Lesson learned and aren't blogs just awesome?
OK, I'll admit it. I was slightly off base in my criticism of the Whidbey delay. I was just reading Lorenzo's blog about the Whidbey CTP and it got me thinking about this whole early insight thing. We are seeing something the likes of which I have never been privy to before at this magnitude : early bits and lots of early information.
I downloaded the CTP from MSDN the other night and this was the first time I had gotten to take it for a spin. I usually don't like playing with unstable stuff but I have an extra box hanging around so I figured what the heck. After reading so many of your blogs, MSDN articles, magazine articles and watching MSDN videos, I honestly had the impression that Whidbey was alot farther along than it is.
Basically I like it and I can see the potential, but right off the hop I could tell things were different - in a good way. It freaked out on me a couple of times but that was to be expected. I have to admire those of you that can work with software like this and get so much out of it. (I can't imagine what the Longhorn early adopters are going through) Right now I don't have time to play as much as I would like. I'll probably mess around with it here and there, but for now I'll just live Whidbey through you early adopter types. I like what I see and I can't wait for the finished product.
So yes, I made a judgement without having all of the facts. I'll have to be more careful from now on, but I still don't like the IDE being held up for Yukon. I could see Yukon being dependent on Whidbey, but the IDE is the IDE as far as I am concerned.
As far as Whidbey being delayed, it should be. Its not ready and I appreciate that fact, and I do appreciate what Microsft is doing by letting us see things at such an early phase. Is this some form as of Extreme Programming in their part? Just look at what they are doing with Longhorn which is a couple of years out. Oh, and by the way, yo Whidbey team - please take your time and make it rock solid. Now that I can see where you are at, I can wait.