News

Microsoft Cancels Its Flagship Developer Conference

The Professional Developers Conference, scheduled to take place from Oct. 2 to 5 in Los Angeles, has been canceled this year.

• By Michael Desmond
• May 24, 2007

Microsoft announced Thursday that it was postponing the Professional Developers Conference, scheduled to take place from Oct. 2 to 5 in Los Angeles. According to a posting on the MSDN site, PDC is designed to focus on future development technologies, but several key products will already be with developers in the fall.

"By this fall, however, upcoming platform technologies including Windows Server 2008, SQL Server code-named 'Katmai,' Visual Studio code-named 'Orcas' and Silverlight will already be in developers' hands and approaching launch, which is where we'll focus our developer engagement in the near term."

Of course, Microsoft has long known the ship schedule for these important products. And PDC would still offer an important venue for introducing forthcoming products like Silverlight 1.1, Windows Vista SP1, and Visual Studio 'Rosario,' the Team System update that promises to expand the boundaries of the current VSTS product.

One reason for the cancellation could be that Microsoft isn't ready to talk about forthcoming Windows products. In a May 15 blog post about the WinHEC conference, RDN contributor Mary Jo Foley noted that Microsoft had stopped talking about future developments with the Windows Client.

"Execs are not talking at all about Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 or 'Fiji,' the Media Center update expected later this year," Foley wrote. "And don't even think about hearing/seeing anything on Windows Seven, aka 'Windows 2009.'"

The PDC event is typically held every two years in Los Angeles, and is the place where Microsoft gathers developers to talk about critical, forthcoming products and technologies. The October 2005 PDC, for instance, was a platform for evangelizing Windows Vista, Longhorn Server and Office 2007 development, and it also introduced Language Integrate Query (LINQ).