Assorted Thoughts on Whidbey, Yukon, Longhorn, and Mono
Whidbey: They really dropped the ball when they pulled the new dynamic image support. And what's the deal with the continuing saga over the folder names -- why can't they just make this configurable. I use "code" folders and didn't like them hardcoding that as a special folder, but do we really need "application_code" as the alternative? I think this is a sign that they didn't really think this would be big deal until it was too late to spend the time to do right -- and I assure you they had this very issue pointed out to them nearly 2 years ago!
Yukon: I'm really looking forward to Yukon, with the new options that the CLR brings in the database. That said, I still can't believe how many people think this means that they are going to start writing parts of their applications in the database. Frans summed this up nicely in his recent post -- and I agree its mostly good for a replacement for extended procs, along with the rare times you really need to do some "cursor" logic in the database. Java procs have been in Oracle for years, and they've came to the very same conclusions too!
Longhorn: I think its great that we will see Avalon, as well as Indigo, on older systems! I also could personally care less about WinFS being delayed, and I agree they need to get something out soon to make customers happy (right or not). Of course that also means that ObjectSpaces will be delayed even further, but anyone that still really cares at this point needs to start looking elsewhere. By the way, while I try to keep some new features of my WilsonORMapper aligned with their syntax, I've also moved on and diverged as needed.
Mono: I've been told by two different people that my version of MasterPages works with no mods on Mono!