Posted on August 3, 2009 - by Justin Hartman
My thoughts on the TechEd Africa 2009 Keynote
A couple weeks back I was contacted by Eben De Wit who is the Microsoft Developer Advisor for the broad developer community in South Africa and was invited to attend Microsoft’s TechEd conference in Durban.
Eben wanted me to attend as a non-Microsoft person in an effort to get some perspective on the Microsoft offering but more importantly he has asked me to blog about my experiences while at TechEd in an honest way – so here goes.
Last night was the start of the conference which saw a two and a half hour Keynote presentation. The format was pretty dynamic and interesting but after two hours it was just too much to take in. The key elements of the Keynote were a focus on:
- The IT Pro
- The Developers
- The End Users
- The Cloud
The reason it was structured in this way was to highlight the new Microsoft offerings to each of these core areas.
What I didn’t like
The Keynote was filled with various live demos, most of which didn’t go as planned and many times the system (Windows 7 based) simply hung.
Seriously, there is no reason to do live demos during a Keynote presentation. They never work, never go according to plan and it’s embarrassing for the presenter when it all goes pear-shaped. As a non-Microsoft person these failed live demos reiterate my position on why I don’t use Microsoft but at the same time I’m not sure how it was received by the 2000 strong delegates in the audience.
I must also admit that I really didn’t like the Bing presentation much. The main reason was because the guy presenting (someone high up in Microsoft SA) kept having a dig at the competitor. I’m not a big fan of competitor bashing and the whole presentation was based around how Bing should be people’s new default home page and how much better it was to Google. Not a good strategy in my opinion.
What I did like
I must say I’m very impressed with the Office and Exchange 2010 offerings. The applications are looking slick, seem very fast and most importantly PowerPoint now has some Keynote coolness which means there’s no longer a need to bore people with bland slides.
In the 2010 ranges all these applications will be available in The Cloud – which essentially means you’ll be able to work on docs, spreadsheets, presentations and email from another computer via the web. This is an interesting move in that Microsoft is now combating the Google Docs effect and it’s going to be interesting to see how this battle pans out.
While I wasn’t particularly wowed by the other applications I have to say that each one that was on show had some really useful functionality that really does enhance the offering.
My take on Microsoft’s offerings
Windows 7 looks great. It was sad that the live demos tarnished Windows 7′s real stability but 7 is certainly a massive step in the right direction. For Apple or Linux users Windows 7 isn’t really ground breaking as we’ve been exposed to this type of functionality for some time but for Windows XP/Vista users this is an earth-shattering release that is going to wow users.
At the end of it all I was left with a strong impression that Microsoft is trying very hard at repositioning the company in all spheres of the market. They’ve invested a lot of money and resources into usability and the applications, while clunky at times, are really much better than any of their predecessors.
There also appears to be a strong drive now to take on Google in a big way. They’ve adapted a lot of the coolness from Apple into their offerings and are competing head on with Google in the fight for enterprise and search market share. Sure, Microsoft own the enterprise space right now but they know that Google are hot on their heals and while Google owns search, Bing is fighting to take some of that control away.
Over the next couple days I’ll be spending some time attending break out sessions that are relevant to me and I’ll post more as I go along.
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August 3, 2009
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Great article dear chap. Shame Windows 7 didn’t do well in the live talks, am surprised as have been using Windows 7 now for 4 months and have not had it crash once !!! (Touch wood).
Will have to point you in the direction of Steve Clayton (Microsoft UK) for great MS presentations. He is very fair and although an MS employee comes across as very neutral.
As you say competition bashing never will win you favour.Have a great week and must get together again soon.
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August 3, 2009
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Thanks for an honest appraissal.
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August 3, 2009
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@Nick thanks man.
@Chris – indeed the feedback I’ve heard from Windows 7 users is that it’s very stable. One guy noted that one of the problems with the live demos is that they’re pushing the boundaries of Windows 7 to cover the audience and that if they focus on what Windows 7 does best then these problems wouldn’t happen.
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August 3, 2009
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Nice summary. Regarding win 7, I have been running it for a few months now and haven’t had any problems yet. My feeling is that the issues were mostly to do with the virtual environment (Hyper-V) that some of those instances were running in.
In terms of the Bing presentation, I couldn’t agree with you more. You don’t move forward by slagging the competition, really poor form (that goes for the little rant about Apple at the end as well).
What continues to annoy me most about MS keynotes, are all the staged skits. IT pros, developers, architects and technology enthusiasts are not actors! The skits come across as lame and often detract from the product/feature being showcased.
That being said, there is lots to be excited about from a developer’s perspective. In the last two years MS have embraced the ability to communicate with developers in the real world and its beginning to show in the products that are being delivered.
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August 4, 2009
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Very cool overview. I use Windows 7 on my laptop and I find it very stable, it just doesnt agree properly with my laptop’s graphics (dell vostro a860) but other than that I am relatively happy.
Yeah, MS always have issues with presos – drift your mind back to the BSOD Bill Gates got when demoing Windows 98
Bashing the competition is not on, it shows that you (the basher) have very little intelligence to create a useful campaign.
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August 4, 2009
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Justin,
A great account – I have been using Windows 7 and Office preview on my Macbook and must say that while I have been impressed with the features, still find myself growing tired at long startups, confusing feature layout, abundance of features nobody uses. I am forced to use it for Outlook which is company policy.
Once Snow Leapord comes out (pre-ordered from Amazon) those days will be gone (on my personal laptop at least.
Nice article
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August 4, 2009
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August 6, 2009
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@Rohland – couldn’t agree with you more in terms of how MS have embraced developers. This is a unique angle and one that is going to take them a long long way. On another note it was awesome meeting up with you guys and look forward to many more!
@Jonathan – yeah everyone I’ve chatted with say the same – Win 7 is stable. I’ve managed to wangle an eval of Win 7 which I should be getting in the next couple weeks so I can take it for a spin myself.
@John – can’t wait for Snow Leopard… smart man pre-ordering at Amazon!!!
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August 6, 2009
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@Justin yeah – the RC is quite good. Only issue is the updates, they are enormous.