Aaaargh… The Hidden Cost of Google Chrome

Yesterday, I did an initial review of Google’s new web browser “Chrome”… (which by the way I’m using right now to write this blog entry)

OK, so this is an early Beta of the product… so it’s not perfect… and it does have a few features I like (especially rendering speed which is out of this world!)

One of my initial gripes about Google releasing yet another browser is the fact that it increases the amount of addition cross-browser testing web developers and designers will have to do… in an already flooded browser market… this is not a welcome addition and the hidden cost to business will be unbelievable.

So, anyway, this evening my initial fears have been proved well-founded… I have been developing a web application since July in my spare time which is reasonably advanced, but uses mainstream web development technologies including: Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008, ASP.NET, C#, well-formed XHTML, CSS, and the latest version of ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. Is all reasonably close to good development standards – although there are a few areas of improvement I could make.

I have made heavy use of the AJAX Control Toolkit in this application… more use than I care to re-develop at this stage in the game… I am hoping to get a Beta of this application into deployment this side of Christmas…

I have been testing using Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox… and all is working seamlessly and identically across both browsers.

So I loaded my web-app into Google Chrome this evening and wasn’t too impressed to find that some of my AJAX controls aren’t working. Most of them were OK – but some aren’t fully working and I just find it dissappointing that I’m potentially going to have to start finding work arounds for this kind of thing if Google doesn’t kick their newbie browser into shape!

Free ASP.NET Hosting for UK Students

This was announced a while back but I thought it was worth posting… better late than never…

Seen this post on Ed Dunhill’s blog announcing that WebFusion are offering free ASP.NET Web hosting to all UK Students…

http://blogs.msdn.com/edunhill/archive/2008/01/20/free-asp-net-hosting-for-uk-students.aspx

The free hosting includes:

• Windows Server 2008, IIS 7, 500 MB disk space
• SQL Server 2005 database
• Support for ASP.NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, classic ASP and PHP

To get your free account you need a unique code and a .ac.uk email address.

Coupled with the Microsoft DreamSpark programme offering students around the world free access to their development and design tools, students really shouldn’t be able to complain about prohibitive Microsoft development costs.

Microsoft DreamSpark – Free Development and Design Software for Students!

Today Microsoft announced DreamSpark – a new programme which allows students worldwide to download valuable professional developer and design software – COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE!!!

Outgoing Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveiled this ultimate software giveaway to millions of students which will enable them to learn industry standard development technologies and design technologies, increasing their potential to be prepared and to succeed in today’s IT industry.

“We want to do everything we can to equip a new generation of technology leaders with the knowledge and tools they need to harness the magic of software to improve lives, solve problems and catalyze economic growth,” Gates said. “Microsoft DreamSpark provides professional-level tools that we hope will inspire students to explore the power of software and encourage them to forge the next wave of software-driven breakthroughs.”

The DreamSpark student program can be accessed by signing up at the following web address: https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

Software available through the student program will include:

• Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
• XNA Game Studio 2.0
• 12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club
• Microsoft designer tools. This ultra-versatile suite of tools will enable students to vividly bring their creative visions to life in vibrant new Web site designs and more effective digital content, including animation, imagery and photography.
• Expression Studio, including
• Expression Web
• Expression Blend
• Expression Design
• Expression Media
• Microsoft platform resources. The foundation for development and design platforms, these products deliver a security-enhanced, reliable and manageable environment for students to more quickly turn ideas into reality.
• SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
• Windows Server, Standard Edition

This really is a huge software giveaway! More cynical members of the IT community are speculating that this giveaway is largely in response to the rapidly growing adoption of free and open source development and design software available on the internet such as Linux, PHP, MySQL, Eclipse and The Gimp, as well as in direct competition to well-ingrained de facto industry standard commercial design software tools from Adobe…

The cynical would suggest that Microsoft is banking on their giveaway to likely have a large impact on personal preferences of graduates joining commercially licensed software development and media design companies in the coming years…