So, after spending a few days playing with the preview and watching more sessions, I can say my current mindset is summed up in the image below.

I don't see this reinvention like their last one. Instead of introducing cutting edge .NET tools to their legacy VB6 developers, they are introducing legacy tools to their legacy .NET developers.

I would not think I would have to explain to someone that they just stepped in dog crap. Download it and sniff it yourself. If you are drinking their Kool-aid, more power to you. I respected the violinists in the titanic movie too. I may even be one of them.

I see a lot of Silverlight authors pleading the "Silverlight is alive and well case". They have too, and I feel for them.

Below is the only .NET related book I now have on pre-order...

Migrating to iPhone and iPad for .NET Developers

Although I don't feel I need to explain my reasoning, since Microsoft does not feel they need to explain themselves to their customers, I will a little.

Software Engineering needs focused constraints in order to allow excellence in a given context. What I see Microsoft doing by their desperate move to get their foot in the mobile market is creating a huge quagmire of context. There is no focus. Theirs is an attitude of we will be all things to all people.

That is only making thinks harder. Sure it will provide a lot of job security for those of us that clean up the messes created in times like this, but I am sick of Microsoft promoting the capabilities needed for creating crappy solutions.

I am actually embarrassed for the Microsoft engineers and evangelists who seem to have gone on a yearlong crack binge and ended up here with this mess. I don't care what anyone says, METRO on a desktop is simply stupid. Phones, tablets, touch screens, ok, but come on, a desktop.

Hopefully I am wrong. That would be great. I have been wrong before. I stepped on a mud ball once, thinking it was something else. To my pleasant surprise I ended up with just a muddy shoe.

Speaking of Big Balls of Mud… let's all give a round of applause as Microsoft welcomes that anti-pattern back, and gives us the tools to mindlessly implement it!!!!!

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