Death of Classic (C/SIDE) Client
Yesterday, during a coffee break at the What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Technical for Application Consultants training in Vilnius, Lithuania (a fabulous place, by the way), a discussion arose around the destiny of the Classic (or C/SIDE) client in NAV. Some participants stated that “it’s never going to go away” because “Microsoft would not dare shutting it down”.
Unfortunately, it is going away, and quickly. Maybe it wasn’t too obvious at first, because Microsoft never actually said explicitly that “Classic client is going to be discontinued”, but if you read the latest Statement of Direction for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, it’s there.
RoleTailored client for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 was one of those things for me that looked really nice in presentations, but in real-life, I didn’t see much value there. It looked good from far, but far from good. I would dare saying it saw more runtime at conferences and presentations than in real life. For partners, it was difficult to sell it. With new customers, okay, there were considerable chances the RTC would convince them. With old customers, you were been better-off not showing it at all.
I’ll never forget my first NAV project. I was helping a customer migrate data from their old COBOL-based application, and was spending most of my time with a mid-aged lady who at first fascinated me with her mastery of their old application.