So the news is out that Microsoft is going to roll the .NET Framework 2.0 and WinFX together and call them .NET Framework 3.0. From a technical standpoint I think it makes sense, and even from a marketing perspective there is goodness there, however I can see this causing problems for some early adopters.
Because upgrading from one framework version to another is considered to be such a major jump people may find it harder to adopt the new technologies in .NET Framework 3.0 not for any technical reason, but because the business is going to push back on jumping to a new framework version.
Now even though us geeks know that we are really just talking about the .NET Framework 2.0 plus some extra platform bits the decision makers in the enterprise space may not pick up on that subtle point.
In the long term however I think that this will be a good thing provided:
- Microsoft releases framework drops (major and minor) on a rolling basis (no more three year cycles).
- The upgrade path is maintained.
If they fail to do this then they won’t be able to train customers into upgrading to the newer frameworks as them come out and customers will resist because the cost of upgrading is too high.
Sometimes I think the tail should wag the dog to a certain extent when it comes to this stuff though.