Mike Chambers and I returned last night from Microsoft’s MIX06 conference in Las Vegas. We had a great time hanging out with all of the Flash users that were flown out and put up in order to see what Microsoft has been working on. I also enjoyed learning more about Microsoft’s upcoming creative tools and their Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) platform. Of particular interest to me were the sessions dedicated to explaining WPF/E (E = Everywhere, according to the PMs). WPF/E will be a stripped-down subset of the full WPF which will only be available for Win XP and Win Vista. It will be Microsoft’s browser plugin that will allow Windows developers to move subsets of their WPF apps into the browser and deploy to other platforms (including Mac and Linux via plugins developed by third-parties, according to the product team).

Microsoft had been quiet about the details of their plans for WPF/E until this week so I was very curious to hear what it would include. The Product Managers and Program Managers told the audience that WPF/E would not include hardware acceleration, 3D support, or DRM for video in its first release - for example.

For more details on the conference you can read Robert Reinhardt’s take: http://blogs.flashsupport.com/robert/archive/2006/03/23/595.aspx

You’ll notice Robert’s comment about many of the Flash developers enjoying the Xbox tournament that Mike and I set up. It was a blast. Kudos to Guy Watson who took first place in the Halo 2 tournament followed closely by Grant Skinner! If you were at the conference and didn’t get to attend be sure to come find us next time. We opened it up to anyone who wanted to come have some fun with us.

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