Mix '06 Keynote - "Off The Browser" = Smart Client?
I just finished watching the keynote which started with a rumpled looking monologue from Bill G. on the changing world of software. Afterwards we were treated to a demo of MySpace.com. The really amazing aspects of the MySpace story seemed to go completely over the heads of most of the attendees but involved the reduction of CPU load from 85% to 27% across their server farm which they were also able to reduce from more than 240 servers to 150. All of this from simply moving to ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005. Pretty awesome measures from the number 2 visited site in the world. At the end of their presentation they demoed a concept that they called their "Off the Browser" experience in which they used a SideBar gadget in Windows Vista to provide access to a user's MySpace site including a running slideshow of images. Of course that "Off the Browser" experience was via a smart client application.
During the second demo, a rep from the BBC showed off their truly amazing video on demand features available via the browser. Sure enough they also included an "Off the browser" experience using Vista to download videos and then stream them to a Media Center or XBox 360.
The last part of the keynote was mostly Tim O'Reilly trying to work the term "Web 2.0" into every other sentence followed by Bill Gates assuring the audience that they can use other tools besides Microsoft's to do web development, but why would they want to. As the conference continues, I'll be on the lookout for more Smart Client based information that I can share with my readers (again, both of you). In the meantime, lets all be like Tim and try to work "Off The Browser" into our daily vocabulary!