Gates: Slow going for .Net. Microsoft acknowledges that its key software plan has been slow to catch on and lays out an agenda to move it ahead. [CNET News.com]

Hmm... even though I know very well that .NET is used as an umbrella term, when I see headline like this I can't help but shake my head. In the article they're talking about the Web Services portion of .NET and how not many companies have hoped on the bandwagon as far as delivering custom services. I think is mostly due in part to the power of SOAP as it exists today not being fully understood and that a lot of people are waiting on features that are coming with GXA. Gates also had the following to say about .NET My Services:

"There were elements of (.Net My Services) that in some ways were premature," Gates said. "We feel good about (the vision of .Net My Services), but we made a couple of missteps on this."

The article goes on to say that the failure of .NET My Services was political not technical.