I always liked the functionality of WSUS, Microsoft’s patch management tool. However, in my view its web-based user interface is a mess. Recently a colleague told me that WSUS 3.0 will get a “real” user interface, i.e. one with a “normal” graphical user interface. Now, I saw some screenshots of WSUS 3.0 Beta 2 at Windows Connected. I don’t know yet about the new features of WSUS 3.0, but I am already prepared to bid good bye to WSUS 2.0.

The rising popularity of the web enticed many vendors of administration tools to introduce web-based user interfaces. Usually, the argument was “interoperability”. This means I could use a Linux box or even a Mac to manage my WSUS server, for example. Now, I ask you, which Windows administrator is doing this? I think the real reason is that many software vendors just wanted to be en vogue. A web-based interface is just “cool”.

Well, in my view, it just makes work slow. Web browsers are great for displaying web pages. Web browsers are also good to work with very simple web-based applications. I am a great fan of Web 2.0, Ajax and all this stuff. However, a web browser is not an operating system. Therefore, a web browser is not suitable to manage complex applications. Ajax is nice, but compared to the possibilities of a full blown OS it is just a little toy.

It seems that Microsoft realized this now. Hopefully, this will persuade other software vendors, to value functionality over the general web and Ajax hype.

If you want to know more WSUS 3.0 Beta 2, you should check out this and this article at Windows Connected.

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