One of the things that has made Object Desktop so popular over the years is that users knew, with certainty that many of the concepts found in it would likely one day end up in the OS.  That's why its tag-line is "It's like running the next version of Windows -- today."  Whether that be ObjectZIP which preceded Microsoft's Compressed folders to the much better known example of WindowBlinds in which Windows XP came with a similar, though more basic, implementation.

Today at PDC, Microsoft announced "Microsoft Gadgets" on the same day Stardock opened DesktopGadgets.com for the public (the official announcement isn't until September 20th).  People had asked us what was DesktopX's future with Yahoo buying Konfabulator. Now people have their answer.  Like gadgets created by DesktopX Pro, Microsoft's gadgets can be put into a bar.  DesktopX's gadgets can sit on the desktop or be placed into an ObjectBar bar.  Microsoft's gadgets go into the Microsoft SideBar on Windows Vista.  DesktopX gadgets will also be able to go into Microsoft's sidebar too in the final version.

From reading the flame war over on Microsoft's Gadget blog, Mac zealots claim that Microsoft stole the whole thing from Apple.  They apparently forget that Apple was almost certainly "inspired" by Konfabulator.  And DesktopX has had user-created mini apps on the desktop since late 1999.  Of course, Mac zealots will point towards desktop accessories as some sort of "see, Apple did it first".  But desktop accessories are so divorced from the modern widget/gadget concept as to be nonsensical.  What makes widgets (and gadgets) interesting is that they can be created by end users who have little to know programming knowledge.  My 8 year old son has a DesktopX widget he made on his home page.  It's pretty unlikely that 8 year olds were cranking out desktop accessories.

Of course, the real question isn't whether Microsoft "stole" the idea from Apple or whether they were inspired by DesktopX (they certainly know about both). The question is what is Microsoft's plans with it and how will it affect Stardock's gadget strategy?

The short answer is - not much.  Gadgets can't -by definition- compete against one another because they are stand-alone entities. They don't require the user to download some sort of run-time (ala Konfabulator, DesktopX standard, Kapsules, etc.). Dashboard widgets are still widgets in that the key code is not in the widget but resides as part of the OS (i.e. they bundled the run-time) but that's really just a semantically difference.  The point being, few end users care whether their program was compiled with a Microsoft compiler or a Borland one.  Similarly, they won't likely care whether their gadget was made with DesktopX Pro or Visual Studio 2005.  When Windows Vista ships, there will simply be gadgets and DesktopX Pro will be, we plan, the best way to create them.

The real winner in the announcement will be DesktopGadgets.com since it can be expanded to support Microsoft gadgets as well.  With Microsoft supporting the gadget concept, it really opens the door for more developers to get into gadget making.  How Microsoft's embrace of gadgets will affect Yahoo who recently acquired Konfabulator remains unknown.

The Monad demo was just incredible. When most people think of command prompts, they think of navigating file systems and the like.  But Monad is more abstract than that.

During the demo, the Microsoft presenter was able to navigate through the registry as if it were a common directory.  He was able to do the same with databases.  Combine that with its scripting abilities and you are able to prototype all kinds of useful functionality.

Monad is the name for Microsoft's next generation command shell.  Microsoft is creating it to help tie in various islands of scripting available in Microsoft's products.  The Monad team says they were inspired by Unix shells, AS400 and VMS, TCL/WSH, and BASH & PERL.

Command line utilities, COM, and .NET scripting all put together.  So while Microsoft is trying to beautify the Windows graphical experience, Monad is designed to ensure that power users aren't left out in the cold.

Developers can write .NET interfaces and thin Cmdlets that can be accessed from the command line.  Cmdlets become command line tools.  It provides both an interactive shell along with support for any type of scripting style (command line, COM, .NET).

It's looking very impressive.  It should (in theory) have the same kinds of strengths that Linux/Unix users have had for years but with access to Microsoft's latest techs (.NET) right from a command line.

I just got a tour of Office 12 here at PDC.  With Office 12, Microsoft is introducing a new concept -- ribbons.  At first glance, ribbons look like toolbars on steroids. But they are much more context sensitive. 

The design of Office 12 is the most significant change to the suite since it was originally released based on using it for a few minutes.  I don't think everyone is going to like these changes though. It's just such a massive change and without a lot of usability testing (the version I had had a lot of usability problems) it could be a real problem. 

But on the other hand, Microsoft seems to have gone back and rethought how people use these word processors and want users to be more aware of features that can improve productivity.  I'll try to get some screenshots..

Microsoft's Jed Rose has come to the rescue again with a link to where you can find out more info on "People Near Me"

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/connected/#peer

From an outside point of view, one gets the impression that Microsoft decided to go back to the drawing board when it comes to making software that enables people to work together.  They still want people to more easily work together but now with security as part of the basic architecture.

Microsoft unveiled a demo of a new technology at PDC today.  Called "People Near Me", it lets people share files and session displays (like remote desktop) with minimal hassle.

Anyone who's ever had a friend visit who they want to give a file to probably uses a USB drive or something.  With People Near Me, you would just pop up an MSN IM like window and drop sessions and files to them.

"People Near Me" was demoed and seems useful and yet so obvious that one wonders why this wasn't in there before. In the demo, two Microsoft employees were able to work together quickly without having to set up a bunch of shares. Instead, person A invites Person B who is "near them" into the People Near me applet. Then Person A drags and drops the Power Point app onto the share window and the other user can instantly see what that app is displaying. Then he dragged and dropped the actual PowerPoint file to enable the other user to be able to edit it. Edits on the file were instantly synchronized.

For developers, Indigo may be the "big thing". Anyone who's done network code in Windows XP knows how much of a pain it can be. Indigo seems to make this a much more streamlined experience. One Microsoft keynote speaker said "Developers no longer need to feel like plumbers."

It's so big.  That's my first impression.  And I know so little.  There's nothing like a developer's conference to make a developer realize how little they know. Holy cow.

So far, the two things I'm most excited by are Indigo and Avalon.  Indigo looks like it'll make working with databases and other applications much less painful. But my knowledge on C# is pretty scampy, I've been doing C++ for so long and I've not beein inclined to do much with C# because I don't like having to require users download 20+ megs in libraries.

But as I listend to the keynotes, it become pretty obvious how I only have a surface knowledge on all these things.  So I've loaded up on some pretty cool sounding sessions:

11:45am	FUNL02: WinFX/Win32 SDKs	ie7
1:00pm	PRS223: Making good SW	writing a dynamic compiler
2:45pm	TLN303: Mondad	monad
4:15pm	FUN405: Multithreading	dat307: exploiting new capabilities
14-Sep
11am	PRS205: Bulding Customizeable apps in .NET	PRS317: Avalong Overview
1:45pm	PRS315: Avalon Overview
3:15pm	DAT310: WinFS
5:00pm	PRS416: Direct3D and real-time apps
15-Sep
10:00am	FUN412: Five things every Win32 dev should know
11:30am	DAT317: Windows Sync Center	TLN213: Building Avalon Interfaces
2:15pm	DAT320: Building RSS enabled apps

So we'll see how it turns out. Stay tuned.

I've arrived in LA for Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC).  On the plane, I wrote up my expectations with regards to what I hope to learn from some of the sessions.

I've also put togethre a photo-album that I'll be adding to as I get pictures.  If I can get an FTP site up and going, I hope to put some video up too but time will be tight.

As a developer, there's a ton of things to learn at PDC.  One of my main interests is WinFX which I've put together a quickie primer for.

Tomorrow will be the first day of actual sessions along with the key-note from Bill Gates.  It should be very interesting. Stay tuned!

Kristin talks with Tom Chick (www.quartertothree.com), Derek Batting (www.neowin.net) and Brad Wardell (www.wincustomize.com) about the possibility of mining on Mars, the closing of Cyan, developer of the Myst games, and a new study that reveals how much time Americans waste while at work. Other topics include Apple's new product announcements, phone number squatters taking a number that should belong to the Red Cross, and Steve Ballmer's negative reaction to Google stealing Microsoft employees.