MIX11 Day One Keynote, Live Notes

When a conference streams its keynotes, and makes most sessions available online, there is little point in "live blogging." So for MIX, I'm giving you some "live notes." My real-time thoughts about what's standing-out as things rolled-out here in Vegas.

Keynote Notes

Internet Explorer

• First-up is Dean H from the IE Team to talk IE. Most interesting things he's saying:
  • He keeps stressing that HTML5 is the only native experience for the web (and people prefer native experiences - citing mobile apps)
  • Dean is wearing at IE 10 shirt, so you can bet that's where this IE9 show-off is headed
  • Dean is showing-off a number if HTML5 apps in IE9 (things really designed to show-off IE9s hardware acceleration - so lots of video, SVG, heavy animation)
  • Microsoft is really trying to make the case about it's slower, more deliberate approach to HTML5 implementation - living on the "native" implementation message. Going so far as to openly mock the aggressive implementation of features like web sockets by browsers like Chrome and Firefox.
  • And now…Microsoft is addressing cadence. Basically, Microsoft is arguing against Chrome and Firefox's (planned) fast release cycles. Microsoft says it will actually slow down its preview cadence with IE10. Argues that Chrome and Firefox create more churn with their fast, sometimes incomplete implementations.
  • Doing a good job cherry picking some CSS3 features Chrome doesn't render perfectly. It's interesting that Microsoft is picking-on Chrome and not Firefox.
  • Sinofsky is helping show-off IE10 and plugging PDC 2011 in September in Anaheim California - claiming lots of excitement about HTML5…Windows 8 and HTLM5? (Disneyland).
  • IE10 news: What you'd expect. More focus on native hardware perf for HTML5 + more implementation of CSS3 features (like transitions, gradients, etc.) Oh! And the first IE10 platform preview is available today (ietestdrive.com)

Developer Platform and Tools Update

• ScottGu is out to share dev tools updates
  • Running through what's been done in the last year (VS 2010, jQuery support, etc.)
  • Announcing refresh of ASP.NET MVC 3 today, that includes jQuery 1.5 + Modernizr + new VS tools and templates
  • Announcing that EF 4.1 is shipping today. Added by default to all new MVC 3 projects.
  • Scott Hanselman is on stage to do a code build-up of two websites using MVC and WebMatrix - I 'm sure the designers at MIX are hating this section (especially after the designer-heavy content of the last few years)
  • Looooong technical demo. Not bad. But surprised it's in the keynote. Most of the tech you've seen before. It's WebMatrix, NuGet, SQL Compact, MVC3, jQuery, IE9, and so on.
  • Orchard is now on stage to show-off Microsoft's open source CMS. Another tech demo. Finally wrapping-up @ 10:23 (for video playback index).
  • Now it's time for Azure. Surprised this is the first time we're hearing about Azure today. Umbraco is on stage to talk about their Azure support.

Catastrophic laptop failure!