[Mix06] Adobe on Mix
Now I knew they were there but I never saw them (did you?) but Adobe were lurking about at Mix and from what I can tell largely lurked in the WPF and Expression sessions (for obvious reasons). I see that Jesse is busy opening up a slavo with Adobes Mike Chambers about WPF\E and a Flash vs WPF\E debate is raging in other quarters. While at Mix I missed the fact that folks like JD were at the show and I would have loved to have met him (and frankly others) in person. I have known JD for a long time and while he has a corner to fight he's a good guy and it would have been great to discuss with him what he saw and felt about the show. It's this kind of open and freindly discussion that's needed not s**t slinging.
I have in the past stated all the reasons why Flash and Flex in the Microsoft development world don't cut it and while we can go and on and on about who features what but at the end of day it boils down to "I am a Microsoft shop, I code C#, I code using Microsoft tools, I do this every day all day, what can you offer me in the shiny new RIA world?". Java servers, actionscript (AS 3 is cool no doubt but still alien to a Microsoft developer) and web services don't cut the mustard when you compare to Microsoft servers, any CLR compiled language (ok not quite true in the WPF world but the point is that with a little work any CLR language can and in C# and VB.NET most bases are covered) and the WCF stack. How many times do I need to say this.