Day 1: Jim Allchin's keynote and associated demos

Jim started off his keynote on a pretty amusing note - by showing us a running version of Windows 1.0, just to show us how far computers - hardware, software and operating systems have come since then. I had honestly never seen Windows 1.0 running on a real machine ever before (only screenshots online) - I used MS-DOS when we first got our personal computer, and Windows 3.1 after that, but never Windows 1.0, so that was fun to see.

But the two major highlights of the keynote for me were the Netflix demo that showcased the power and versatility of the .NET framework and the code sessions with some incredibly smart people - Don Box, Chris Anderson, Anders Hejlsberg, and Scott Guthrie. It was awesome to see the very same Netflix app running (with small differences) on a Windows desktop, a Tablet PC, a Media Center PC, and more importantly, a Windows Mobile powered phone/PDA device. The code sessions were pure, hardcore, geeky fun, and it was inspiring to see the enthusiasm and energy in some of Microsoft's most well-known software architects.

Other significant things from Allchin's keynote worth mentioning are:
- Atlas: an object-oriented clientside framework that allows developers to build cross-browser, cross-platform AJAX web applications that integrate with ASP.NET and Indigo.
- LINQ: a great way to programatically perform complex SQL queries directly in applications using C#/VB.NET.
- InfoCard: an online identity management platform that allows for secure and trustworthy web transactions.

Tags: PDC05, .NET, Avalon, Indigo