Paul Thurrott on WinInformant magazine writes  "Is .NET on the way out?".

So now it's April 2003 and I'm hearing that .NET is dead--that Microsoft will continue downplaying both the name .NET and the technologies behind it. You can find hints all around that this ".NOT" strategy might be happening right now. The 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 (once called Windows .NET Server, by the way) contain absolutely no .NET bits at all: No .NET Framework and no ASP .NET. Exchange Server 2003, the company's next major messaging server, contains no .NET. Office 2003, the premier office productivity suite, contains XML functionality only in the high-cost business versions and contains few native .NET features. In the biggest year ever of new product introductions from Microsoft, few if any of its products promote .NET, its supposed vision for the future.

Is .NET dead, or is Microsoft simply going through yet another round of growing pains as it attempts to figure out just what, exactly, its customers want? Frankly, I'm as confused as you probably are.

Yes, I'm just as surprised as you are!  I was planning to have yearly updates of the "101 List", however it appears that .NET is collapsing faster than I had ever imagined!  However, there have been a couple of indicators in the past few months that fortell the demise:

• The removal of .NET name in Windows 2003 server.
• The conspicuous absence of a .NET implementation for 64 bit version of Windows 2003 server.
• The TIOBE index showing no growth for C# in the last 6 months.
• The over supply and low demand for .NET books that lead to the bankruptcy of Wrox.

Finally, did you notice that the one year anniversary of .NET (last February) passed without as much as a single press release?  I had planned to publish the "101 List" to coincide with that day, well no press and therefore I never needed to.