Windows Server 2008 Launch

Ok, have to say it – this was a very “American” event… Lots of glitz and big screens. That said, there was a lot going on and a lot of information passing around. We arrived a few minutes early to find a massive queue outside tripod (my colleague had never seen anything like it at a tech event and insisted we pop into the coffee shop across the road until the line started moving, “I’m not standing there in the cold like all you techies!”). Pretty typically we had only been in the queue 2 minutes when I ran into someone I know and we all made our way through the efficient and streamlined registration and into my first tech event in a nightclub (complete with blacklight and atmospheric music).

After a couple of short promo videos and a statement or two from “the man in brackets” (does he have a name yet?) Paul Rellis (Microsoft Ireland MD) got up on stage and gave a nice short speech to kick things off. He was followed by David Lowe (Senior Product Manager with Microsoft) who reminisced about his days as a DJ in Dublin and then took off with a pretty good run down of the benefits of Server 2008 (considering he had about 15 minutes it was a pretty remarkable speech) and a recap of the time-line for the next 6 – 12 months.

After that it was off upstairs to the Silverlight room (the first Visual Studio 2008 session was full before we even got close) where I got to play around with a couple of demos I hadn’t seen before. I liked the fact that the laptops were there and it was up to you to just jump in when one came available and have a good look for yourself but I think my colleague would have preferred if there was a bit more “demo” given. Martha Rotter was doing a storming job as an [Ask the] Expert but with a room full of curious techies her time was a spread a bit thin. We skipped off early downstairs to grab some finger-food and catch the end of the demo being given by Dave Northey and Aiden Finn on Server 2008. The talk was interesting (but pretty much the same stuff as covered in the Longhorn Academy) and the snacks were nice (my vegan friend was even surprised to find that there was plenty she could eat…)

Next stop for me was Visual Studio and LINQ (my colleague wanted to catch the SQL Server session so we split up – all the better – more ground covered that way). I was pretty impressed with the LINQ demo. Pretty good showing of the LINQ to SQL functionality but I was left wondering will the LINQ to XML and LINQ to Objects really work “pretty much the same”? I was especially curious about the LINQ to “other stuff” that is planned but not implemented yet; it sounds good in theory but is it really going to pan out as simple as the LINQ to SQL? Still – all in all I was pretty impressed with the ease of use and the code generation.

Further on and further in! SQL Server 2008 – I have to say I was really impressed here by the HierarchyID data type. From the point of view of both query speed and ease of use it really seems to hit the nail on the head… Still, I’ll need to use it in anger before I make any judgments – as was pointed out last night – the demo may well have been a “best case” scenario. The change tracking and database protection look really useful as well. Impressive to see people actually giving live demos at that speed (especially when they have had to type the same code 8 times already in the day) in front of a bunch of techies. Fair play!

On the way out we got a good look at the sponsors’ and vendors’ stands and then went to hand in our feedback forms and pick up goodies… Besides the Expression Studio evaluation and training DVD and the Windows Mobile development kit I picked up inside we were also given copies of the software being launched and a pretty cool book entitled “Heroes Happen Here” with photo articles about IT Pro’s the world over and the work they are doing… Finally a proper techie coffee table book!

All in all, well worth the afternoon it took up and definitely a different event to the ones I’m used to!