Microsoft announced the Windows Web Gallery at the MIX09 conference in March 2009. During Scott Guthrie’s keynote ( at approximately the 42 minute mark ), Bill Staples ( General Manager of Microsoft's Web Platform and Tools Engineering Teams ) showcased DotNetNuke as one of the initial applications which was being made available through this innovative new channel.
The benefits of the Windows Web App Gallery are two-fold: first, it simplifies the installation process for web applications on the Windows platform ( via the Web Platform Installer ); and second, it provides awareness and reach for those applications which are listed in the Gallery. Throughout 2009 this channel provided additional downloads for the DotNetNuke project and improved the user experience for people who were trying to get started with the platform.
In early November 2009, after a CMS Wire report suggested that interest in DotNetNuke was falling and citing the Windows Web Gallery as evidence, we decided that we should put more emphasis on our listing in the gallery.
At the time, our product listing in the gallery was ranked 4th overall behind Gallery ( a PHP photo gallery ), Umbraco, and MojoPortal. The main reason for this placement was related to the fact that we had never created any direct links from our website at dotnetnuke.com to our listing in the gallery. Instead, we had always directed users to CodePlex. So we spent some time overhauling our Downloads page and within 2 months we moved firmly into 2nd place overall, hot on the heels of the Gallery project which we expect to overtake for top spot in the coming months.
Recently Microsoft refreshed the Featured Web Apps area of the gallery and we were honoured to be included in the top spot:
From my perspective, the high level of interest in native .NET open source projects ( like DotNetNuke ) as demonstrated by the top projects in the Windows Web App Gallery is very encouraging. It shows that developers and businesses are becoming all the more comfortable with Open Source on the Microsoft platform, and I can’t help but think that DotNetNuke played a significant role in making this happen.