@CKurt:I do remember! I think that's the first and (so far only) interview I've done sitting cross legged on the floor. I definitely wouldn't have forgotten that one! Hope to see you at TechEd 2012.
@hellokeith:I'm not sure that's an entirely accurate representation of Microsoft's position on x64. You seem to be implying that Microsoft is evangelizing that everybody should be writing new applications for x64, and upgrading existing applications to x64. I don't believe we are saying that (although with 90k employees one can never be sure of what everybody everywhere is saying - but if they are saying that, I would disagree with them). I would say that you should use x64 where it makes sense to do so, and if you choose to do so then Microsoft is committed to providing the platform and tooling to help you do that. Trust me when I say that we do put our money where our mouth is - while I don't have exact figures, I'd be surprised if the investment in x64 tooling and platform enablements isn't in the billions of dollars. If your application runs just fine in WOW64, then why "upgrade"? I can think of plenty of reasons not to - such as the cost of performing the upgrade, the risk of introducing bugs, and (if required) the ongoing costs of maintaining and testing on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.
It's not unlike IPv6. Sure, I think it's a great thing that Microsoft and other vendors provide first-class support for IPv6 and for use-cases where you need that extra head room I'm glad it's there. Will I use it on my home network? Not a chance. I don't need it. And Rico makes some compelling arguments for why Visual Studio doesn't need / won't benefit from being a native 64-bit application.
To put it another way... there's a huge list of features that customers have asked us to deliver in Visual Studio. Would you rather us spend our money delivering those features, or converting the application to native 64-bit for arguably no benefit?
Of course it's 2011. I reserve the right to change my answer by 2021 when Visual Studio becomes capable of sentient awareness, can code for me, and walks the dog, thus requiring more memory than the paltry 4GB I can allocate to it now.
@TuneUp: M&M's are tradition, but not required. That's probably a good thing with the average tenure of MSFT employees increasing all of the time. And YES - I found out the RDP thing. It's actually a requirement not for RDP itself but so that the accelerator can actually instrument the deployment steps which are required. It uses the same port.
That's a common misconception with Boot-to-VHD. Boot-to-VHD is just a file format which can replace the traditional partitioning system. Boot-to-VHD requires that you run on identical hardware – it's not portable across different machine configurations, just like you couldn't take the hard drive out of one computer and put it in another computer. You could if you sysprepped it, but then that would break all of the ALM software and sample users / data that's configured on those machines.
The reason they are Windows Server 2008 is so we can ship a 32-bit version. Otherwise people using Virtual PC on Windows wouldn't be able to use it (it would be limited to Hyper-V on Windows Server). However in the future for the vNext version of Visual Studio we will likely just ship a Windows Server 2008 R2 image.
Lab Management requires 64-bit software, so that's why it's a separate image.
Comments
Welcome Golnaz to Channel 9
G-money, you are so GREAT on camera! I'm proud of you, my little mentee. Welcome to the Channel 9 family.
Brochacho
TWC9 September 9th 2011
@DeathByVisualStudio:Big deal, so I make shrimp in my bedroom. I don't see anything unusual about that.
TWC9: September 2nd 2011
@CKurt:I do remember! I think that's the first and (so far only) interview I've done sitting cross legged on the floor. I definitely wouldn't have forgotten that one! Hope to see you at TechEd 2012.
TWC9: September 2nd 2011
@Charles:Ah, thanks! I just find C/C++ so unmanageable. Thanks for the pointers.
)
(puns intended
Hot Apps: Angry Birds, Hungry Pigs, Mosaic, MTV News, Pirates Assault
Please include hyperlinks on your app titles in the show post. Yes, I'm going to post this on every show until it happens. Thanks.
Hot Apps: Tentacles, Beards & Beaks, Who's Near Me, Pin To Start, Executive Caddie
Please include hyperlinks on your app titles in the show post. Yes, I'm going to post this on every show until it happens. Thanks.
TWC9: Lynn Langit, Azure + Social Games, Windows Phone Marketplace Updates
@hellokeith:I'm not sure that's an entirely accurate representation of Microsoft's position on x64. You seem to be implying that Microsoft is evangelizing that everybody should be writing new applications for x64, and upgrading existing applications to x64. I don't believe we are saying that (although with 90k employees one can never be sure of what everybody everywhere is saying - but if they are saying that, I would disagree with them). I would say that you should use x64 where it makes sense to do so, and if you choose to do so then Microsoft is committed to providing the platform and tooling to help you do that. Trust me when I say that we do put our money where our mouth is - while I don't have exact figures, I'd be surprised if the investment in x64 tooling and platform enablements isn't in the billions of dollars. If your application runs just fine in WOW64, then why "upgrade"? I can think of plenty of reasons not to - such as the cost of performing the upgrade, the risk of introducing bugs, and (if required) the ongoing costs of maintaining and testing on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.
It's not unlike IPv6. Sure, I think it's a great thing that Microsoft and other vendors provide first-class support for IPv6 and for use-cases where you need that extra head room I'm glad it's there. Will I use it on my home network? Not a chance. I don't need it. And Rico makes some compelling arguments for why Visual Studio doesn't need / won't benefit from being a native 64-bit application.
To put it another way... there's a huge list of features that customers have asked us to deliver in Visual Studio. Would you rather us spend our money delivering those features, or converting the application to native 64-bit for arguably no benefit?
Of course it's 2011. I reserve the right to change my answer by 2021 when Visual Studio becomes capable of sentient awareness, can code for me, and walks the dog, thus requiring more memory than the paltry 4GB I can allocate to it now.
TWC9: Lynn Langit, Azure + Social Games, Windows Phone Marketplace Updates
@aL_: Ha - we have to keep you on your toes!
Hot Apps: Angry Birds, Hungry Pigs, Mosaic, MTV News, Pirates Assault
Put hyperlinks on the app names in the show post, please.
TWC9: Imagine Cup, Azure deploy in 30s, MVC Roadmap, VS & ALM Feedback
@TuneUp: M&M's are tradition, but not required. That's probably a good thing with the average tenure of MSFT employees increasing all of the time. And YES - I found out the RDP thing. It's actually a requirement not for RDP itself but so that the accelerator can actually instrument the deployment steps which are required. It uses the same port.
TWC9: Office 365, Internet Explorer 10 PP2, Choosing the Right collection class, ToneCheck
@jacob_suibowen:
That's a common misconception with Boot-to-VHD. Boot-to-VHD is
just a file format which can replace the traditional partitioning system.
Boot-to-VHD requires that you run on identical hardware – it's not portable
across different machine configurations, just like you couldn't take the hard
drive out of one computer and put it in another computer. You could if you sysprepped
it, but then that would break all of the ALM software and sample users / data
that's configured on those machines.
The reason they are Windows Server 2008 is so we can ship a
32-bit version. Otherwise people using Virtual PC on Windows wouldn't be able
to use it (it would be limited to Hyper-V on Windows Server). However in the
future for the vNext version of Visual Studio we will likely just ship a
Windows Server 2008 R2 image.
Lab Management requires 64-bit software, so that's why it's a
separate image.
TWC9: Office 365, Internet Explorer 10 PP2, Choosing the Right collection class, ToneCheck
@dentaku:Both are correct, sir!