PDC2008 - Day 1...

I went to an Expression session where the presenter said "first impressions count". If I were to apply that to Day 1 I would say Microsoft missed the mark.

The Keynote this morning by Ray Ozzie just missed the mark completely - it was the opportunity to wow the crowd and set the tone for the week. He was a pretty good presenter but seemed to lack emotion and enthusiasm which was needed to help sell the vision for Microsoft Azure - the OS for the cloud. I think the platform/OS sounds promising; however, a services based OS with no UI is difficult to wow and that is what today needed to set the tone for the week. The demos were weak and the additional presentations added little.

Tomorrow they are set to announce Windows 7 and UX - that had better be something else to make up for today.

Also, I do hope they have something for Windows Mobile 7 as there were iPhones galore amongst the attendees. Microsoft are going to get smashed in the mobile space if they don't do something quick smart - Windows Mobile is old, stale and boring. I asked the Windows Mobile team why I should not buy an iPhone and the response was pretty weak. Something along the lines of Windows Mobile has a more open development platform and there are more devices. When quizzed about Mobile 7 it was a big no comment. Zzzzz.

The sessions I attended today were (not going to cover in any detail as I am sure there a heaps of other blogs that will, and most sessions have been recorded anyway):

• ES16 - A lap around cloud services part 1: not good; less information than the keynote.
• PC47 - Microsoft Expression Blend tips and tricks: ok, nothing startling.
• TL16 - The future of c#: awesome, Anders is a great speaker. The theme for C# 4.0 is the melding of Dynamic Programming - new keyword "dynamic".
• PC21 - ASP.NET MVC: not bad content, a good presenter.
• BB15 - SQL Server Database to data platform: awesome content and speaker - very interesting stuff.