Windows Vista's new Expression

The big picture is that Windows is changing, and radically. Applications built with XAML use DirectX, so for the first time your high-powered graphics card will make a difference for ordinary applications.

We will see the same type of creativity that drives Flash applications on the web, where no two buttons are alike. In addition, new 3D controls will alter the look and feel of Windows.

This is the reason for the Expression suite. Microsoft isn’t really gunning for Macromedia, but simply providing what’s necessary to design for XAML. Flash evokes mixed reactions on the web, and we’ll see a similar response to XAML applications.

A bad XAML user interface will be much, much worse than a bad Windows UI today, but the good ones should more than make up. Building desktop applications will need design skills similar to those that are required today for web applications.

The rest of what’s new is plumbing stuff, exciting to geeks but invisible to the rest. It is substantial though: XML messaging everywhere, .Net maturing as a replacement Windows application programming interface (API), and WinFS merging database and file system.

All this comes on top of existing APIs, so bloat is a risk. There’s also a ton of security stuff. The biggest one is that in Vista, running Windows with limited permissions will be the default, as it always has been in Unix.

Hope for a secure Windows? Well, the bad guys wormed into XP with ease, though at the time it was meant to be secure, so don’t hold your breath.

Give Microsoft credit though – it is making the effort.

Jargon explained
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