The Learning Curve

Since I said I was going to talk about my adventures in server land, I might as well get started, right? Let's start from the beginning.

While I've certainly had server-side programming experience, I've come to realize that my programming experiences were perhaps a bit more client sided that I originally thought. Starting to work with the various core technologies in Longhorn Server last week has made me realize something: I have a lot to learn. Of course, this is a learning experience that I'm really looking forward to having. Like I've said before, I hope I never live a single day where I don't learn something new (no matter how small).

So, what's the learning curve? I'm not only talking about learning all the various technologies in Longhorn Server, I'm also talking about having to "back-learn" Windows Server 2003. My feeling is that if I can't express why certain advancements make our programming life easier than before, than I can't very well do my job, can I? To be able to communicate this, I need to go back and learn a bunch about Windows Server 2003 that I didn't know about before. This way, I can talk about how we had to do something before and compare it with how we can do it today with Longhorn Server. Of course, with certain technologies like the Transactional File System, this issue doesn't directly apply.

Currently I find myself learning Windows Server 2003, learning Longhorn Server, continuing to learn .NET 3.0, and learning Microsoft. And you know what? I still feel like a kid in a candy store :D.