Microsoft has taken a lot of flak for it’s dominance in the ‘software’ business. Is it undeserved? I could probably argue both ways. What I will give Microsoft credit for is it’s unmistakable support of its development community. Especially it’s support of the web development community (where they are substantially behind). Microsoft announced some big developments during MIX ‘09. Specifically the Web App Platform 2.0.
I’m still doing some catching up on the Mix 2009 conference. There were so many great announcements: MVC, Azure, Silverlight 3.0. However one of the things I almost missed was Microsoft’s announcement about it’s Web Platform Installer 2.0. They added a host of third party applications that can be installed using their installer package which include: WordPress, BlogEngine.Net, DotNetNuke, and Gallery!
So what you say? I think this is one of the best things Microsoft could have done for its developer community. I think I speak for every developer when I say you want every project you work on to be a success. I think that the Web Platform Installer can give new life to OSS projects. Having your project added to the installer will be a win fall for any OSS project.
So can we begin to connect the dots? First we have CodePlex which gives MS centric developers a home. Then we have the Web Platform Installer. I think the natural progression is pushing both of these to Azure. Imagine a Cloud based platform where you can string together several OSS solutions into a single web application? Can it be done? It’s been the core foundation of Telligent and Community Server since its inception.
Tinfoil hats aside, hats off to Microsoft (pun intended). This is a great announcement and one I hope is not lost in the other great announcements at MIX ‘09.