There has been some talk about the death of Windows as a programming platform, since any application that can be developed for Windows can also be developed for the Web. Developing for the web frees you from Microsoft's grasp and frequent changes to the API... ie: Win32 begot Windows Forms begot Avalon...

Of course, the entire premise of the argument is hogwash. There are plenty of reasons to develop directly for Windows. Windows apps can do many, many things better than Web apps. And true cross-platform-ness is largely a myth.

This blog entry sums it up nicely:

It's the platform, Silly!

For open source applications, the cost of testing and support is pushed from the developer of the package to the end-user.  It’s no longer the responsibility of the author of the software to guarantee that their software works on a given customer’s machine, since the customer has the source, they can fix the problem themselves.

In my honest opinion, platform stability is the single thing that Microsoft’s monoculture has brought to the PC industry.  Sure, there’s a monoculture, but that means that developers only have to write to a single API.  They only have to test on a single platform.  The code that works on a Dell works on a Compaq, works on a Sue’s Hardware Special.  If an application runs on Windows NT 3.1, it’ll continue to run on Windows XP.

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Having a software monoculture is NOT necessarily an evil.