Quote Originally Posted by Schmidt View Post
- a "Babel-like"-scenario in terms of modern GUI-stuff, where nobody really knows where to saddle on
..(instead a GUI-Framework which is well-thought-out, so that new stuff and changes can happen *behind* existing and stable interfaces)
A million times, this. I find it sad (and a little ridiculous) that the ever-changing world of HTML+CSS provides a more stable, consistent UI framework than Windows itself.

XAML (any of its 4 different incarnations), WPF, HTML5, WinForms - I don't care which platform they pick, but please guarantee that at least one will be a stable, reliable target moving forward.

The same goes for the graphics libraries underlying the UI frameworks. You can't leave something like GDI+ as a major component of the .NET stack, only to deprecate it and leave it in a permanently half-working state. Similarly, GDI desperately needs to be dragged into the modern age (32-bpp support throughout the library as a bare minimum), and ideally, both of these libraries should be layered atop DirectX.

(I actually think Microsoft's fundamental inability to stick with a UI framework is directly tied to the sloppiness of the underlying low-level libraries. Clean those up, and UI frameworks will be a lot easier to support.)

/rant