Just got my first taste of Longhorn and Whidbey in the hands-on lab.

The first thing I'd like to say is that this conference is totally non-OCD friendly. There should be at least one PC in each lab that can be accessed via a disposable germ-resistant keyboard. As it stands, I had to go into the bathroom afterwards and light my hands on fire just to sterilize them. There's an unfortunately high percentage of geeks picking their noses while coding in the lab, and I'm pretty much scarred for life now.

Anyway, the first thing I did with Longhorn was go in and make sure that Solitaire was still there. It is, so you can all relax a little and get back to your daily lives.

The next thing I did was fire up Whidbey and try my hand at this XAML/Avalon stuff.

I'm not the most technically adept coder in the universe, but it still wasn't tough to get going. If you're already into anything with angle brackets, then XAML isn't going to be difficult.

If you aren't into the angle brackets, then you should probably get your ass in gear and learn this stuff, 'cause there's going to be a lot of it.