PDC05: Wrap up

Thanks to all the customers that took the time to meet with me! There was a ton of cool content at PDC, and I appreciate that folks we willing to miss a bit of it in order to have a sit down with the VC++ team. I know we gained some invaluable insights into how our customers use VC++ now and want to use in the future that I know will help us in planning Orcas (the next VS after 2005) and beyond. I want to emphasize, though, that customer feedback isn't an invite-only event and anyone is welcome to put in their two cents by posting comments on my blog or dropping me an email (stevetei at you-know-who dot com).

 

Microsoft is obviously a big software company with product offerings intended for a wide variety of audiences. As such, this puts us developer tools folks in the interesting position where some of our best customers are companies that compete fiercely with Microsoft in other areas. Because of this customers are sometimes initially a little wary when meeting with us, but the reality is that our mission is to enable people to build great software on Microsoft platforms, regardless of who publishes that software. We offer the same set of compilers and tools to all ISV and developers, no matter whether they work inside of Microsoft or outside. And, of course, it hopefully goes without saying that the details of our relationships with customers stay inside of Developer Division. From our standpoint, we want to enable third parties to build great software that competes with Microsoft software -- competition makes us all build better software, and that's a good thing. Okay, I have to write one more sentence so I don't end this blog entry sounding like Martha Stewart. Better now.

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2005
  Steve,
  
  Thanks for all your PDC VC++ feedback. I would be interested in what you heard from customers about the continued used of MFC in VC++, and what your thoughts are on that.
  
  Robbie Peele
  rpeele@mindspring.com