There's never been a better time to be a web developer

The big residual effect I envision from Microsoft announcing that they're in full support of distributing software via the Web is that it creates phenomenal opportunities for web developers. For years, we've been seen as second-class citizens (taking a back seat to Win32/Java devs), confused with UI-savvy HTML designers, not legitimate software architects. Hey - we're programming, too!

The last few years have gotten better, with "web apps" being a term the mainstream masses are becoming more familiar with, and for the right reasons. But the Windows Live and decision to offer Office via the Web is awesome for people doing out type of work. The core computer science skills - OOP, proper organization, componentized architecture, use of patterns and modeling still apply, of course. But people are really going to jump on this web thing - great for us. Any intermediate-to-advanced ASP.NET dev should be able to reverse engineer Writely and see how they do things.

So it's time to gear up: Read up on the key Web 2.0 concepts. Learn C# or Java or Ruby on Rails or Python. Master data access. Get really good at Ajax. Learn how to incorporate RSS into your apps. Leverage the Long Tail. Publish public APIs via SOAP services.

Because the future belongs to us.