Bill Gates gave the keynote presentation that framed Mix06 for the next few days, which is really about the “web experience” and “beyond the browser”.  He said the world is changing and should be more user centric rather than device centric. He discussed users’ experiences from the perspective of the computer, the media center, and mobile devices.

He announced that IE7 has been re-released today, Beta 2. “IE7 is coming”. Bill Gates predicted that “IE7 is so powerful that most hardware will ship with it”. He said, as a mea culpa, Microsoft knows they’ve waited too long to ship the next version of their browser. In the future, they will ship their browsers much faster.  Of course, there has been concern over the compatibility with IE7 so Microsoft has some checklists to make sure your site isn’t adversely impacted, and it’s a long list: here for developers and here for “IT pros”.

Bill also discussed Vista, as well, which is due out later this year. Lots of new features will be included, with a particular emphasis on user experience, security, anti-phishing, and gadgets.

Security is a big focus, as well. Their website states “Windows Vista Enterprise will be offered only to business customers participating in Microsoft’s Software Assurance program”.

Bill Gates and Microsoft wants it so that when you build a website, you can create it as interactive as possible. “We’ve seen an explosion of AJAX and java, which is a super valuable approach”. They’ve built Atlas, their framework and approach to Web 2.0 (a phrase missing from the entire conversation).  “Atlas is raising the floor of a browsing experience”. New features for Atlas were released today, as well. And they are “trying to raise the ceiling” and with Windows Presentation Format (WPF), which is available for XP and Vista. WPF focuses on graphics and working that pipeline.

For devices, Mr. Gates mentioned their Media Center, which as of December had about 6 million units purchased. He touched on the Xbox 360 and mentioned that it’s a Media Center extender. You can send something from the Media Center to the Xbox and watch something wherever the Xbox is connected.

There are new phones and messaging devices that they’re shipping this year to help with the mobile experience. He pointed out that Microsoft has been working with mobile device companies and is proud of the recently released Palm Treo 700, which uses Windows Mobile.

He ended that part of the presentation stating “Microsoft’s focus is helping you get to your customer and worry about their experience so you don’t have to write lots of detailed code”.

It’s clear Microsoft is focused on the Web and a rich user experience but Web 2.0 is not in their lexicon.

Next up, MySpace and BBC’s presentation’s and Bill’s conversation with Tim O’Reilly.