Yes, Microsoft has created many technologies that had limited value beyond marketing, but RIA & Oslo do not fall into this category.

Microsoft joined the RIA arena because that is the direction user interfaces are heading and they are behind the competition (mostly Adobe) and of course want their share (as much of possible) of the market share.

I see many benefits of RIA for both consumer and even enterprise applications (making UIs more efficient for users).

The level of cynicism displayed in this area indicates a lack of knowledge of current industry trends on the part of the speakers. Fortunately, Microsoft keeps a keen eye of what is going on in the development world (although slow to enter their own offerings), even if podcasters don’t. Of course, the podcast would be more valuable if the speakers were more aware of what was going on in the industry.

I think it is wrong to automatically assume that Microsoft can’t learn from there mistakes. Let he without any 404 errors on his page cast the first stone.

It’s a shame to think I have to give up EntLib and use yet something else for validation with .NET RIA

thanks.

@delmo

Yep, Microsoft definitely deserves some cynicism but the areas that RIA Services and Oslo relate to are important and useful.

Also if Sketchflow can be as easy/quick to use as Balsamiq in mocking up UI then it would be a great addition to Blend.

Yes, Microsoft has created many technologies that had limited value beyond marketing, but RIA & Oslo do not fall into this category.

Microsoft joined the RIA arena because that is the direction user interfaces are heading and they are behind the competition (mostly Adobe) and of course want their share (as much of possible) of the market share.

I see many benefits of RIA for both consumer and even enterprise applications (making UIs more efficient for users).

The level of cynicism displayed in this area indicates a lack of knowledge of current industry trends on the part of the speakers. Fortunately, Microsoft keeps a keen eye of what is going on in the development world (although slow to enter their own offerings), even if podcasters don’t. Of course, the podcast would be more valuable if the speakers were more aware of what was going on in the industry.