Microsoft News Tracker

Overshadowed by the Microsoft Yahoo takeover soap opera last week, Microsoft released version 2 of its Expression Studio collection of Web tools:

• Expression Web 2 for Web design
• Expression Blend 2 for multimedia and 3-D design
• Expression Design 2 for graphic design
• Expression Media 2 for managing multimedia assets
• Expression Encoder 2 for video encoding

Expression Encoder is new in version 2 of the Studio and among other new features, Silverlight support was added to all of the tools, and PHP and ASP.NET 3.5 support was added to Expression Web. The PHP support reflects broader aspirations than just covering the needs of captive Microsoft technology developers but it will be difficult to break the grip that Adobe Dreamweaver has on that market.

Less desirable is the perpetuation of the wacky dichotomy between Microsoft developer tools (Visual Studio) and design tools (Expression). Developers who subscribe to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) have been promised only a subset of the Expression tools and they will have to either ante up for a standalone copy or buy an Express Professional Subscription (which partially overlaps the MSDN subscription) to get the full set.

You may recall the furor ([1], [2]) over Microsoft’s decision not to make the new Expression family of design tools available to members of the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) based on the not always obvious distinction between “designers” and “developers.” Today, S. Somasegar (Microsoft Developer Division Corporate VP) revealed that Microsoft has taken the adverse reaction to heart and that some of the Expression tools will now be made available to some MSDN subscribers:

Based on this feedback, I am pleased to say that we will be making Expression Web available starting today to all MSDN Premium subscribers. We will also make Expression Blend available to MSDN Premium subscribers shortly after the Expression Studio release later in Q2 2007. Expression Blend and Expression Web are intended to help creative professionals collaborate with developers to create rich user experiences for the Web, Windows Vista applications and beyond, which means we need to make sure both tools are readily available to our developer community.

The decision extends to all MSDN Premium subscribers, including those with Visual Studio Professional and Visual Studio Team Edition’s. For customers that have premium subscriptions to Visual Studio Team Suite, we will be making the entire Expression Studio available to them.

You may be asking, what about Expression Design and Expression Media? Expression Blend and Expression Web are both designed to help creative professionals and developers work together to create rich user experiences for the Web, Windows Vista applications and beyond. As Expression Design and Expression Media are not directly intended for application development, we feel they fall outside the current scope of MSDN Subscriptions. We will be watching usage and collecting feedback of these expression products to help make further decisions in the future.

If it’s not entirely clear which level of MSDN subscription gets what, Joe Wilcox provides a nice chart.

Catching up on an item from last week - Expression Design Beta 1 and Blend Beta 2 Available:

Yey - I know several of our ISVs have been waiting patiently for these downloads. I just need to find a day to try them both out! You can beat me to it by downloading them from http://microsoft.com/expression.

eWEEK’s Darryl K. Taft interviews Forest Key, director of product management for Microsoft’s design tools, and InfoWorld’s Paul Krill interviews Eric Zocher, general manager of the Microsoft Expression product line, to provide the big picture, but the nut is that the Expression family is Microsoft’s new foray into tools for designers as opposed to all the existing tools for developers. The Expression products utilize Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF, codenamed Avalon), Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E, aka “Flash Killer” which also has a new CTP) and XAML to create the design elements for rich content Web and desktop applications.

Of course, a persistent side issue of the invidious distinction between designer and developer tools is the fact that the Expression tools are not being made available to developers through the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN). As long as Microsoft is going to erect barriers between the two, they might as well also create a “Microsoft Designers Network” although they better use a little of that artistic creativity to avoid conflicting acronyms.

Press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced significant product line enhancements along with pricing and availability of the Microsoft Expression Studio for creative professionals. The quality of user experience is emerging as a core requirement for differentiating products and services while optimizing customers’ brand loyalty. Expression Studio, a key component of Microsoft’s strategy for improving the user experience delivered by applications, provides designers with an end-to-end tools platform that boosts collaboration with developers in the delivery of next-generation user experiences for the Web, Windows Vista™ applications and beyond.

Expression Studio comprises Expression Web for creating standards-based Web sites; Expression Blend (formally Interactive Designer) for designing rich interactive experiences for Windows Expression Design (formally Graphic Designer) for the design of visual elements for Web and Windows experiences; and a new tool, Expression Media, which provides digital asset management and unifies team workflow across the suite. Expression Web is shipping today, and the full Expression Studio is planned for delivery in the second quarter of 2007.

Actually, Expression Web used to be Web Designer, and they were still using the “Designer” versions of the names on the Expression home page when I looked a few minutes ago. Then there were the original codenames of Quartz, Sparkle, and Acrylic respectively, but I digress.

Product enhancements unveiled today in Expression Blend and Expression Design include a new user interface crafted specifically for professional designers and based on extensive feedback following more than half a million downloads of Expression community technology previews (CTPs). Expression Blend Beta 1 and the Expression Design December 2006 CTP are available for download.

Expression Media, based on the iView MediaPro product acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, supports more than 100 media formats and provides offline access to visual catalogs, making it easier for creative professionals to manage and use their digital assets. Expression Media includes Expression Media Encoder, a complete solution for the preparation, encoding and deployment of rich video and audio for Web and Windows experiences. A first CTP of Expression Media is expected early in 2007.

The iView acquisition was mentioned here.

Also made available today is the first CTP of Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E). WPF/E is a cross-platform browser plug-in for delivering rich media, animation and video content based on the Emmy Award-winning Windows Media^® technology, the industry’s most pervasive media platform for the Web, desktop and devices. Expression Media and Expression Design provide support for authoring content for the WPF/E CTP.

WPF/E has been described as a “Flash Killer,” but it has its work cut out for it combating Adobe’s ubiquitous product. As a whole, Expression Studio is a competitor to Adobe’s Creative Suite and similar Web designer tools. That categorization is apparently important to Microsoft since Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers won’t get Expression because it is not for developers, but designers.

Update: Mary Jo Foley has a lot more:

Microsoft is sending out mixed messages, in terms of its Web-design-tool strategy.

First, there’s the positioning. Redmond’s “we plan to complement, not compete with Adobe” rhetoric — which I’m doubtful anyone who knows Microsoft will buy for a second.

And then there’s the partitioning. Microsoft’s decision not to make available its new design products available via its traditional developer channels, like Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN).

When last we heard, Microsoft had paused development on Expression Graphic Designer (Acrylic) and Expression Web Designer (Quartz) was AWOL. Now, Martin LaMonica reports at CNET that Microsoft says that these two plus their sibling Expression Interactive Designer (”Sparkle”) will be available 60-90 days after Vista. That’s probably the soonest since they depend on the Windows Presentation Foundation (Avalon) display technologies which will finally be solidified with Vista. Microsoft also promises a CTP of Quartz in June.

Speaking of WPF, at last week’s Mix06 conference Microsoft unveiled Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E) which is popularly billed as a “Flash Killer.” Elizabeth Montalbano at InfoWorld:

WPF/E lets graphics created for Windows Vista applications run on other OSes as well as on the Web, said Forest Key, a director of developer tools product management for Microsoft.

Key described WPF/E as a run time for reusing rich graphic elements built specifically for a Windows Vista application. At the core of the technology is XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language), Microsoft’s language for creating graphical presentation elements in Windows Presentation Foundation, the next-generation GUI framework for Windows Vista.

WPF/E can be used in two different ways. Developers can use it to embed XAML code for graphics in an application so it can run on another platform, for example, the Macintosh, Key said. Then there are WPF/E plug-ins for browsers, which can be downloaded when a WPF/E-enabled applications pops up on the Web. The plug-ins will allow those XAML-based graphics to be rendered in various browsers, he said.

Microsoft will release the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of WPF/E in the third quarter. In the first half of next year, it will release WPF/E plug-ins that will allow graphics built for Windows to run on browsers, including Apple Computer’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer.

Microsoft bills WPF/E as a more flexible alternative to Adobe Systems’ Macromedia Flash, which also is both a developer technology for building multimedia content and a plug-in that can be downloaded to allow rich graphics to run on the Web.

Since Flash has a huge head start, I doubt WPF/E “kills” it any time soon. It’s just another plug-in to add to your browser.