After this week’s preview of Microsoft WebMatrix, a free tool for developing .NET and PHP-based websites, many developers are left wondering where Microsoft’s Web strategy is headed.
WebMatrix features .NET extensions, IIS Express–Microsoft’s free developer Web server, and SQL Server Compact Edition 4. It includes links to an open source web gallery of apps, and provides access to third-party web hosts which support the Microsoft technologies. WebMatrix also supports Microsoft Razor–a syntax/view engine which can be utilized in .Net MVC or to develop .NET web pages.
Developers now have the choice of many Microsoft development environments, including Visual Studio, Visual Web Developer Express, Expression Web, WebMatrix, WebPlatform Installer, ASP.NET WebForms, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Razor, Silverlight and others. With this many products to support, some developers are rightly concerned where it is all headed, and just who Microsoft is trying to target.
