Microsoft is retiring TechNet and MSDN. Replacing it with a modern worthy successor.

[AlTech]

Microsoft is retiring TechNet and MSDN (MicroSoft Developer Network) and replacing it with a modern cloud based successor, docs.microsoft.com .

 

IT will be retiring MSDN after is migrates all the data from that 10-15 year old beast.

Microsoft will be migrating the data in phases and currently phase 1 has been completed,

 

 

Nooooo. I have many fond memories of spending a lot of time on MSDN finding answers to programming stuff and practically everyone on stackoverflow uses MSDN.

 

This is what Microsoft had to say when they were reached for comment:

 

Quote

 

It was clear we needed to make a change and create a modern web experience for content. The first thing we did was evaluate our existing content infrastructure TechNet and MSDN. Both sites are built on a 10-15 year-old brittle codebase with an archaic publishing and deployment system that was never designed to run on the cloud.

Our focus was not only on the experience, but also on the content we create and how each of you consume it. For years customers have told us to go beyond walls of text with feature-level content and help them implement solutions to their business problems. We knew that the content we delivered and the platform we built must make it easy for customers to learn and deploy solutions.

 

 

Quote

The first phase of the project is for Enterprise Mobility Documentation, and more documents will be moved to the new

docs.microsoft.com site in the months to come. Some of its features include adding an estimated reading time for each article, improvements in site navigation, a responsive design to accommodate smartphones, tablets and PCs, comment support and even a way to switch the site from a light to dark theme.

 

 

 

http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-begins-revamping-developer-content-support-docsmicrosoftcom

[Dabombinable]

16 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Microsoft is retiring TechNet and MSDN (MicroSoft Developer Network) and replacing it with a modern cloud based successor, docs.microsoft.com .

 

IT will be retiring MSDN after is migrates all the data from that 10-15 year old beast.

Microsoft will be migrating the data in phases and currently phase 1 has been completed,

 

 

Nooooo. I have many fond memories of spending a lot of time on MSDN finding answers to programming stuff and practically everyone on stackoverflow uses MSDN.

 

This is what Microsoft had to say when they were reached for comment:

 

http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-begins-revamping-developer-content-support-docsmicrosoftcom

Aren't the services that they are retiring already running on the cloud? And have done so for the 10-15 years?

[AlTech]

2 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

Aren't the services that they are retiring already running on the cloud? And have done so for the 10-15 years?

They have and are but they're clunky, unintuitive, and rather dated. Microsoft wanted to build something from scratch to replace it.

[ShadowCaptain]

14 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

They have and are but they're clunky, unintuitive, and rather dated. Microsoft wanted to build something from scratch to replace it.

That sounds like a good thing

[ManIkWeet]

All the URLs in all the answers to all the questions will be broken forever.

 

RIP ocean of information...

[GoodBytes]

I am reading this page on what is new, and it look really cool:

https://docs.microsoft.com/teamblog/introducing-docs-microsoft-com/

 

There is even a dark mode that you can set, and looks nice.

[AlexGoesHigh]

20 minutes ago, ManIkWeet said:

All the URLs in all the answers to all the questions will be broken forever.

 

RIP ocean of information...

They could re purpose those as redirects to the new page, since the old content will still be available in its entirety, it shouldn't be hard or tedious to do.

[ManIkWeet]

1 hour ago, AlexGoesHigh said:

They could re purpose those as redirects to the new page, since the old content will still be available in its entirety, it shouldn't be hard or tedious to do.

I highly doubt they well make those links redirect. It's happened with Microsoft before...

[dtaflorida]

3 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

They have and are but they're clunky, unintuitive, and rather dated. Microsoft wanted to build something from scratch to replace it

Something minimalist with more white space and flat unintuitive UI I bet. 

[AlTech]

41 minutes ago, ManIkWeet said:

I highly doubt they well make those links redirect. It's happened with Microsoft before...

Another problem is that some of the info is changed. Some info will be more specific and so it will be broken down more . Example: Let's say they had a page on C# classes & other stuff similar to it. The new site would have a page specifically for C# classes and then another page for the other thing.

[AlTech]

32 minutes ago, dtaflorida said:

Something minimalist with more white space and flat unintuitive UI I bet. 

It'll also load 50-300% faster.

[Flight1sim]

51 minutes ago, ManIkWeet said:

I highly doubt they well make those links redirect. It's happened with Microsoft before...

No but in this case they probably will, they can't be that oblivious to the developers. The MSDN thing on it's own has been controlled by the devs in microsoft itself, although controlled by the big pocketed guys up top.

[DXMember]

does MSDN retirement mean just the stackoverflow version of Microsoft or does that include the MS Developer Partner system?

[dalekphalm]

I'm glad that they are revamping the knowledgebase and answers portion of TechNet/MSDN, since it's a treasure trove of data and is very outdated.

 

But I honestly don't give a shit about that.

 

Microsoft, where the fuck is my TechNet Software Subscription replacement service? $150 a year for access to copies of their software and OS for testing and learning? Hells yeah. Now I have to use the trial software - which trust me - at work, I've already run into the limits of the trials multiple times. Testing sometimes takes longer then even 6 months.

[SansVarnic]

Its looks as if they are combining the MSDN with the Azure platform, at least that what I get from looking the website.

This could be exciting to see. 

[AlTech]

8 hours ago, DXMember said:

does MSDN retirement mean just the stackoverflow version of Microsoft or does that include the MS Developer Partner system?

Basically Stackoverflow is a QA website for programmers. Most people answer questions using info from MSDN or offer a link to a MSDN article

[AlTech]

8 hours ago, AlexTheRose said:

You really gotta have one slow asf website for those types of improvements to be possible.

It's not super fast to load MSDN but not super slow either.