5 ms·

Microsoft's Build 2012 developer conference sells out in an hour

36 points by marcieoum 14y ago

DigitalSea 14y ago
So much for lack of interest in Windows 8. I'm starting to think Windows 8 is going to be a successful operating system once people get use to the Metro interface.
- elliottkember 14y ago
  Don't you mean "Windows 8-Style Interface?"
  - yohui 14y ago
    I think it's "Windows 8 interface". Though I think I'd rather just keep calling it Metro. (Seriously, Microsoft should have told Metro AG to shove it.)
    - lloeki 14y ago
      Given the amount of debate around Metro, I don't think people I've discussed with will stop calling it that way. (BTW isn't that 'Modern UI' lately?)
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- cmer 14y ago
  The fact that the conference quickly sold out doesn't mean anything in my opinion. Developers might have an interest in Metro, but I doubt the public will (on the desktop). I think Windows 7 will remain relevant much longer than XP was/is.
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- rbanffy 14y ago
  All it takes is 5000 people and the event sells out. Don't forget attendees leave with very expensive swag with them and I expect Microsoft to give away Surface tablets. If that's not enough, Windows 8 will be bundled with just about every PC sold, so, its safe to assume Windows 8 apps will have a market. Also, they couldn't afford not having it sold out after Google's IO. I also notice the timing coincides with the expected iPhone 5 launch. Tech media must be struggling to cover both events.
  - cnunciato 14y ago
    Right. It couldn't possibly be that 5000 people actually wanted to go.
- Posibyte 14y ago
  Developer interest and public interest, unfortunately are usually in two different ballparks. I love tilling window managers, but my dear old mother probably wouldn't. Anyhow, my employer just bought passes for all senior and junior developers, so, through a bit of anecdotal evidence here, I bet quite a few developers are only attending through their employer.
  - lloeki 14y ago
    >I love tilling window managers, but my dear old mother probably wouldn't. You'd be surprised. Sure they'd hate to use ratpoison but the concept holds ground. I've heard people ask if Win7 could do Aero Snap all the time automatically.
    - Posibyte 14y ago
      Yeah, I shown my friend once the use of using Super+Direction to snap it in certain directions, he was hooked. For those that don't have multiple monitors or work on laptops, I'd take tiling Aero/Metro any day of the week.
hdivider 14y ago
I bet a lot of people just wanted to come along in case they get a free Surface or Windows Phone 8 at the end. ;) As for the success of Windows 8, I think it's simply not possible to estimate how well it'll be received by the average Win7 user. Microsoft is releasing so much new stuff this year - most or all of it designed to work together - that I don't think it's valid to look at just one thing (eg the 'schizophrenic'-style UI of Windows 8/RT) and claim that because it's not awesome, the whole new direction that Microsoft is taking will invariably set them on a downhill path. The data simply aren't in yet. It'll be an interesting 6-ish months before we'll see how this multi-billion dollar experiment will work out.
randomfool 14y ago
Crazy prediction- they announce Windows 9 here. My thinking? 1) In order to compete with iOS, OSX and Android, Windows has to move to a yearly release schedule. 2) Rather than sell boxed copies of Windows for $119 every 3 years, why not sell an upgrade from the previous version for $40 every one year? 3) Only supporting upgrades from the previous version would push a steeper upgrade curve, which allows developers to target the newer features (as it is now, Windows developers have to wait eons to leverage new features). 4) Windows Phone team was able to do it. Normally I'd say that Microsoft is too slow to adapt, but the Windows Phone team was able to do it, so I won't count out the Windows 8 team. So, why announce Windows 9 at Build? The current $40 Win8 upgrade (from XP, Vista, Win7) expires January 31st. My guess is that Microsoft wants to get everyone on board to Windows 8 then do upgrades only from Win8 to Win9. To do this, they need to announce Win 9 before the upgrade to Win 8 expires- tell everyone to upgrade ASAP or they'll have to pay full price for Win9. It's just a hunch though. If not Build, then CES. But my understanding is that they're not participating in CES anymore.
- aik 14y ago
  Odd. 1. As a developer I feel that would be a disincentive for me to start developing for Win8 when Win9 is in the pipeline just a few months away. Which one do I actually develop for? 2. Win8 is unproven. I couldn't imagine Win9 would be in a stable enough conceptual stage for it to make sense for them to announce it. They haven't even received wide consumer feedback on Win8 yet and so many things are still up in the air with the OEMs it seems. If anything it could be Win8.5 -- some cool new additions but 90% of the foundation is the same.
  - randomfool 14y ago
    An 8 SP1 release is definitely a strong possibility (but not as fun to theorize!). I'd say that the largest hole in my theory is that Microsoft has fairly high support standards- something like supporting the OS for 10 years after release. If they release a new version every year then that makes patching and support an absolute nightmare. Service Packs since they are free do not (AFAIK) extend the support life of the product. I disagree with the developer aspect- you target what customers have, but keep an eye on what's coming up. Same thing goes for iOS and OSX developers. As it is now with the Windows ecosystem, it takes eons after the OS is released to actually have enough traction to make sense targeting it.
justanotheratom 14y ago
I am wondering why is this being discussed on HN today, after 4 days?
- rbanffy 14y ago
  Microsoft technologies seem to be surprisingly popular here. It kind of makes sense: releasing early and iterating quickly is a strong theme within startups and the Microsoft stack, while not my favorite one, is familiar to a lot of developers. If it takes you one month to learn and one month to develop a first release on a stack like Rails of Django, you'd still release first if it took you 45 days to develop on a stack your developers are already familiar with. You still have the challenges of scaling on Windows, but, by then, you already know whether you'll need to.
johns 14y ago
It's a pretty small venue if they hold it on campus where PDC 2010 was held. I'm guessing 1000 at the most. Not anything like Build in Anaheim last year which held 5000.

36 points by marcieoum 14y ago

So much for lack of interest in Windows 8. I'm starting to think Windows 8 is going to be a successful operating system once people get use to the Metro interface.

elliottkember 14y ago
Don't you mean "Windows 8-Style Interface?"
- yohui 14y ago
  I think it's "Windows 8 interface". Though I think I'd rather just keep calling it Metro. (Seriously, Microsoft should have told Metro AG to shove it.)
  - lloeki 14y ago
    Given the amount of debate around Metro, I don't think people I've discussed with will stop calling it that way. (BTW isn't that 'Modern UI' lately?)
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
cmer 14y ago
The fact that the conference quickly sold out doesn't mean anything in my opinion. Developers might have an interest in Metro, but I doubt the public will (on the desktop). I think Windows 7 will remain relevant much longer than XP was/is.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
rbanffy 14y ago
All it takes is 5000 people and the event sells out. Don't forget attendees leave with very expensive swag with them and I expect Microsoft to give away Surface tablets. If that's not enough, Windows 8 will be bundled with just about every PC sold, so, its safe to assume Windows 8 apps will have a market. Also, they couldn't afford not having it sold out after Google's IO. I also notice the timing coincides with the expected iPhone 5 launch. Tech media must be struggling to cover both events.
- cnunciato 14y ago
  Right. It couldn't possibly be that 5000 people actually wanted to go.
Posibyte 14y ago
Developer interest and public interest, unfortunately are usually in two different ballparks. I love tilling window managers, but my dear old mother probably wouldn't. Anyhow, my employer just bought passes for all senior and junior developers, so, through a bit of anecdotal evidence here, I bet quite a few developers are only attending through their employer.
- lloeki 14y ago
  >I love tilling window managers, but my dear old mother probably wouldn't. You'd be surprised. Sure they'd hate to use ratpoison but the concept holds ground. I've heard people ask if Win7 could do Aero Snap all the time automatically.
  - Posibyte 14y ago
    Yeah, I shown my friend once the use of using Super+Direction to snap it in certain directions, he was hooked. For those that don't have multiple monitors or work on laptops, I'd take tiling Aero/Metro any day of the week.

hdivider 14y ago

I bet a lot of people just wanted to come along in case they get a free Surface or Windows Phone 8 at the end. ;) As for the success of Windows 8, I think it's simply not possible to estimate how well it'll be received by the average Win7 user. Microsoft is releasing so much new stuff this year - most or all of it designed to work together - that I don't think it's valid to look at just one thing (eg the 'schizophrenic'-style UI of Windows 8/RT) and claim that because it's not awesome, the whole new direction that Microsoft is taking will invariably set them on a downhill path. The data simply aren't in yet. It'll be an interesting 6-ish months before we'll see how this multi-billion dollar experiment will work out.

randomfool 14y ago

Crazy prediction- they announce Windows 9 here. My thinking? 1) In order to compete with iOS, OSX and Android, Windows has to move to a yearly release schedule. 2) Rather than sell boxed copies of Windows for $119 every 3 years, why not sell an upgrade from the previous version for $40 every one year? 3) Only supporting upgrades from the previous version would push a steeper upgrade curve, which allows developers to target the newer features (as it is now, Windows developers have to wait eons to leverage new features). 4) Windows Phone team was able to do it. Normally I'd say that Microsoft is too slow to adapt, but the Windows Phone team was able to do it, so I won't count out the Windows 8 team. So, why announce Windows 9 at Build? The current $40 Win8 upgrade (from XP, Vista, Win7) expires January 31st. My guess is that Microsoft wants to get everyone on board to Windows 8 then do upgrades only from Win8 to Win9. To do this, they need to announce Win 9 before the upgrade to Win 8 expires- tell everyone to upgrade ASAP or they'll have to pay full price for Win9. It's just a hunch though. If not Build, then CES. But my understanding is that they're not participating in CES anymore.

aik 14y ago
Odd. 1. As a developer I feel that would be a disincentive for me to start developing for Win8 when Win9 is in the pipeline just a few months away. Which one do I actually develop for? 2. Win8 is unproven. I couldn't imagine Win9 would be in a stable enough conceptual stage for it to make sense for them to announce it. They haven't even received wide consumer feedback on Win8 yet and so many things are still up in the air with the OEMs it seems. If anything it could be Win8.5 -- some cool new additions but 90% of the foundation is the same.
- randomfool 14y ago
  An 8 SP1 release is definitely a strong possibility (but not as fun to theorize!). I'd say that the largest hole in my theory is that Microsoft has fairly high support standards- something like supporting the OS for 10 years after release. If they release a new version every year then that makes patching and support an absolute nightmare. Service Packs since they are free do not (AFAIK) extend the support life of the product. I disagree with the developer aspect- you target what customers have, but keep an eye on what's coming up. Same thing goes for iOS and OSX developers. As it is now with the Windows ecosystem, it takes eons after the OS is released to actually have enough traction to make sense targeting it.

justanotheratom 14y ago

I am wondering why is this being discussed on HN today, after 4 days?

rbanffy 14y ago
Microsoft technologies seem to be surprisingly popular here. It kind of makes sense: releasing early and iterating quickly is a strong theme within startups and the Microsoft stack, while not my favorite one, is familiar to a lot of developers. If it takes you one month to learn and one month to develop a first release on a stack like Rails of Django, you'd still release first if it took you 45 days to develop on a stack your developers are already familiar with. You still have the challenges of scaling on Windows, but, by then, you already know whether you'll need to.

johns 14y ago

It's a pretty small venue if they hold it on campus where PDC 2010 was held. I'm guessing 1000 at the most. Not anything like Build in Anaheim last year which held 5000.