Microsoft Build 2024 looks like it's more about AI fluff than developer stuff
- Reference: 1716366675
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/05/22/microsoft_build_2024/
- Source link:
The event has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels in terms of in-person attendance. Approximately 4,000 turned up in Seattle, although Microsoft would point to many times that number having registered for on-demand streaming. Last year, the figure was around 5,000.
It's a far cry from the more than 12,000 people who showed up in Paris for [1]KubeCon in 2024. More than half of them were also first-timers.
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Build is aimed at software engineers and developers, and has been running since 2011. The event is the successor of the venerable Professional Developers Conference, which dates back to the 1990s. Microsoft has another major annual event, Ignite, which succeeded its TechEd conference (also originating in the 1990s) and is more aimed at IT professionals as well as developers.
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The comparison between the highlights of 2019 and 2024's Build starkly shines a light on the issue for developers working with Microsoft technology. In 2019, it was all about Visual Studio. The Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, replete with a Linux kernel for Windows 10, was on display. There was Windows Terminal, and Microsoft talked up what was coming with .NET 5.0 – an increase in scope and a performance bump.
2024 is a different story. If a developer hasn't gulped down their AI pills and pulled on their Copilot pants, Microsoft doesn't seem that interested.
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Nowhere was that disinterest in anything which can't be slapped with the Copilot or AI label more evident than at yesterday's [6]AI PC event , where new Surface hardware and "Copilot+ PCs" were launched.
Unless CEO Satya Nadella has something more to pull out of the bag – perhaps an official sighting of a version of Windows with more AI skills than the vaguely creepy Recall feature as well as the ability to answer more than the question "How do I turn off Copilot?" – there simply isn't a lot to interest developers not already heavily invested in AI.
[7]UK competition cops say Microsoft's stake in Mistral is not a merger
[8]Microsoft offers China-based engineers an option to relocate
[9]Microsoft PC Manager app bizarrely suggests Bing as a Windows fix-all
[10]Microsoft's carbon emissions up nearly 30% thanks to AI
For the sake of the in-person attendees, we hope there is more than just AI, AI, and more AI.
2024's Build event could be defining for Microsoft. While Windows might still be a highly profitable segment for the company, the direction of travel it wants developers to take is clear: Copilot and AI. Ideally with a generous helping of Azure ladled into the mix.
The advent of generative AI is changing how developers work. A 2023 piece in Forbes asked the [11]question whether there is a place for coding education. The answer is nuanced. Yes, but not as previously understood, and certainly not as dispensed in previous Build and PDC events. Where past gatherings were used by Microsoft to show developers how to dig into the innards of Windows, the advent of low-code platforms and now Copilot and AI everywhere means it seemingly regards developers as another conduit for the company's AI vision.
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Not all developers will agree with that vision.
In the company's Big Book Of News, shared before the conference, Windows was mentioned fewer than ten times. AI appeared more than 150 times. While this is an unscientific sample, it does make clear which way Microsoft thinks the wind is blowing.
Microsoft's obsession with AI and Copilot might please investors, but the company depends on developers. A collective shrug at what should be the company's premier developer event could translate into something that alarms those same investors in the years to come. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.cncf.io/reports/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2024/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zk3CQPwvrdy96bmmZqkbEQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zk3CQPwvrdy96bmmZqkbEQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zk3CQPwvrdy96bmmZqkbEQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zk3CQPwvrdy96bmmZqkbEQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/21/qualcomm_windows_microsoft/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/17/uk_competition_regular_says_microsoft/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/17/microsoft_china_staff_relocate/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/16/microsoft_pc_manager_bing/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/16/microsoft_co2_emissions/
[11] https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishatalagala/2023/06/01/is-coding-educationas-we-know-itdead-how-large-language-models-are-changing-programmers/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zk3CQPwvrdy96bmmZqkbEQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Feature request
A user should be able to change Chatbot UI directly from the chat window. For example:
- OK Chatbot. Change your UI, so it has a larger font, and does not scroll when replying to my questions.
Re: Feature request
chatbot creators hate meta-anything, for good reason. otherwise you can talk the guardrails off the things
I am so glad ...
... that I will not have to hold the hands of friends and family while they are forced to re-learn everything about their computers in order to properly use this latest marketing exercise from Microsoft.
All of you stuck in the illogical, ever-changing Microsoft "vision" can still opt out ... MeDearOldMum and GreatAunt have been happy Linux users for many years now. Since moving them from the world of Windows to Slackware, their support calls have fallen from several times per month for the bastard child of Redmond, to none (zero, zilch, nada, 0) for about five years now on Slack.
Contrary to popular belief, Linux works perfectly well on user desktops, as long as the wetware of the installer understands the needs of the user.
Another example: I have Vet clinics here in the Bay Area that I moved from AI/X and Xenix to a version of Slackware in 1999. I also had clinics who chose to stick to Windows.
The Slackware side just keeps on trucking, with absolutely seamless updates and zero security theater. The systems never go down unless told to go down. The only calls I get from these folks is for hardware issues (PEE CEEs and attendant peripherals aren't exactly well known for their reliability, when measured in terms of many years in a high hair/fur environment). The only formal training they received was back in 1999. They have no on-site administrator, as there is no need.
The Windows side, which I no longer support, has been nothing but trouble, especially whenever Microsoft rolls a revision out the door, and when the malware du jour strolls past their defenses. These systems are down for what totals in the weeks every year, crash fairly regularly, and need constant hand-holding by an employee who does nothing but look after the system. The only reason I know what's going on with them is because the Vets call me fairly regularly, asking if I can't PLEASE come look at their computers. I decline. I don't do Windows anymore.
It's pretty funny, at rad-rounds the Slackware folks are all on one side of the room, and the Windows folks are on the other ... The Slackware people don't want to listen to the constant bitching about Windows from the other side of the room.
What is mind boggling is the Vets using Windows insist that they HAVE TO "because compatibility" ... despite how that is obviously bullshit, given some of their compadres have been happily using Linux for about a quarter century now.
sounds boring
Where past gatherings were used by Microsoft to show developers how to dig into the innards of Windows, the advent of low-code platforms and now Copilot and AI everywhere means it seemingly regards developers as another conduit for the company's AI vision.
sounds like a builder who loves laying bricks so much that he's going to some fancy construction workers event and it's just builders trying to flog mobile homes or pre-fab houses to other builders who'd rather build things
not unlike maplin moving from a components shop to a toy and phone shop and missing the point of why people went there (this comparison referencing the even rather than windows as a whole... for now)