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Microsoft have told people about this

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/02/ 13/72476.aspx

and App Verifier does a test (HighVersionLie IIRC) to detect it.

And they test new Windows versions with a vast amount of software and make Windows lie to it without user interaction. Even if they missed it you can get Windows to lie to programs thay the testing missed -

(found via a 1 minute Google search)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsu pport/learnmore/appcompat.mspx

But this doesn't seem to do anything to address the core Windows problem; Windows is too big and too complex

And a crucial reason Microsoft holds more than 90 percent of the PC operating system market is that the company strains to make sure software and hardware that ran on previous versions of Windows will also work on the new one

Eh hem, it's

Microsoft® Windows®

You don't want Steve Ballmer to throw a chair at you, do you? :)

See MS Trademarks

You can do this with Microsofts Smartphones because they have an open API and freely available tookits to develop with. Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile for more information. Who knows about other phones, like Symbian. They are pretty much closed so you can forget about them.

This is a little like the WMF flaw that became known just after Christmas. Eventually MS had to provide an out-of-cycle patch (even if it was just a few days early) because of the bad press they were getting. From the looks of things, the patch for this one will be ready soon too.. so any kind of noise you can make to get an early release would be a Good Thing.

Yeah yeah, MS will get a lot of flak from Slashdotters on this, but you should bear in mind that they also provide some decent patching tools like WSUS for administrators to roll these things out. Personally, I never use IE on my Windows box, but I'm afraid it's still a fact of life in most large businesses.

This is a little like the WMF flaw that became known just after Christmas. Eventually MS had to provide an out-of-cycle patch (even if it was just a few days early) because of the bad press they were getting. From the looks of things, the patch for this one will be ready soon too.. so any kind of noise you can make to get an early release would be a Good Thing.

Yeah yeah, MS will get a lot of flak from Slashdotters on this, but you should bear in mind that they also provide some decent patching tools like WSUS for administrators to roll these things out. Personally, I never use IE on my Windows box, but I'm afraid it's still a fact of life in most large businesses.

Most small company sysadmins need to at least occasionally deal with Windows. I prefer to do so without leaving my desk. I also ensure cygwin and sshd are on Windows boxes, so that I don't always need rdesktop or vnc. ...

My windows list would look something like

• uptime.exe
• cygwin with sshd, exim, and cron installed as services
• PuTTYcyg, which is PuTTY with the ability to run bash shells locally (i.e. xterm)
• SysInternals Junction, directory symlinks in NTFS
• StartupCPL, monitor everything that starts up when Windows does
• 7-zip
• WinSCP
• KNOPPIX for when shit hits the fan
• Debian for when it won't come off the fan
• One antivirus (any, I prefer PC-Cillin) and two anti-spyware agents (any two with different engines)

These computers should readily support a composted desktop and at a minimum the Aero Express theme.

Porting mountains of existing code to .NET sounds exactly like one of the few things that could have bogged down so many smart people for so long.

Porting mountains of existing code to .NET sounds exactly like one of the few things that could have bogged down so many smart people for so long.

O.K., how about this: VS 8 Performance makes it unuseable? I'm not sure it falls directly on your request for links to issues with .Net, but it may be involved. .Net 2.0 is a lot different than .Net 1.0/1.1. Are the VS 2005 (VS 8) IDE's written in .Net 2.0? It could be a prime example of one of Microsoft's own applications having performance issues due to the new version of .Net.

So I was driving out in the middle of nowhere today and noticed a new e-mail in my gmail inbox. I stopped to see what it was, a friend alerting me to a slashdot story about a brand new blackberry. Ok, I'll bite. I opened up my web browser and checked it out, and laughed to myself as I began typing a reply to my deluded friend. I was interrupted by his IM, and explained to him that the future has already arrived.

Then I decided to get back on the road. I put my PPC-6700 away and merged back into traffic.

Seriously, now. Sorry to sound like a commercial, but I love this device! There's also a windows mobile Treo, the 6700 is also available from Verizon, and several other pdaphones on the way.

By the way, I can connect the phone I have in my pocket to my laptop and get great speeds. Enough , in fact, to play World of Warcraft. With the phone in my pocket. I won't be holding by breath for this new blackberry.

I've always wondered about running Windows from within VMware on a Windows [same one] host.

You could read the EULA, or the PUR.

"You may install up to two copies of the software on one device."

Not sure if I understood you right, but the IE 7 Beta is available for free download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/default.ms px

I personally thought that the lack of a menu bar was fairly annoying, just having a "Tools" buttons wasn't really enough. And when the menu bar was enabled, it was in a fairly awkward position (*below* the address bar? What were they thinking?). Maybe I can convince them to include a menu which is accessed by right-clicking on the address bar. Or, I can just put it in myself. Oh, wait, I can't have the sources to IE. Firefox uses up less screen space and has a menu/tab/nav bar. Plus a bookmarks bar, which I don't see in IE7. Plus, it is fully themeable, open-source, etc. The IE team and the Windows team in general just seems to be 4-5 years behind, taking more time to copy features than the original products that they copied from took to come up with them. Tabbed browsing, web standards, RSS feeds, all were in mozilla/netscape/firefox/opera years before IE. Oh well, I guess I will be forced to use Vista in a few more years as it will be the only OS to run Half Life 3, Halo 4. Or, it might be the perfect opportunity to completely migrate to linux or OS X.

Shared Source Limited Permissive License for use of MechCommander® 2

This license governs use of the accompanying software. If you use the software, you accept this license. If you do not accept the license, do not use the software.

1. Definitions
The terms reproduce, reproduction and distribution have the same meaning here as under U.S. copyright law.
You means the licensee of the software.
Licensed patents means any Microsoft patent claims which read directly on the software as distributed by Microsoft under this license.

2. Grant of Rights
(A) Copyright Grant- Subject to the terms of this license, including the license conditions and limitations in section 3, Microsoft grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce the software, prepare derivative works of the software and distribute the software or any derivative works that you create.

(B) Patent Grant- Subject to the terms of this license, including the license conditions and limitations in section 3, Microsoft grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under licensed patents to make, have made, use, practice, sell, and offer for sale, and/or otherwise dispose of the software or derivative works of the software.

So you can create and sell derivative works, and you won't get clobbered with patent lawsuits from Microsoft. There aren't any obligations, like for example having to release the source code to any of your code which you statically link to it, like with GPL code.

3. Conditions and Limitations
(A) Limitation on Commercial Distribution- Notwithstanding the rights granted in section 2(A) above, you are not granted any rights to commercially distribute any artwork from the software (Art Assets) in any derivative work or otherwise. Microsoft grants you a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to use, reproduce and distribute the Art Assets on a non-commercial basis only.

But the bitmap/texture files can only be used non commercially.

(B) No Trademark License- This license does not grant you any rights to use Microsofts name, logo, or trademarks.

So you can't claim that your game is linked to Microsoft.

(C) If you begin patent litigation against Microsoft over patents that you think may apply to the software (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit), your license to the software ends automatically.

And if you sue them, your license goes away.

(D) If you distribute copies of the software or derivative works, you must retain all copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices that are present in the software.

This is like in the old BSD license

(E) If you distribute the software or derivative works in source code form you may do so only under this license (i.e., you must include a complete copy of this license with your distribution), and if you distribute the software or derivative works in compiled or object code form you may only do so under a license that complies with this license.

All licenses say this, otherwise you could take GPL code and distribute it under a different license.

(F) The software is licensed as-is. You bear the risk of using it. Microsoft gives no express warranties, guarantees or conditions. You may have additional consumer rights under your local laws which this license cannot change. To the extent permitted under your local laws, Microsoft excludes the implied warranties of merchantability,

Yeah, I too remember the days of running Paintbrush on a CGA monitor, in dos...

The WinXP incarnation of M$Paint was the first one that didn't use glorified screen-capture per the old DOS method of saving images (that's why Save in M$Paint had always truncated any part of the image that wasn't visible in the window), and that knew more than one file format (tho the conversion to 8bit must use some really horrible dither method).

I don't have this problem in M$Paint in Win2k... Perhaps the one for Win 3.1 had this problem... I don't think userland apps would be able to directly access video memory in NT,2k,XP...

What to know something really disturbing? Microsoft has all of its "Knowledge Base" stuff online.
including THIS vintage article

Even more disturbing, the above states "Last Review : August 16, 2005"

Well, now I understand why cooperations have lay-offs...

I agree MS isn't doing a great job at synthesizing what's new in Vista. There are so many updates/redesigns/new features across the board in all aspects of the OS, that it's honestly a little hard to put it all in one place. But here's my try at some of the basics:

At a high level, here are some of the new features (not an exhaustive list):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/eval uate/overvw.mspx

Deeper into the new security features:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/eval uate/feat/secfeat.mspx

Deeper into the new networking features (in a nutshell, there's a lot more since this was written):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/netwo rk/evaluate/new_network.mspx

There are obviously tons of kernel improvements, a new driver infrastructure, the new presentation framework, and system-wide search built-in.

On the client side, new versions of Media Center (great new UI, handles cable cards), new Media Player, a DVD maker, a calendaring app, a sidebar for creating gadets (yes, a la OSX), improved photo handling. Setup has also been improved, both in time (staged builds take >45 minutes to complete), and simplicity (only a few targeted questions at the start and end, no need to stick around during the actual install).

There's more, but that's a gist of some of the new features.

I agree MS isn't doing a great job at synthesizing what's new in Vista. There are so many updates/redesigns/new features across the board in all aspects of the OS, that it's honestly a little hard to put it all in one place. But here's my try at some of the basics:

At a high level, here are some of the new features (not an exhaustive list):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/eval uate/overvw.mspx

Deeper into the new security features:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/eval uate/feat/secfeat.mspx

Deeper into the new networking features (in a nutshell, there's a lot more since this was written):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/netwo rk/evaluate/new_network.mspx

There are obviously tons of kernel improvements, a new driver infrastructure, the new presentation framework, and system-wide search built-in.

On the client side, new versions of Media Center (great new UI, handles cable cards), new Media Player, a DVD maker, a calendaring app, a sidebar for creating gadets (yes, a la OSX), improved photo handling. Setup has also been improved, both in time (staged builds take >45 minutes to complete), and simplicity (only a few targeted questions at the start and end, no need to stick around during the actual install).

There's more, but that's a gist of some of the new features.

I agree MS isn't doing a great job at synthesizing what's new in Vista. There are so many updates/redesigns/new features across the board in all aspects of the OS, that it's honestly a little hard to put it all in one place. But here's my try at some of the basics:

At a high level, here are some of the new features (not an exhaustive list):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/eval uate/overvw.mspx

Deeper into the new security features:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/eval uate/feat/secfeat.mspx

Deeper into the new networking features (in a nutshell, there's a lot more since this was written):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/netwo rk/evaluate/new_network.mspx

There are obviously tons of kernel improvements, a new driver infrastructure, the new presentation framework, and system-wide search built-in.

On the client side, new versions of Media Center (great new UI, handles cable cards), new Media Player, a DVD maker, a calendaring app, a sidebar for creating gadets (yes, a la OSX), improved photo handling. Setup has also been improved, both in time (staged builds take >45 minutes to complete), and simplicity (only a few targeted questions at the start and end, no need to stick around during the actual install).

There's more, but that's a gist of some of the new features.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url= /library/en-us/winsat/winsat/winsatinfolevel1_stru ct.asp for a summary on what the various levels need.

Actually, you assumed, and were wrong. From the Microsoft "Do You Qualify for Office Student and Teacher Edition" http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/ students/doyouqualify.mspx/page: "You are still eligible to use this product after you or a member of your household no longer qualifies as an educational user."

And to reply to the grandparent, you also failed to RTFM, and were kind of a jerk about it.

Walt

I was under the impression that of those 8, several were the server variants

even if you just look at current windows offerings, you have

windows xp home
windows xp pro
windows xp mce (2 ver i believe)

windows small bus serv
windows serv
windows serv enterprise
windows datacenter serv
windows web (according to their site in various places, but i don't think this counts, i mean really, IIS is a server? that's like saying so is sql and exchange)

there is also:
windows embedded (various light o/s for portable machines, phones, etc)

isn't there even a special version for tablet software?

of course, not accounting for just having 64bit and itanium versions of the diff o/s offerings, we have so far listed at least 7 different versions, so if you consider that ms is now offering one more for international sales, then isn't it entirely possible that they are trimming the fat somewhat and offering less versions?

so just for pointing it out, this site says that there will only be 5 major flavors. but it looks like they don't count their server offerings as different flavors.

enjoy

But let's also be honest about where it isn't. For instance, it uses two rings of protection rather than the four available, which translates into more possibilities for errant drivers and such to bring down the kernel.

Also, it was designed for a single-user environment, and although improved over the years, lacks certain security facilities that other operating systems such as OpenVMS have.

But let's also be honest about where it isn't. For instance, it uses two rings of protection rather than the four available, which translates into more possibilities for errant drivers and such to bring down the kernel.

Also, it was designed for a single-user environment, and although improved over the years, lacks certain security facilities that other operating systems such as OpenVMS have.

But let's also be honest about where it isn't. For instance, it uses two rings of protection rather than the four available, which translates into more possibilities for errant drivers and such to bring down the kernel.

Also, it was designed for a single-user environment, and although improved over the years, lacks certain security facilities that other operating systems such as OpenVMS have.

Security... how many holes today?

Use a real OS.

This might just provide laptops with enough power to run Aero Glass.

Aero Glass requires a DirectX 9 class GPU that supports Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). Low-end mobile GPUs that meet this requirement include GeForceFX Go5100, Mobility Radeon 9500/X300, and Intel GMA 950. Even GMA 900 (which a lot of current Centrino users have) should work if they write WDDM drivers for it, but I doubt they will.

Here's some links for those who want to see the Aero Glass mobile GPU requirements:

• NVIDIA GPUs "Windows Vista Ready"
• ATI Vista Ready GPUs
• Current GPU Guidelines for Windows Vista Capable PCs

BTW, the "Vista Basic user experience" (formerly known as "Aero Basic") does not look like Windows XP (the GPU requirements will be similar to XP). In fact, I think many users will prefer this interface to Aero Glass. Here's some screenshots:

Windows Vista February CTP Screenshot Gallery 8: Windows Vista Home Basic

The point is that both the Windows and Linux kernels have modular designs that allow you to plug in new file systems. Unfortunately, if you did want to write an Amiga file system driver for Windows you'd have to spend $109 on the IFS Kit (which is an improvement, it used to cost several thousand dollars) and even if you did open-source the driver, nobody else could build it without buying the IFS kit themselves. In other words, the barrier to Windows supporting more file systems is commercial, not technical.

This might just provide laptops with enough power to run Aero Glass. That is presuming that battery life and testicle health don't matter.

This is great, though. With the new Core Duo laptops and killer mobile chipsets, I'm finally seriously consider getting a laptop and dumping the desktop (more like deskunder, but whatever) all together.

0. Are they powerful enough to run XP / 2K?
If not, then how well do you think 98 will fare over time (when is it EOL'd?)


If they can't run 2k / XP they won't run a modern Linux dist either. Recommended specs are near enough the same - eg. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/ sysreqs.mspx http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/release-notes/fc4/#s n-hardware-reqs.

Remember, XP dates from 2001 (and win 2k is earlier), for a PC to be non-XP-capable it would probably be >5yrs old. Consumer PCs that old are not going to be "potentially used for years" unless you are doing a lot of work fixing and just finding rare spare parts. Most charities (at least here in the uk) simply won't take systems that old.

Sure, you _can_ run Linux on older systems. The last one I threw away (since non of the charities would take it) was a 486 with 16M, ran Slackware up to about 1.2 quite happily - but upgrading to Redhat 2.x was always a regret as it slowed it down so much (glibc, elf binaries, pic shared libs - vs. the old lean-mean a.out jumptable stuff). Good luck with getting any uptodate apps to run, even if you could get it to build, I suspect just a modern browser (ie. Firefox) would kill that system, let alone something like OpenOffice.

Worried about EOL ?

MS still support win 2k (from, um 2000). Try finding patches for Linux vendors from that era. Redhat have EOL'd everything up to RHL9 (2003) - and even fedora "legacy" supports only from 7.3 (2002 vintage).

OEM operating system licences live and die with each pc - they are not transferable

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/licensing/howt ouse.mspx

In addition to that logic, what compelling reason do we have to upgrade immediately?

The biggest reason I can think of is games. I am in no hurry to upgrade anytime soon but there will be games that come out that will only run on Vista if you want the "Full Experience" since DirectX 10 will be Vista only: From the Microsoft website "Note Direct3D 10 support is only available on Windows Vista" http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/sdk/

I believe THAT will be what drives the most people to upgrade and then the rest will get upgraded when they purchase a new PC (although some people might be forced to upgrade their PC no matter what anyway).

This is not the complete source release. Rather, this is little more than an advertisement for Microsoft's XNA tools.

Software Assurance is not required by Microsoft. Take a look at the MS licensing overview. Most everything is available as a perpetual, one-time license ("L") or as a license plus software assurance ("L+SA"). You can also by software-assurance only licenses to continute on the plan after your initial software assurance runs out.

That said, I'm pissed off at MS about the way they've handled Software Assuance given the delays we've seen with new versions. We've gotten exactly one client OS upgrade in the last 5 years, and one server upgrade (well, two, if you count Windows 2003 R2, which I don't), one SQL upgrade, and one Exchange upgrade. The other benefits provided to SA customers are throwaways like free support calls and home-use rights. Even though Vista is "just around the corner", we will probably not be renewing our SA agreements.

Whether you think he's shilling or not, he's got a point. Read through that features page you linked to. Quick Search looks a whole lot like Spotlight (other than it's in the bottom left, not the top right); it has a Spotlight-like text box in the control panel (practically the first thing Jobs showed off @ the 2004 WWDC keynote) that looks just like OS X's;* and Flip 3D looks pretty but in practice is probably *less* easy-to-use than Expose. He may be a shill, but facts are facts. Like a man once said, if Hitler says 2+2=4, you can't argue with him.

* I mean, really: compare http://www.holycola.net/searchprefs.jpg and http://www.microsoft.com/library/media/1033/window svista/images/features/feat_UX_03.jpg

Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People," then they dragged out fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who seemed very "impacted" as he sang praise for Microsoft programs. Actually, he was reading meaningless statements from a TelePrompTer. Here is one of his quotes, verbatim: "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination."

Why not at least switch to an Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL) Mac? Apple's new operating system is stable, reliable and easy to use. The applications are simple, gorgeous and work well together. And they're here. Today. Steve Jobs must be waking up a happy man this morning.

Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People," then they dragged out fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who seemed very "impacted" as he sang praise for Microsoft programs. Actually, he was reading meaningless statements from a TelePrompTer. Here is one of his quotes, verbatim: "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination."

Why not at least switch to an Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL) Mac? Apple's new operating system is stable, reliable and easy to use. The applications are simple, gorgeous and work well together. And they're here. Today. Steve Jobs must be waking up a happy man this morning.

1) It is my understanding that the Mac BU is an officially separate entity. Does that really mean that there is no chance that Microsoft would "borrow" people on the Mac team to help push Vista or Office for Windows 2007 out the door?

2) Recently, the Windows and Mac releases of Office have been staggered so that they are released on alternating years (or 1 - 1.5 years). The Mac BU is quoted as saying that they "typically deliver new versions every two to three years" but that "[m]oving to universal binaries will naturally impact our schedule". (Isn't that wonderfully non-committal.) The last version effectively shipped in June of 2004.

Alternating releases between platforms has its advantages for MS: you don't have to hold up one release to coincide with the other and you have more time to ensure that the new version for one platform is compatible with the latest version for the other platform. Does the delay on the Windows front mean that we are likely to see the 2 versions come out more concurrently? Might MS delay the Mac version as the result of the delay in the Windows version?

Just like SQL Server, it looks like they are going to drag out the release long enough to defeat the poor fools who bought "software assurance". As of today, MS is still claiming that "Office 12" is going to be released in 2006. At least that's what they say here P.T. Barnum was right, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Um, it already does take up 4K or more. Unless you have a hard disk smaller then 256MB.

See: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxp pro/reskit/c13621675.mspx and scroll down to Table 13-4

If you notice, in most of the useful cases the custer size is 4K. Making the hard disk match this seems like a good idea to me.

And EXT2 also uses a 4K block size.

Also remember it's for large disks, no FS that I know of supports a cluster (or block) size smaller then 4K for large disks.

Compilers are being held back by the programming languages chosen by developers. As hardware concurrency increases, the technology behind compilers for imperative and procedural languages (C, Pascal, Fortran, Java) shows just ill-suited it is take advantage of that power. Instead, we will need to move to new languages that will enable compilers to optimize for concurrency

Such languages exist and have been around for quite some time. Occam was originally designed for the transputer which was supposed to herald the arrival of seriosuly concurrent computing back in the 1980s. As it happened the transputer never took off and Occam has remained a largely fringe language (though it has continued to develop). If you want to have easy to write highly concurrent code with a compiler that can optimize well for concurrency then Occam might be a good place to look.

For a range of other experimental options there's JoCaml (based on OCaml), Pict, Acute (extending OCaml), and Cw (pronounced C-omega) (an extension of C#) which all make some use of Pi-calculus ideas. Some are more experimental than others.

Jedidiah.

Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.1 4.03.1212-1214 (4.00.950B) 8/24/96-8/27/97 USB support: yes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q253756/

When did Macs get USB? Not till 1998 with the iMac
http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=i mac&performa=off&sort=date&order=ASC

You may be confused with ADB vs. USB?
"In my view the bus topology of USB is somewhat limiting. One of the original intentions of USB was to reduce the amount of cabling at the back of your PC. Apple people will say the idea came from the Apple Desktop Bus, where both the keyboard, mouse and some other peripherals could be connected together (daisy chained) using the one cable."

Actually 2003 Enterprise and Datacenter have the optional WSRM windows system resource manager which allows you to limit the amount of resources which a particular app can take including threads launched. There are third party apps which can do similar things for standard, which is usefull for TS/Citrix environments. So Windows has all the architectural things in place for resource management, just not the tools as a standard component installed by the default install.

..and use "Security Bulletin Search on MS Technet.

Standards Information

There is no public standard that applies to this method.

Can't... it's required for Windows Update! If you don't update, you're screwed!

Can't be secure with ActiveX, can't be secure without ActiveX... but what would happen if ActiveX didn't exist?

Let's see, there's the ToolHelp32 API and PSAPI, at the very least, not counting WMI... It seems like a real stretch to conclude that documented Windows API calls (that aren't illegal to call nor a hack) are somehow a bad thing.

Let's see, there's the ToolHelp32 API and PSAPI, at the very least, not counting WMI... It seems like a real stretch to conclude that documented Windows API calls (that aren't illegal to call nor a hack) are somehow a bad thing.

People will need a better reason than "MS says it's good" to switch away from Photoshop

They can try it out for themselves, or check out some of the demo videos. I think it looks pretty hot, it has most of the filters Photoshop has, plus many other interesting effects like it's use of splines to create effects is really interesting. It looks like it would suit web developers trying to quickly create great effects really quickly for not much effort to get a job quickly out the door, although it also seems to have many fine grained functions which would appeal to artists.

Java applications are still coming into use that have been under test and dev since before there *was* a .NET

I think this is precisely the reason why so many companies are looking at .NET... alot of people have been burnt by Java projects, which have gone way over budget and way over time. I've not had much exposure to development projects in java but it, but my take on it is that it may not necessarily be the technology that's at fault, from what I've seen I think alot of Java developers tend to get a bit carried away and massively over engineer things. Not that I'm against software engineering, I love my UML, class/activity/interaction diagrams, use cases etc etc.... but you have to be pragmatic about this stuff, a dogmatic approach generally leads to failure.

On the other hand I think .NET developers tend to under engineer things... so perhaps all these companies will shift to the other extreme and get burnt yet again. I hope not because I quite like .NET and would rather it not earn the same reputation as what Java seems to have now.

So you may be right... perhaps this swing away from Java in many of these companies will bite them. But I can say there's alot of managers out there right now who hear the word Java and instantaneously have their blood pressure jump a notch.