A Blog

The Problem With WebMatrix

July 06, 2010

Microsoft released a new [beta] product called WebMatrix. It looks like an interesting idea, but then I read this tidbit:

Here’s how you’d get WebMatrix

Go to the WebMatrix site and click Download Now. It’ll install the Web Platform Install (about 2 megs) and then you click Install. The WebMatrix download for me was 8megs, then SQL Compact was 2.5megs, and then some deployment dependencies brought my total download to 29 megs.

Why can’t it just be a single install? And why didn’t they just get a normal url instead of http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/? The guy who owns webmatrix.com hold out for too much money? Based on the current content there, I’d estimate that he’d sell for a sandwich. Maybe have to be a foot-long.

Compare to say, Coda.

It’s a good idea; there aren’t a whole lot of tools out there that let beginners code in .NET, but I fear that it might be a little too “Duplo” for people to want to use. And hopefully Microsoft will do a little more to get it out into the wild than having some devs write about it on Twitter.


Scott Williams

Written by Scott Williams who lives and works in sunny Phoenix, AZ. Twitter is also a place.