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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.
Microsoft’s David Boschmans reveals that the March Community Technology Preview of the upcoming Orcas release of Visual Studio is now available from the Microsoft Download Center. The download overview has a list of what’s new in the March CTP, but the major highlights to my mind are:
Since these were the anticipated big ticket items, it looks like Orcas is really coming together but no specific date has yet been set for its release. For a nice overview of Orcas, see Scott Guthrie’s recent presentation.
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).
The first “beta” was a Community Technology Preview in May, but now Expression Web Designer (AKA Quartz) has arrived as a full fledged Beta 1 with a name change as Microsoft CVP S. “Soma” Somasegar recounts at his weblog yesterday:
Earlier today, the team signed off on Beta1 for Expression Web (formerly known as Expression Web Designer) which provides you with a rich set of tools to build high quality, standards-based web sites.
You can download this beta from Expression Web and send us any feedback that you have on this.
The beta requires the .NET 2.0 framework before you can play.
Expression Web with Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is supposed to be the replacement for retiring FrontPage, but it looks like it is shrugging off most of the load as Steve Bryant reports:
One, the WYSIWYG web design software no longer supports the creation of FrontPage files. And two, Microsoft is changing the name from the incredibly boring “Expression Web Designer” to the incredibly opaque “Expression Web.”
…
Regarding the removal of FrontPage support, product manager Wayne Smith said MS has “removed from the product is all the entry points that allow people to create new things with FrontPage tech. But the editing tools remain.”You can still render FrontPage pages and edit them, but there are no mechanisms to create new FrontPage instances.
That may be OK, but as I mentioned previously, while FrontPage got no respect, it continues to be ubiquitous in both Windows and non-Windows Web hosting.
