A few times in the past couple of months I've run into the problem of wanting to deliver a Windows app written in C# and gotten push back because the .NET Framework has not yet been widely installed by the average user. In order for any .NET app to run the framework needs to be installed, just like for any VB 6 app to run the VB runtimes must be present. The problem for .NET is, the framework is a 20 meg download, whereas the VB runtimes are only a couple of megs. Until the time the .NET Framework is bundled with the operating system (and that's not until Longhorn comes out) apps developed in C# or VB.NET will find small penetration at best. Users on broadband who have an interest in the app will take the time to download the framework, dialup users most likely won't bother. That is, unless there's a Killer App. I think we may finally have the makings of that app, but there are alot of caveats. Yesterday, Johnvey Hwang released a GMail API written in C#. It's fantastic.
Of course, an API on it's own isn't much to ordinary users, but as a testbed, he built a little applet that sits in the system tray and alerts you to new mail in your GMail account. GMail needed something like this. Badly. GTray was ok, but not great. It was inherently tied to Internet Explorer, which I found...distasteful. So, everyone who's been wishing for a system tray app to notify you when you have new mail at your GMail account...go install the framework if you haven't yet (just go through Windows Update), then download the app, it works like a charm for me.
The only thing really keeping this from being a Killer App is the relatively limited circulation of GMail accounts. It's still invite only, who knows if it will ever open to the public, or if Google is content to let the service out slowly and build a social network at the same time by way of invite paths.
The possibilities for a GMail API are really endless. I'm sure in the next few days we'll see RSS feeds, perhaps an improved version of the GMail backup script that was written. I'm kicking around the idea of creating a GMail powered forum system, just to see if it's possible. I'm very interested in seeing what comes out of this API.
Posted by joshua at July 6, 2004 05:40 PMThe problem of getting the framework deployed onto user's systems is definitely an issue.
Newer installer tools (such as InstallAnywhere.NET (obplug)) have the ability to distribute a small setup.exe that can automatically interrogate the system to see if .NET framework is installed, and if not automatically download and install it before continuing with the installation of your .NET application.
This absolves the average user from even having to think about things like frameworks and separately installing the .NET runtime. It's just another step in the install wizard for them. True they still have to suck down the 20M install, but at least it's automagic for them now..
» so sayeth Will on July 7, 2004 at 12:50 PMYeah, the biggest issue for the population at large is just the size of the download. 20 megs seems like nothing to those of us on broadband, but to blue-haired old ladies on AOL dialup it's not even an option. I heard today that XP SP2 includes the framework, which is great, but it still doesn't really affect the general populace. XP is widely installed among the more computer literate, but I think 98 and ME are still far more common overall.
» so sayeth joshua on July 7, 2004 at 12:54 PMYea, the size is definitely still a problem. It will be a long time before you can expect .NET to be standard on the "majority" of systems in the wild. And even then, you'll probably still have to consider developing for the lowest version of .NET ever released, to catch the widest market segment possible.
This is a similar challenge that has faced java developers for many years now. Given that Microsoft has it in their own best interests to ship .NET on as many platforms as possible, adoption should be faster, but many people are happy with their Win98 machines, and will only ever replace them as hardware fails. Lets face it, if you're just surfing the web, im'ing, and sending email to Aunt Sue, that PC you bought back in the mid-late 90's does everything you need.
It depends a lot on your expected user base, depending on the size of your .NET app, or the intended customer base having to deploy the runtime may not be a factor, but for the shareware/hobbyist market it's definitely awkward.
» so sayeth Will on July 7, 2004 at 01:28 PMYeah, that goes back to the original point of this post, that being the only thing that could really ensure a majority of the systems in the wild have the .NET framework installed would be some killer app that people just *want* (or more likely, a collection of killer apps that different groups of people want). Failing that, someone should just write a worm that downloads and installs the framework on people's machines while they're sleeping :p.
» so sayeth joshua on July 7, 2004 at 02:19 PM