More on WinFX / .NET 3.0
I got a few comments (on and off record) on the WinFX / .NET 3.0 thing:
JD pointed out that .NET 3.0 will run on the .NET 2.0 CLR. Ouch. I personally see this as MORE confusion rather than less….
And Nigel made a few good points:
Also on Paul’s blog… http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew/archive/2006/03/31/566178.aspx
Vista/ .NET Framework 3 for (XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista) is shipping in 5 months time!
(possibly 4 months – if you consider the dependency of WF in 2007 Office System).The Mid next year timeframe is for Longhorn Server.
Also there is a go live license for this stuff today!
My bad – I had assumed it was coming out in Vista time frame, tho I guess, technically, Vista is RTM before christmas (last time I heard), tho not available to resellers (Dell etc) until after. Or something like that. I keep losing track 
It’s great to see that W(WCP)F and CardSpaces are all out sooner, rather than later. The tech in them is excellent.
However, the problem for me (or rather, for my work) is two fold: We ship our next major version ”before 5 months is up” (if everything goes to plan), and we don’t ever ship on non-RTM code. It’s not worth it – going around supporting 300+ (and growing quickly) sites is unmanageable if it’s the library code which is the issue (or even if it’s our code). The risk outweighs the benefits. Plus, it’s XP/2003 only (and Vista…) – we currently run on 2003, 2000, and even NT4. Officially, we only support 2003, but we have a lot of customers on the older platforms.
If we were doing corporate apps, where a new version can be pushed out easily (or better yet, it’s all on one web server), then it’d be a different ball game….
I still think the re-branding was a bad idea – or rather, a bad name. If they are going to ship out-of-sync with the CLR, then name them TOTALLY different. WinFX was totally different. .NET Framework 3.0 (including the CLR from 2.0) isn’t.
