Check out this blog post , where the name and roadmap for Atlas, now known as ASP.NET AJAX Extensions. I applaud Microsoft for actually leaving the Ajax reference in the product name instead of trying to take credit for the concept of Asynchronous Java and XML that drives the underlying core of the Atlas framework.
Looking forward to seeing Atlas get to a final release, but to be honest, I'm not all that enthused. I've been using Atlas since it first showed up, and while I certainly love the functionality of the UpdatePanel, I'm not terribly excited about anything else. If you want my honest opinion, I'm actually starting to get sick and tired of web sites that assault me with what I refer to as aggresively interactive websites. The sheer preponderance of AJAX, Flash, animation, fading, and what-have-you is so annoying that I often leave those web sites. A great deal of Web 2.0 sites are violating the very core nature of Web 2.0 (Keep It Simple Stupid) by bloating their sites with "rich content" just for the sake of rich content.
I'm all for rich content, when it adds value to the experience!! If animating, spinning, sliding, shifting, collapsing, bouncing crap on the page actually makes the page easier to use then I say go for it, and Atlas is a rich and powerful tool to accomplish that goal. However, if you're doing it just because its Atlas, just because its Ajax, or just because its the hip thing to do right now, then I'm not going to use your site because those sites are worse than the clean, crisp, professional sites that don't use a drop of Ajax.
tags: ajax atlas microsoft aspnet extensions roadmap
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