disruptive technology.

      Do something on linux that's far-and-away better than what exists today - do it in AJAX - and they will come.

  • oops (Score:4, Funny)

    by mythar ( 1085839 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @06:11PM (#19315135) Journal
    just missed the allow button.

  • Translation... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Aqua OS X ( 458522 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @06:19PM (#19315221)
    "As the PDC is the definitive developer event focused on the future of the Microsoft platform, we try to align it to be in front of major platform milestones"

    Translation...

    "The things we wanted to show at the PDC are so far behind schedule that we would look like fools for even demoing the software."
  • Can't spare the legal staff to hold a Professional Developer's Conference without them.

    After all, if someone mentions a "business process" during a panel, have to patent that baby for MSFT quick!

  • Hay! (Score:2, Funny)

    by kitsunewarlock ( 971818 )
    Developers! Developers! Devel...never mind.

  • The three Vista developers couldn't show (Score:5, Funny)

    by BillGatesLoveChild ( 1046184 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @07:18PM (#19315783) Journal
    One said his wife was expecting, and the second was busy porting his game from the DirectX10 (codename 'Titanic') to OpenGL. The last said he was busy trying to get his Vista drivers working. He said all the UAC messages are slowing him down.

    Go Vista! Go straight into a hillside!
  • Not sure this is really news in the way that some might think it. A few reasons:

    PDC is not Microsoft's preeminent developer conference. Tech Ed 200X is [microsoft.com]. My understanding is that TE is Microsoft's biggest developer conference, and it's running next week, June 4-8 (or 3-8 if you registered for the pre-conference sessions.) Picture 10,0000+ geeks trying hard to make dinner conversation, cavernous convention halls, and (literally) dawn-to-dusk classes and sessions for six days. Quite an experience.

    Conference

  • Not sure if this matters anyway... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SadGeekHermit ( 1077125 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @09:57PM (#19317047)
    Because my shop is a Windows shop (ugh) I have no choice but to develop on Windows. But we've all agreed to do our in-house Windows development using Java and Oracle tools rather than Microsoft tools. So for us, this is a non-event.

    Consider the benefits of this approach:

    1. We don't have to worry about porting our applications to Vista, because it's Sun's and Oracle's responsibility to make their platforms Vista-compatbile. All we have to do is copy files to a new server. So we can spend our time actually writing code, instead of worrying about porting issues.

    2. In the event we DON'T move to Vista, our stuff will work on Linux, or Mac OS/X, or anything else Oracle and Java run on. It's not likely we'll get a mainframe, but if we did, we'd STILL be able to copy our stuff onto it.

    3. Our skills have a long shelf-life. New versions of Java tend to ADD capabilities, but the language itself doesn't tend to change in ways that require re-writes. Oracle's the same way, mostly.

    Overall, I don't know why anyone still uses Microsoft tools, given the way they like to "churn" their environment. It seems kind of chaotic and random to me. Remember the switch from VB6 to VB.Net, and how people howled about that? Phew...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by weicco ( 645927 )

      Remember the switch from VB6 to VB.Net

      Exactly what switch are you talking about? Do you mean that all the sudden VB6 compilers or runtimes stopped working when VB.NET came out?

      I work in a team that uses solely MS products. I haven't heard any "howling" when VB.NET came out. In fact I was writing VB6, VB.NET and C# code at the same time in different projects about a year ago. VB6 project which I was on was started on 1993 and it is still used and developed. Some of the oldest codes were rewritten in 1995

      • Sigh...

        When Microsoft switched from VB6 to VB.Net, I happened to be working in a government agency with a lot of old timers who only knew VB6. They found the whole thing QUITE painful. And there were a number of grassroots movements to complain to Microsoft about the changes.

        For instance, Microsoft claimed that there was an easy converter for VB6 code to turn it into VB.Net, but what this actually did was comment out much of the code and pronounce the file "converted". Very cute, but not quite what peopl
    • I love the idea of Java, but the implementation poor. I used to be a Java dev, but I've fully converted to the dark side since, essentially because I found Java's implementation just impractical. Things like VM versions (Java has countless varying versions (of which any number can be installed in varying locations), .Net has 4 - of which only 2 are particularly significant imo - 1.1 + 2.0), designing forms (I found a plug-in for Eclipse once that made it ever-so-slightly faster than coding it manually), and
      • Most of your post is based on out of date information. As a result, each of your points is a "straw man" argument.

        First, the VM issue. If you're doing Java, you're usually doing server-side code and your VM is under your control. The user interface is a browser, but the Java's running server-side so you have no compatability issues. If you're writing a Java application, all you have to do is make sure your users upgrade to the most current VM available, and provide a copy of the installer on your install
    • "Port to Vista"? What exactly would your app do that makes it incompatible with Vista if it was written natively?
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Native code that works in older versions of Windows doesn't always work in Vista. Someone else mentioned Delphi apps, which I was going to mention (he beat me to it). I'm currently rewriting a Delphi app in Java for this exact reason.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mythz ( 857024 )
      I also used to be a Java developer but have switched over to c# as well solely for productivity gains. As of VS.NET 2005 I know of no language feature that Java has over C#. Unfortunately I found Java to be to strict and acedemic and it relies on an array of patterns, frameworks and configuration files that are needed to overcome shortcomings in the language itself.

      Conventions like Beans, ActionListeners, etc are needed because Java lacks language features like Properties, Indexers and Events. Other noteabl
      • Hold on. You have just made several obvious errors.

        First of all, who said frameworks are designed to "overcome shortcomings"? They're designed to increase productivity. They get most of the plumbing out of the way so you can get started on the interesting parts. Your precious Microsoft .Net IS A FRAMEWORK that exists for this exact reason. Java's frameworks aren't dumbed down for you; Microsoft's are. Java is harder; we get paid more. This is by design.

        Second, All a Javabean is is a class that follows
  • "Developers! Developers! Develop--oops, sorry, we've got some big launches coming up. You guys will have to come back later."

    Chris Mattern
  • of steve balmer lurking, hunched over, and furtively whispering, "developers.....developers....developers...develo p ers..."

    (OK, joking aside, though I rather dislike Ballmer, that was a really great video of a truly great attitude for him to have had and it's really unfair that gets slagged for it. It's especially unfair that he gets slagged for it on /., where so many of us are programmers. I hope he's ticked off about canceling the PDC, whatever the reason. And maybe I go to heck for making that joke).
  • ...in light of the launch of important infrastructure and platform products.

    Yep, Leopard and the iPhone. ;-)

  • I've been around too many broken windows servers when I see "PDC" and think "primary domain controller."
  • I'm not that surprised. If WinHEC (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) was anything to go by, Microsoft have post-coital fatigue after the (premature?) release of Vista, and have very little to say. The main keynote at WinHEC was totally uninspiring, there are a couple of neat things happening with Windows Server, but the rest of the conference was zero content. Attendance seemed low to me, compared to the one PDC and three or four other WinHECs I've been to.
  • This all fits in perfectly with Microsoft's new company strategy, getting rid of them annoying developers and start hiring more lawyers! Why bother making better products than your competitors, if you can just sue them out of existence?

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