jBuelna

Great stuff!   Trolls make me laugh.  They contribute absolutely nothing to any platform.   They are like little runts with a chip on their shoulder because their contribution is nill and they constantly seek to discredit other platforms because of what they can't accomplish on their preferred platform.  

If your platform is grand, then you wouldn't have to try and disparage other platforms...you would just be busy doing some fantastic things with your platform and ecosystem. 

Connecting a PC to the XBox and being able to run and debug across the connection.   That, my friend, is coolness (or is it? I don't know enough about developing games, but it sounds interesting enough.)  

For 10 years I've been a business-oriented developer because that's where the money is for me.  I've written maybe 2 small, beginner-level apps (not games) using DirectX.  XNA may be enough to turn me into a hobbyist game developer.   

Rory, you rock!!!  This is a great thing for Channel 9!!!

Daniel Moth wrote:

Lol... You are right Christian... I almost re-recorded the thing when I realised, but thought it was too annoying not to share

Ah, Camtasia clicks.  Lovely.   I really enjoyed this screencast.

nemisys wrote:

you guys new a new Operating System.

bah.

Hello stewarts I have to say... I like your icon.  It's the only prescription.

WinFS isn't taking a backseat to Avalon (neither is Indigo.) 

The keywords here are visibility and demand.  

Visibility: The best way to garner interest in a product is to give your target audience something  really good to look at. Avalon is/was a perfect medium for getting developers, designers, and (eventually) consumers to start looking at the technologies they are working on.  You could say Avalon is Microsoft's "buckshot" technology.

Demand:  Some of the biggest voices in the developer community are those of us who work on commercial software.  Our target is consumers.  If our app doesn't look as good as our nearest competitor's product we might as well be writing open source software.  I get excited when Microsoft shows me they're going to make it easier for us to make some pretty sweet interfaces.  (Hey, don't blame me.  Consumers make the rules.)

That said...

Like you, I'm really looking forward to the new messaging/communication layer (Indigo.)  I think it's the best thing coming.  Of course, I'm a big Don Box fan, so I that may be a biased opinion.