I was reading along, saw you quoted in the newspaper, then did a doubletake as I rememberer back to your warning here. Funny.

Now, if someone gets a photo on Flickr of Ryan autographing newspapers on the streets of Seattle, that’d be fun…

jd/adobe

And that is the keyword: substantial. If i start calculate the difference in bytes and milliseconds between WPF/e and Flex, i get i will increase the cost, and produce just a small part of what my potential is.

I think the scenario would be the same for developers. As an AS3 developer, ive already played around with Apollo. It is very cool, and i already have ideas for stuff to create with it. However, i cant see why i.e. a .NET developers should care too much yet. I guess thousands of developers are totally aware of Apollo, but just read about it and raises eybrows, then go back to work. Apollo is just beta to them, and WPF/e is just beta to me. Its all gonna be about the showdowns.

I do certainly agree that if a company is not aware of competing technologies and general software evolution, they will lose. This is happening today as we speak with AJAX. Companies will fall behind since AJAX cannot compete with Flex/Flash (and in the future WPF/e) because of productioncost and endresult.

But unless one can afford to invest in a position for testing and validating new technologies, the best they can do is to trust their developers advice and give them room to keep up with the evolution (And when needed invest in courses, conferences, software, etc).

I saw an interview the other day with gates and he says “we pretty much innovate everything (choke gag & puke) we also have gotten pretty good at copying things too”

At least the last part was right.

Now THAT is rich. I recommend following JD’s posts to sharpen your diplomacy skills, Scott. Oh… you already are.

I still believe that companies putting all there eggs in one technology basket is a bad idea and creates a limited environment for developer creativity. Maybe I’m just lucky. I work for a company that allows me to assess the project and choose the tool best suited for the job be it Flash, Flex or HTML for presentation and .net, php or ror on the server. Maybe working in that type of environment has just spoiled me. I will say this, I don’t think developers have the time to see if work will pay for training. There is very little web dev technology that cannot be learned from google searches. These communities are strong and a better resource than any book or training I’ve ever had.

Scott – Technology Agnostic, that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Developers win by learning everything they can.

The Adobe vs. Microsoft pissing matches have gotten boring (except for Parvez Ansari, MCP – that was kinda sad, kinda funny). I say Adobe and Microsoft both pick a guy and have a physical fight or drinking contest or something that doesn’t seem like a virtual slap fight.

We can watch it on Joost.

Of course they would and you’re not that dumb to assume that Microsoft vs Adobe isn’t going to be a story headline (i’d buy the paper for it – i’m shallow as i also buy magazine to get the scoop on Britney Spear’s latest meltdown… it’s what I call lite reading).

I do giggle though as I wonder if you honestly think people haven’t caught onto your posture yet?

Allow me to illustrate:

jd usually comes onto a persons blog, at first comes off diplomatic but when challenged, responds to everything but the actual points in the topic. Only after which, if there is a Microsoft/Competitor spin to be had, he’ll approach the comment with a sort of underlying question that needs to be answered, mainly around hints about Microsoft/Competitor is up to no good. This usually does one of two things, get’s ignored and dies of a natural death by the general population – or – it ignites a Microsoft/Competitor vs Adobe rant fest in which case we have posts like this from Ryan outlining what he kicked off earlier today

You’re good jd, i will give you that, but it’s also amusing at times to see how easily you can manipulate people within blogsphere and than you ride off into the sunset when a new sandpit opens up to be played in

btw? what is your job title at Adobe? i’ve been asked a lot about this and I honestly have no idea.

Such a pattern usually means that there’s been a PR push, contacting many media outlets, trying to get placement for a story.

MS earnings are due the same week as the Las Vegas conference. I’m betting on a higher than average number of newspaper stories in the next two weeks, with frequent comparisons to Adobe work… the requests for quotes tips it off.

I hope you frame the newspaper, and if the WSJ calls, take the call… it’d be great to see you in one of those little black-and-white illustrations they do….

jd/adobe

Like i say when people call me a sellout for moving to Microsoft “Do you think knowing Flex/Apollo and WPF and WPF/e makes me weaker or stronger going forward?”

be agnostic and you’ll be fine folks let the corporate brands slug the marketshare out and sweat that stuff out, and keep pushing us to do better by casting your votes for each project you start. “Oh MSFT, you suck at xyz, so to punish you i’m going to use this high profile brand in Adobe” and vice versa.

That’s where you hit us the most. This Microsoft vs Adobe thing is only being played out in the blogs and the misconception is that blogs are the pulse of what developers around the world are thinking and doing – yet there are lots whom don’t even read blogs

Agnostic.

There’s also knowing the quirks of your tool – i.e. why some constructs are an enormously bad idea – which just comes from experience.

Your turning like a battleship comparison is a good one – and pretty much what I’m getting at – some systems, by the nature of their size ARE battleships. They can’t always be replaced by a fleet of small rapid boats.
Typically there is a big focus in these systems in reducing the number of technologies and suppliers involved.

I’ve worked with one client where their long term goal was to get all their third-party apps running on the same web app server and database technology, globally.

Of course, you’re talking about developers as individuals, and what they should be doing with their careers, whereas I’m coming at it more from the angle of the company paying to build the battleship. For a developer it may make sense to know both Flex and WPF/E (although she’d be damn lucky if her company will pay to train her in both). As a company, you want to invest in one.