Behind the Scenes at Fall COMDEX 2000

I've attended Fall COMDEX in Las Vegas for 5 or 6 years now, and the sheer number of people who come to the gathering always amazes me. I'm not a "people person" (in that I can't stand crowds), so COMDEX is pretty much the last place on earth I'd normally want to be. Yet year after year, I go back. There's got to be a reason, and, of course, there is: COMDEX is the seminal event in the computer industry, and there's just nothing else like it.

This year, I approached COMDEX a little differently. I've been there often enough now to know how to get around efficiently, and I can skip the things that waste my time. This year, I attended a lot of meetings, predominantly with Microsoft, instead of slogging around the show floor with the multitudes. The time was well spent: I might not always agree with the broad strokes from a company the size of Microsoft, but the people I know at the company are bright, articulate, and genuinely nice. Good people, as my father would say. And I wouldn't miss a chance to talk about upcoming products such as Office 10, Visual Studio.NET 7.0, and Small Business Server (SBS) 2000 with the people who actually work on those products.

But first, consider the Bill Gates keynote, which sets the tone for COMDEX and provides a high-level public overview of Microsoft's product plans. This year was no different: Gates and a cadre of Microsoft product managers presented the upcoming Tablet PC, Office 10, and Visual Studio.NET 7.0. Gates also brought David Lauren, son of fashion designer Ralph Lauren, on stage to promote the launch of polo.com, which runs on Microsoft technology. Lauren was well-spoken, humorous, and lively—everything Gates is not. As an industry, we rally around Gates and other technologists, and we cut them a lot of slack. After 20-odd years of appearing in public, however, Gates can't touch David Lauren's casual demeanor, which created an interesting contrast. I generally couldn't care less about fashion (which is immediately obvious to anyone who has met me), but Lauren was a small wake-up call during an otherwise soporific presentation. Gates should take notes.

But Gates had some pretty exciting stuff to talk about, though that might have been lost on listeners. Reading the transcript of his speech, however, you find that some cool stuff is coming down the pipeline. Among the more interesting COMDEX news items are the following:

And there's more—a lot more—of course. You can read the transcript of Gates' keynote on the Microsoft Web site.

And be sure to look for my extensive coverage of the show, along with exclusive photographs, on the Windows SuperSite.