PDC - Now do you believe us?

Since I went to MGB in July, I've been buzzing with all the cool new things that we (Microsoft) is working on.

In some ways it's like the company has been pretty sleepy from the outside, but when you see the work on the inside - you realize that its a different company and that there is lots of really cool stuff going on.

I'm glad I joined Microsoft when I did - the next 12 months have got lots of cool products, as do the 12 months after that, and the 12 months after that too...

Yesterday at the PDC people saw why we are so excited about Office 12, Vista, Atlas and MSN (gadgets, MSN Developer center) to name a few off the top of my head.

Today it was the Expression Studio which is a suite of tools for graphic designers to create cool UI designs that can be delivered to developers who can then simply plug in their code from Visual Studio.  This will revolutionize the way software is built - in the future the UI will be a rich graphical experience not limited to the theme you currently have on your PC. 

Did anyone see New Zealands own Scott Woodgate and  Paul Andrew (who I replaced) talking about Windows Workflow foundation (which was a big secret until PDC)... Channel9 has a video here.  Chris Auld will be doing a road show in New Zealand around this technology soon (stay tuned)

I think Mike Torres from the spaces team put it well in his post when he said

"To me, this is New Year's Eve...  I can't imagine a more exciting time to work in technology or at this company.  And as a fan, I can't imagine anything better than sitting back and being hit with a firehose of new stuff, starting now and continuing into 2006... and hopefully never slowing down.

Say what you want about Microsoft being slow, old, and boring.  Just make sure that before you open your mouth, you buckle up.  The biggest year in Microsoft's 30 year history starts right now.   Come along for the ride or watch from the sidelines.  Either way, you can't miss it."