Let’s Speculate for 2007

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In between holiday events and cocktail hours, it is traditional for some to make sweeping predictions about the world to come and then write about them. See below for my musings.

.NET-specific predictions, in no particular order:

  • WPF/E will start to give Flash/Flex a run for its money in the rich internet application sphere. Flash/Flex will still, however, lead the market. Adobe will likely get serious about making the back-end bits of Flex a more workable development environment before they get creamed by Microsoft.
  • Office 2007 & Vista will push significant changes in desktop applications. Major applications—especially the interface layers—will start to be written in managed code. User interface design will start to shift to a newer, friendlier regime. Icons are in, long drop-down menus are out.
  • Longhorn Server with IIS7 will give start making Windows a much more viable shared-hosting option.
  • NHibernate 1.2 comes out to rave reviews. And is promptly eaten alive by MS-supported DLINQ.
  • Aside from NHibernate, MS will eat another major open-source project by coming out with a free-but-supported-and-blessed alternative.

Some other predictions about the world of web applications in 2007:

  • Ruby on Rails will suffer a spate of growing pains but will eventually find it’s sea legs and start to be considered for significant, enterprisey projects.
  • AJAX will lose its glamorous pedestal and the world will realize it is just another tool in the box.
  • Video will remain the biggest hot/featured item on websites. Someone will figure out how to make flash video look good.
  • PHP’s fall from grace will continue as new fundamental security issues appear and competitors mature. There is a strong potential for a fork as some people realize a fundamental rewrite is the only way to save the language.
  • A major web application will be hacked using SQL injection or cross-site scripting, rather than a buffer overflow in the underlying stack.
  • Windows Mobile-based devices will start to take over the enterprise mobile email space due to slick Exchange integration and lack of need to purchase BlackBerry Enterprise Servers from Research in Motion.
  • The changes in daylight savings time cause far more problems for embedded systems than the over-hyped Y2K issues of the last century.

Happy New Year!

PS: Yes, I am aware this shows as it is posted in 2007. Which apparently it is already in Oz. But over here in the Western Hemisphere it is still 2006 gagnabbit.

Wyatt BarnettWyatt Barnett
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