The Windows "software advantage" 70

Um. Vista has basically nothing new. It's going to change the equation for the end-user very little.

Don't bet on it.

Microsoft has started to get its act together WRT to its APIs, yes... but this provides no direct benefit to end-users. Moreover, large software vendors are extremely conservative, and it seems unlikely that very many major apps will be re-implemented on top of .NET, um, ever. Just as we haven't seen e.g. Adobe move Photoshop from Carbon to Cocoa on the Mac, we're not going to see them move it from Win32 to .NET on Windows.

The primary effect of .NET will be to make Windows a more attractive platform for companies doing custom in-house development. This has virtually no impact on Apple, as Apple has essentially no presence in the corporate market to begin with. Moreover, such applications are increasingly moving to the web, and often to more open cross-platform technologies (Java, and now things like Ruby on Rails). With most of better choice than Windows.

.NET will also serve to make it somewhat easier for smaller Windows developers to write more serious apps, but on a platform like Windows, where it's so easy for the little guy's stuff to get lost in the noise, it's unclear if anyone will even notice. OS X already has a pretty rich community of small software developers who *do* get noticed, and while Cocoa might not be as buzzword compliant as .NET, that community seems to do some great things with it.

I should probably point out that .NET has already been deployable for a few years now, and has made virtually no practical difference in the "platform wars". Maybe it'll lead to apps that have fewer library issues and that are a bit more secure... but these aren't major issues on OS X to begin with. What .NET won't do is solve some of the most fundamental problems with Windows apps, such as the fact that Microsoft's ineptness at UI design seems to rub off on other Windows developers.

Meanwhile, of course, we really have no idea what Apple might be working on behind closed doors. They've managed to keep the lid on information about Leopard almost completely. The longer release cycle suggests that Apple might be working on some bigger, more serious stuff, rather than just on more neat consumer features. I wouldn't expect a whole new API and a managed code environment or anything, but I doubt they've been standing still.

We know at least they're working on automatic garbage collection for Cocoa, anyway!

-- "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law." -- George W. Bush in Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 28, 2005