More on Longhorn FUD

It seems my little entry generated quite a lot of feedback. Mostly I've been accused of just trusting Bill Gates word on groundless discussion. So here is a second post, facts, just facts mam.

Myth #1:

Fact: People in an office use more than word, whoever they are. Where can you see it? In any office, including mine. You want some pictures?

Fact: Microsoft is remodeling their licenses to try to give more choice. But they are not always successful, can do some mistakes. Where:

http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/itspending/story/0,10801,72214,00.html

Myth #2:

Fact: Longhorn is a client side platform, not an API. WinFX is an API for the client side. Indigo is for both the client and the server side. You can use Longhorn to access an LDAP directory and a Web Service GXA stack sitting on a server running another platform.

Fact: Longhorn is windows, so you develop software for windows. And people like it. No one really cares about having the 3d accelerated Desktop Composition Engine running on Linux.

Fact: Java can't do that.

Fact: Middleware doesn't have anything to do with Longhorn.

Fact: Middleware can be inter-operable through GXA and Web Services, in an inter-operable way.

Myth #3:

Fact: The Java Community Process is plainly slow at defining new standards to improve the language.

http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3048,a=108119,00.asp

Fact: Microsoft and Java are both innovating, but they are on different release cycles. Oh, that, and Longhorn is not .net and Longhorn can still run Java. Doesn't have anything to do with the underlying Longhorn API (WinFX).

Myth #4:

Fact: Visual studio versions road map.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.aspx

Fact: Side by side execution works.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetdep/html/sidexsidenet.asp

Fact: the framework provide compatibility.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpovrversioncompatibility.asp
"The .NET Framework supports both backward and forward compatibility"

Fact: Developers must learn new things all the time, this is only a question of staying competitive. This has nothing to do with how much you charge your clients. And it's true for windows, for java, for Linux, for any single piece of software on this planet.

Myth #5:

Fact: Linux cannot run out of the box on any platform. The kernel can be modified to support it.

http://www.handhelds.org/geeklog/index.php

Fact: Windows doesn't run everywhere. The kernel can be modified to be re-targeted. XBox, Windows on IA-32, IA-64, AMD64, and in the past PowerPC and MIPS. Looking forward, XBox2 on the G5 processor.

Fact: The WS-* specifications on top of which Indigo is built are done by Microsoft, IBM, BEA, TIBCO, etc... For example, WS-ReliableMessaging states the following:

WS-ReliableMessaging was published as a public specification on 13 March
2003. This is the first joint BEA/IBM/Microsoft/TIBCO Software publication
of the specification.'

Fact: All of these specifications are provided to the community royalty free.

Fact: Some are standardized by other groups. WS-Security by Oasis, for example.

 

I think I brought enough facts on the table. Now if you really want to debunk the facts, please do it. (I'm starting to getting impatient at finally seeing a correct argument).