XNA

Have you read the news lately?
Count how many times Microsoft is mentioned in the technology section. XBox, XBox360, Vista, Zune, and it doesn't stop there. A few years ago Microsoft introduced the .Net framework which officially replaced COM and COM+. For those less geeky readers I'll quickly explain what .Net really is since I had to go through the trouble of learning some of it right around March this year.

The Dot Net framework is a fancy word for describing a very large collection of modules that help define Windows. This includes everything from protocol handling (how you view the web, check your mail, or download p2p). Basically these are complete functions which support Windows XP from ground up and were originally known as COM and COM+ (for NT). I'm not going to get further into detail on the subject but you can imagine how fast and easy it becomes to design new software when the hard part is already done for you.

ASP.NET is the server side of the framework which allows web developers to utilize all the power of dot net and than some. ASP.NET is also very attractive as it is almost syntax insensitive. What I mean by that is that ASP can be coded using C++, C#, VB, and even JScript (Microsoft's JavaScript). It also comes with a prepackaged developing environment that while expansive is by far the best out there. I took the time to learn Visual Studio and it is one of the most customizable, flexible programming environments I've ever had to deal with. In fact if your good enough you could write your own plugins to help make the software suite your own needs. You could even customize it to work with PHP, and Lua (see VSLua) with very little effort. Using this technology, one could deploy cell phone applications with the simple download of an API. Heck their is even a Robotics department at Microsoft that has designed a package for hobbyist and professionals to easily program and build their own robots. This environment is very similar to that of making video games, in fact so simular that Microsoft has introduced XNA.

XNA is Microsoft's answers towards game development. Allowing for full fledged games to be built using the same environment as other Microsoft applications. Using C# and the same tool kits one, according to Microsoft, could publish their own indie games at a much faster rate with more professionalism. I'm defiantly going to check it out since LearnXNA has already released four free chapters of tutorials to get you started.