Heroes happen Here UK Event Review
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Went to the Launch Event in Birmingham, UK today.. Sat through the keynote.. You know? I wasn't convinced there was anything dramatically new.. I found it quite hard to find points in SQL 2008, WIndows 2008 & Visual Studio 2008 to justify suggesting to my manager to upgrade our systems.. It seemed a totally different atmosphere to the 2005 Launch event, where big changes were made and big things were said to be done. The event seemed on a whole, low key... Safe to say we did not bother staying much longer after the keynote, the Hands on Lab's machines were slow to the point of unworkable so we couldnt explore any of the products well, The usual suspects in the hall peddling their wares just got depressing. The Microsoft staff were not allowed to give us evalulation versions of the software until 4pm (Why? - We couldnt find anything to do for 5 hours!) and we ended up leaving at about 11:00 minus anything of interest. Overall it felt a waste of time and very dissapointing. There did seem to be a fair few people leaving through the keynote (we were in Hall 4) so I am starting to wonder if people felt the same? What was everyone else's thoughts?
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Went to the Launch Event in Birmingham, UK today.. Sat through the keynote.. You know? I wasn't convinced there was anything dramatically new.. I found it quite hard to find points in SQL 2008, WIndows 2008 & Visual Studio 2008 to justify suggesting to my manager to upgrade our systems.. It seemed a totally different atmosphere to the 2005 Launch event, where big changes were made and big things were said to be done. The event seemed on a whole, low key... Safe to say we did not bother staying much longer after the keynote, the Hands on Lab's machines were slow to the point of unworkable so we couldnt explore any of the products well, The usual suspects in the hall peddling their wares just got depressing. The Microsoft staff were not allowed to give us evalulation versions of the software until 4pm (Why? - We couldnt find anything to do for 5 hours!) and we ended up leaving at about 11:00 minus anything of interest. Overall it felt a waste of time and very dissapointing. There did seem to be a fair few people leaving through the keynote (we were in Hall 4) so I am starting to wonder if people felt the same? What was everyone else's thoughts?
PeterTheGreat wrote:
SQL 2008
I agree, I didn't see any reason to upgrade just yet.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
Visual Studio 2008
love it, love it, love it. maybe it's just me or maybe because it's new and somehow that revitalizes me. however, i do think the support for web development is better in 2008.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
Safe to say we did not bother staying much longer after the keynote
the keynote at MIX where ballmer said "web developers" over and over was pretty good. even the one scott guthrie did. However, I don't know how launch events vary from what we saw there.
----------------------------------------------------------- Completion Deadline: two days before the day after tomorrow
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Went to the Launch Event in Birmingham, UK today.. Sat through the keynote.. You know? I wasn't convinced there was anything dramatically new.. I found it quite hard to find points in SQL 2008, WIndows 2008 & Visual Studio 2008 to justify suggesting to my manager to upgrade our systems.. It seemed a totally different atmosphere to the 2005 Launch event, where big changes were made and big things were said to be done. The event seemed on a whole, low key... Safe to say we did not bother staying much longer after the keynote, the Hands on Lab's machines were slow to the point of unworkable so we couldnt explore any of the products well, The usual suspects in the hall peddling their wares just got depressing. The Microsoft staff were not allowed to give us evalulation versions of the software until 4pm (Why? - We couldnt find anything to do for 5 hours!) and we ended up leaving at about 11:00 minus anything of interest. Overall it felt a waste of time and very dissapointing. There did seem to be a fair few people leaving through the keynote (we were in Hall 4) so I am starting to wonder if people felt the same? What was everyone else's thoughts?
There are no real "wow" features of VS2008 I feel, you can get away with using VS2005 however it's the little things that make a difference. For example, better memory usage, more options (turning off design view in WPF), faster etc. It is in my opinion a much better product than VS2005 was but it just doesn't have any new major features, apart from the better support for WPF and multi-targetting.
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There are no real "wow" features of VS2008 I feel, you can get away with using VS2005 however it's the little things that make a difference. For example, better memory usage, more options (turning off design view in WPF), faster etc. It is in my opinion a much better product than VS2005 was but it just doesn't have any new major features, apart from the better support for WPF and multi-targetting.
Don't get me wrong, I think the product is good. But I just got the feel from the Launch Event that it was dull and downbeat.. No "Wow" factor at all. Some say you will only really use WPF for Vista Apps, so prehaps the big "wow" will come along when XP is Phased out. But for us web developers, there is little new. We can use Silverlight to some degree in .NET 2, We can use AJAX in .NET 2, Linq? Most people have been using Code-Generators for ages to write their DAL's.. imo Linq does not encourage "n-tier" development.
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Went to the Launch Event in Birmingham, UK today.. Sat through the keynote.. You know? I wasn't convinced there was anything dramatically new.. I found it quite hard to find points in SQL 2008, WIndows 2008 & Visual Studio 2008 to justify suggesting to my manager to upgrade our systems.. It seemed a totally different atmosphere to the 2005 Launch event, where big changes were made and big things were said to be done. The event seemed on a whole, low key... Safe to say we did not bother staying much longer after the keynote, the Hands on Lab's machines were slow to the point of unworkable so we couldnt explore any of the products well, The usual suspects in the hall peddling their wares just got depressing. The Microsoft staff were not allowed to give us evalulation versions of the software until 4pm (Why? - We couldnt find anything to do for 5 hours!) and we ended up leaving at about 11:00 minus anything of interest. Overall it felt a waste of time and very dissapointing. There did seem to be a fair few people leaving through the keynote (we were in Hall 4) so I am starting to wonder if people felt the same? What was everyone else's thoughts?
PeterTheGreat wrote:
I found it quite hard to find points in SQL 2008, WIndows 2008 & Visual Studio 2008 to justify suggesting to my manager to upgrade our systems
I can tell you one thing. I've just finished my first project with Visual Studio 2008. I was using the new extension methods, automatic properties and LINQ (to my existing business objects). For the first time ever I finished the project AHEAD of schedule. It went live last Friday when the initial estimate was the end of the month. Whether that was down to VS2008 or something else I've no idea. But, if nothing else, LINQ rocks, it saved me so much time. And I'm sure I've only just scratched the surface of its power.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
The Microsoft staff were not allowed to give us evalulation versions of the software until 4pm
I don't think it was evaluation version. I'm sure it was the real deal. I'm getting some copies of the real thing for my User Group community launch event. And I'm not handing anything out until the end of the event. When I run my user group we get prizes from various companies. (e.g. MS give us stuff, JetBrains give us some ReSharper licenses to give away). The only people eligible for the prizes have all be good participants for the event. If you don't participate in the event, then you don't get to win the prize. I'm guessing MS are following a similar model.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
What was everyone else's thoughts?
DISCLAIMER: I did not attent the event. My response is based on my experiences of using Visual Studio 2008 and a comparison of how I run my user group compared to your description of the HHH launch event.
Upcoming FREE developer events: * Developer Day Scotland Recent blog posts: * Mixins in C#3.0 My website | Blog
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Don't get me wrong, I think the product is good. But I just got the feel from the Launch Event that it was dull and downbeat.. No "Wow" factor at all. Some say you will only really use WPF for Vista Apps, so prehaps the big "wow" will come along when XP is Phased out. But for us web developers, there is little new. We can use Silverlight to some degree in .NET 2, We can use AJAX in .NET 2, Linq? Most people have been using Code-Generators for ages to write their DAL's.. imo Linq does not encourage "n-tier" development.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
imo Linq does not encourage "n-tier" development
It depends how you use it. LINQ Is very flexible and you don't need to use LINQ to SQL if you don't want to. I've used LINQ on my existing business objects quite successfully.
Upcoming FREE developer events: * Developer Day Scotland Recent blog posts: * Mixins in C#3.0 My website | Blog
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PeterTheGreat wrote:
SQL 2008
I agree, I didn't see any reason to upgrade just yet.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
Visual Studio 2008
love it, love it, love it. maybe it's just me or maybe because it's new and somehow that revitalizes me. however, i do think the support for web development is better in 2008.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
Safe to say we did not bother staying much longer after the keynote
the keynote at MIX where ballmer said "web developers" over and over was pretty good. even the one scott guthrie did. However, I don't know how launch events vary from what we saw there.
----------------------------------------------------------- Completion Deadline: two days before the day after tomorrow
jgasm wrote:
PeterTheGreat wrote: SQL 2008 I agree, I didn't see any reason to upgrade just yet.
Ah - there you and I disagree. If you do any spatial work (and I do quite a bit), then it is worth upgrading.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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jgasm wrote:
PeterTheGreat wrote: SQL 2008 I agree, I didn't see any reason to upgrade just yet.
Ah - there you and I disagree. If you do any spatial work (and I do quite a bit), then it is worth upgrading.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
If you do any spatial work (and I do quite a bit), then it is worth upgrading.
Really, what kind of work do you do? SQL Server 2008 Spatial is an interest of mine[^] and I'm planning a more advanced talk later this year.
Upcoming FREE developer events: * Developer Day Scotland Recent blog posts: * Mixins in C#3.0 My website | Blog
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PeterTheGreat wrote:
I found it quite hard to find points in SQL 2008, WIndows 2008 & Visual Studio 2008 to justify suggesting to my manager to upgrade our systems
I can tell you one thing. I've just finished my first project with Visual Studio 2008. I was using the new extension methods, automatic properties and LINQ (to my existing business objects). For the first time ever I finished the project AHEAD of schedule. It went live last Friday when the initial estimate was the end of the month. Whether that was down to VS2008 or something else I've no idea. But, if nothing else, LINQ rocks, it saved me so much time. And I'm sure I've only just scratched the surface of its power.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
The Microsoft staff were not allowed to give us evalulation versions of the software until 4pm
I don't think it was evaluation version. I'm sure it was the real deal. I'm getting some copies of the real thing for my User Group community launch event. And I'm not handing anything out until the end of the event. When I run my user group we get prizes from various companies. (e.g. MS give us stuff, JetBrains give us some ReSharper licenses to give away). The only people eligible for the prizes have all be good participants for the event. If you don't participate in the event, then you don't get to win the prize. I'm guessing MS are following a similar model.
PeterTheGreat wrote:
What was everyone else's thoughts?
DISCLAIMER: I did not attent the event. My response is based on my experiences of using Visual Studio 2008 and a comparison of how I run my user group compared to your description of the HHH launch event.
Upcoming FREE developer events: * Developer Day Scotland Recent blog posts: * Mixins in C#3.0 My website | Blog
Nope they were dishing out Evaluation versions.. Had a Entry form for a Competition to "Win a Copy of Windows Vista Premium" On Reading the small print, it stated that it was a competition to "Win a Copy of Windows Vista Premium 90 DAY EVALUATION" I mean what is the serious point in that, I am also sure that breachs a few rules and regulations on competitions as well.. If anyone is interested, its the competition with the scratch-off area's with the answers on. The reason I asked, was that I had to go early due to an emergency, I politely asked and got abruptly told they couldnt. As I stated to them I was leaving due to an emergency, they ignored that and reiterated what they said. It was not as if I was walking up there demanding a free full version, all I asked was for an evaluation version so I wouldnt have to download 1gb+ off the Web. IMO Microsoft were a lot less helpful compared to previous Launch Events I have visited.