That whooshing sound you hear over your head isn't the US manned spaced program... :)

I don't think WPF is really that alive, although I agree calling it 'dead' is a bit dramatic.

Microsoft, as is there frequent pattern, has moved on from WPF in that it's stable but won't be invested in significantly anymore.

Example: If you take a look at the last major Microsoft conference (MIX10) then you'll see there we no new WPF features added, while a whole bunch of new Silverlight things announced. Even Microsoft realizes that the web is having an impact on their desktop UI strategy, i.e. Silverlight is way good enough and far too similar to WPF to keep two forks alive.

Saying Silverlight is a 'subset' of a WPF is true, but misses out the portability side, i.e it has it's own run-time. It would be just as true to say that WPF is missing features that Silverlight has.

WPF isn't dead, it's just resting. (insert parrot joke here-> )

PS Apologies if you've bet on WPF, you should really have recognized the pattern by now...

This might be a cynical view but here's how I see it panning out:

1 - US sits backs and waits for either private investors or NASA to make a break through the bureaucracy. Unfortunately nothing happens for at least 10 years.

2 - China / India / Delete As Appropriate make a mad dash on their manned space program, i.e. nationalism and all that.

3 - US gets annoyed by 2 and public opinion now gets interested.

4 - US responds and spend serious GDP. Most likely wins.

5 - GOTO 1

The system seems setup to respond to outside competition, and needs something to fight against and beat. We're just in a period where the other competitors are slowly gearing up that's all.

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