Update on Windows Vienna / 7

Julie Larson-Green, responsible for the user interface of Office 2007, and also the person behind the ribbon-like interface has been transferred to the Windows 7 team.

The current release date of the Windows 7 operating system is expected to be in late 2009, early 2010, returning to the 3-year pause between desktop operating system versions that was common at Microsoft for all Windows versions prior to Windows Vista.

The most common dilema about Windows 7 right now is whether or not to use backward compatibility. Strong rumours have suggested that the OS will be developed from scratch on top of the Windows NT kernel, given its maturity in both security and stability terms. The backward compatibility, however, is something that Microsoft developers would frown upon, since it prevents truly revolutional ideas to be implemented. Windows Vista, because of its backward compatibile, carries a large amount of code libraries with it, thus the large size of the operating system. However, many businesses that haven't upgraded their software in a decade or more would not purchase Windows 7 if it was not compatible with their applications. As a result, the current options that Microsoft has are to either make Windows 7 backward compatible, or to maintain a legacy version of Windows in parallel, for the business customers, one which will be kept alive by Microsoft though patches and updates.

MinWin and Windows Vienna / 7

Almost two months ago Eric Traut gave a presentation on operating systems in which MinWin was brought to light for the first time. Although used for running a basic HTTP server, MinWin is a stripped down version of the Windows kernel that will be used as the foundation for Windows Vienna. MinWin is composed of approximately 100 files totalizing 25MB on disk and 40MB set up, in comparison with Vista which is made up of over 5000 files and approximatley 2500MB on disk.

Since MinWin is simply an effort from Microsoft to bring the kernel down to the smallest possible size in order to achieve the best efficiency for the upcoming versions of Windows, it will not be a kernel that is going to be distributed all by itself but merely a starting point for the next generation of operating systems built by Microsoft that break the legacy with the Vista operating system and its ancestors.

New user interface of windows 7

The post-Vista edition of Windows doesn't yet have a name, but it's got a date - 2010 - and it's getting a fresh look.

The former was revealed at Microsoft's Global Exchange sales conference in Orlando last week, according to Windows watcher Mary Jo Foley. Foley cites a PowerPoint presentation indicating that "Microsoft is anticipating it will take at least three years from now to get the next version of Windows client out the door." A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Foley that " Microsoft is scoping Windows ‘7' development to a three-year timeframe, and then the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar."

If you're wondering what happened to the codenames of Vienna, and before that Blackcomb, which were originally attached to the OS, Windows senior VP Steven Sinofsky has banished those ciphers name as a sign of his desire to refocus the team on the steak rather than the sizzle. It's in keeping with Sinofsky's previous reign over Office 2000, XP/2002, 2003 and 2007 - all of which were known only by their internal version numbers (such as Office 2007 being ‘Office 12') before being christened with a marketing label.

"No fancy codenames for you!": Windows veep Steven Sinofsky goes back to basics with 'Windows 7'The next edition of Windows will technically be the seventh generation of the Windows NT codebase which is now the foundation for the client OS (the clock starts at Windows NT 3.1; this was followed by NT 4, while Windows 2000 was also ‘Windows NT 5' and XP a mere 5.1, until Vista clicked the meter over to Windows version 6).

And as he did with Office 2007, Sinofsky has declared that all bets are off when it comes to the UI of Windows 7. He's hired Julie Larson-Green, who lead the Office 2007 user interface team under Sinofsky's watch, as VP in charge of the "the Windows User Experience" or UX program.

Larson-Green was pivotal in the dramatic redesign of Office 2007, which ditched the long-established model of menus and toolbars - which had grown cluttered and out of control over two decades of development - for that single integrated and context-morphing ‘ribbon'. Few could argue that Windows isn't in need of a similar cleanup job - the iconic overload of Vista's Control Panel is a prime example of a once-friendly UI turned ferral.

Jensen Harris, who was program manager for the Office 2007 UX team and now fills Larsen-Green's role in fine-tuning the face of Office 14 (not wishing to tempt fate, they're skipping 13!) recalls that it was Sinofsky who drove the suite's radical interfacelift.

"It originated with Steven Sinofsky" Harris told APC in a recent interview. "Steven had certainly noticed, like we all had, the growing interface clutter around the core Office apps, and he thought we should put a set of people together and at least think about this. But I sometimes think that he didn't really expect us to actually replace the entire UI!

"Maybe Steven asked for a lot so we would deliver more than just a little, because it would take a lot to budge people from the way things had been for 20 years. Perhaps his thinking was to ask for a mile in order to get just 200 feet. But we ended giving him the whole mile, and then some".

Julie Larsen-Green: she changed the way Office 2007 looks and works, and now she's got the same job on the Windows 7 teamHarris recalls that Larsen-Green was a staunch advocate for rethinking the way Office worked and, more importantly, that way users wanted it to work. "She recruited me to do something bold to change the UI of Office. I was very sceptical at first - my feeling was that we would never be bold enough to actually make a real change, that really what we were talking about was doing some other incremental bandaid on top of the way things used to work. (But) Julie really sold me on the idea that she was really serious about trying to understand the problems with the UI, and if we can understand it and can come up with the idea, that we can go and do it."

Of her new role in the Windows team, Harris observes "Julie is definitely a champion of building great user experiences, and I know that in Windows she'll be looking to do the same types of things that she did in Office, which espouse great design values. Whether or not that means we'll see such a radical overhaul of the UI in Windows 7, I think it's too early to say".

Two things are certain: Sinofsky is a serious agent of change for the Windows OS, and Larsen-Green hasn't been brought into the Windows 7 UX team to keep things the way they are.

Windows 7 Pictures

Microsoft blocks Windows Vienna debate

Microsoft is refusing to discuss the next version of Windows – currently being referred to as Windows Vienna – in an effort to encourage people to focus on Vista.

In a tightly-worded statement issued late yesterday and attributed to Kevin Kutz, the director of the Windows client group, the company said it "is focused on the value Windows Vista will bring to people today. We are not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows, other than that we're working on it."

Kutz was replying to speculation that the next version of Windows – which is also being referred to as Windows 7 - would be out before the end of 2009. The chatter was fuelled by Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development in Microsoft's Windows core operating system division, who spoke to reporters last week at the RSA conference.

At the time, Fathi said the follow-on to Vista would likely show up in 2009. "You can think roughly two, two and-a-half years is a reasonable timeframe that our partners can depend on and can work with," he said. "That's a good time frame for refresh."

His comments have encouraged some users on the PC Advisor forums to question the need to upgrade to Vista now, if its replacement is due in just over two years.

Yesterday's move was a clear effort by Microsoft to distance itself from Fathi's comments, said Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner. But it was hardly unexpected.

"This is their pattern. They don't want to talk about what's coming, they want to talk about Vista," said Silver.

The last thing Microsoft wants, said Silver, is for users to hear that a new operating system will show up in a couple of years, then decide that they can wait it out, then simply skip Vista. "Vista is what they have to sell now."

In any case, Silver questioned the relatively short cycle that Fathi proposed. "I don't think enterprises can absorb [a new operating system] every two years."

Consumers, on the other hand, want a new and shiny operating system more frequently. "Maybe Microsoft should think about separating operating systems, one release for consumers, one for enterprises that just adds on capabilities."

In Silver's view, Microsoft has been forced to talk more about the post-Vista world because of the five years it took the company to create that just-released operating system. As early as last July, for example, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told financial analysts that "we will never repeat our experience with Windows Vista, we will never have a five-year gap between major releases of flagship products."

"Actually, they'd like to talk about [the next OS] as little as possible," said Silver.

Said Kutz: "When we are ready, we will provide updates."

Windows 7 kernel to shrink in size

MICROSOFT top boffin Eric Traut has emerged from his smoke filled lab to talk about the future Windows 7 kernel.

The people at Vole have been a mite concerned that the Windows kernels are getting a little bloated and have told Traut to come up with something a little more efficient.

A video of Traut talking about his low footprint Windows kernel has found its way onto the world wide wibble here.

He has called it MinWin, which sounds a bit like a character from the Goon Show. Although the information is interesting enough we really liked the ASCII Windows logo as the beast fires up.

Microsoft reveals Windows 7 due in 2010

Official details of the next version of Windows reveal the codename Windows 7, a 2010 release date and the news that Windows will continue to come in both 32- and 64bit editions.

That will cause many Windows users, primarily businesses, to sigh with relief. PC vendors and large software makers, who see more-powerful 64bit PCs as key to driving demand for both hardware and software in an increasingly web-centric world, are likely to have a very different reaction.

The number of bits determines how large the chunks of data a component of the PC can process, which determines how much data it can handle and ultimately how fast it can perform. For instance, 1980s-era PCs with hybrid 8/16bit architectures were limited to a maximum of 64Kb of RAM.

In contrast, a modern PC running a 32bit version of Windows XP can use up to 4GB of RAM. Meanwhile, 64bit versions of Windows XP and Vista can support up to 128GB of physical RAM and 16TB of almost-as-fast virtual memory.

Combined, the two techniques can offer steep performance boosts for software ported from 32bit to 64bit. And they enable software such as database-driven or multimedia applications that were formerly infeasible on 32bit PCs.

64bit processors for desktop PCs have been available from AMD and Intel since 2004. Microsoft followed, releasing 64bit versions of XP and Windows Server 2003 in the middle of the following year.

But while 64bit server adoption roars along, the process has been much slower on the desktop side. 32bit software and drivers can be buggy or demonstrate scant performance improvement in 64bit environments. Those problems can arise even if users are simply moving from 32- to 64bit editions of the same version of Windows, such as XP.

When under-the-hood changes don't result in better performance, customers will be happy tweaking what they already have.

For instance, during Microsoft's quarterly financial forecast last week, the company lowered its year-ahead forecast for Vista shipments vs. XP, from 85 percent/15 percent to 78 percent/22 percent.

The last time around, Microsoft was gentle in moving users from 16bit to 32bit, taking a decade to complete the transition.

Starting with 1990's Windows 3.0 and finishing with 2000's Windows ME, Microsoft released five versions of Windows supporting both 16bit and 32bit. In comparison, Windows 7 will be only the third Windows version, after 64bit XP's arrival in 2005, to sport dual 32/64bit compatibility.

Apple has a similar hybrid strategy. Its upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 ‘Leopard’ is a true 64bit environment that will ostensibly also offer full compatibility with 32bit applications on, for instance, older PowerPC-based Mac hardware.

Companies, especially those running esoteric or in-house-written applications, will be the happiest to hear that Windows 7 will still support 32bit software, since it will allow them to avoid expensive rewrites if they decide to upgrade.

It will also be welcomed by Microsoft salespeople, systems integrators and value-added resellers, who will have more options to offer cost-conscious customers.

PC makers and big independent software vendors who may have hoped that Microsoft would push customers harder to 64bit will be the least happy.

64bit enables developers to add features and let desktop applications run much faster. Those are much-needed differentiators, now that users are taking serious looks at software-as-a-service applications such as Google Office.

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Goodbye, ‘Vienna.’ Hello ‘Windows 7′

It’s February 1: The first “official” day of the Steven Sinofsky Windows era.

Yes, I know Senior Vice President of Windows and Windows Live Engineering Sinofsky has been working on Windows Vista and Windows Live for the past several months. His re-org stamp is already visible on a number of divisions and projects. But given that January 31 was formerWindows chief Jim Allchin’s last day, I’m counting today as the first day of the new post-Allchin Windows world.

That means, for one, it’s time to move beyond the vista-themed family of codenames and begin using the more boring and sanitized ones that we’re all going to have to get used to, going forward.

First off, it’s time to stop with the “Vienna” stuff. Those in the know need to start using “Windows 7″ to refer to the next full-fledged version of Windows client. (Why 7? I guess because it follows NT 6.0?)

Not so coincidentally, numbers are back in vogue — like they are on the Office side of the house, which, as Microsoft watchers have known for a while, is working on “Office 14″ (not “13″ — bad luck), the next version of Office.

What other changes are in store from the new Windows regime? Over in my regular Redmond Magazine column, I mention (tongue planted in cheek … sort of) a few of the ways Microsoft could and might makeWindows development and testing more like that done by the Office unit.

Among my suggestions:

* Stop talking about unreleased products. Don’t share publicly a list of promised features/functionality before the product is totally locked down. Punish transgressors both inside and outside the company.

* Cease sharing any information about delivery milestones or dates. Never talking about ship targets means never having to say you’re sorry.

* Ban historical references. Anyone mentioning “WinFS,” “Cairo” or “Hailstorm” gets put in the penalty box.

Other changes you’re expecting in the brave new Windows world?

SOURCE: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=233

Will Windows 7 Be The First x64 Only Windows Client?

This is the question on everyone’s lips at the moment. There has been some differing reports on it floating around the internet, it’s hard to tell who is right until an official statement is made. And I bet it’s a hot topic in many of the meetings that will be attending right now. This previous post talks about why should we bother moving to x64 right now? And it’s true; there is no main driver in migrating to x64 for the everydayWindows user just now. In fact it’s just a headache with some applications not being supported. And while Microsoft continue to support x86, it will continue to be the same. In fact, the only reason people would feel compelled to jump to x64 just now would be a specific application requiring more than 4GB of memory space……how many applications are going to boast to being that hungry for memory?

And what’s going to change in the next 4/5 years, while we wait for Windows 7? Not a lot I suspect. There may be the odd game that comes along to force the hardcore gamers over. But general day to day tasks will happily tick over on x86. And while the x86 is alive the corporates will continue to build their systems on this platform. And at the end of the day it’s the corporates that force the hand of Microsoft every time. The same way they continued NT4 support year after year after year. Every year they would tell the corporates to migrate, and even today 11 years after its release, there are still some massive companies using NT4.

I expect the same to happen with Windows 7. Microsoft deep down would maybe hope to wean the big businesses and consumers off x86 through free choice. A good example of this is a presentation made by Microsoft entitled ”Windows Client 64-Bit Roadmap and Business Opportunities“. A screenshot of one slide specifically is below:

As you can see, Microsoft anticipated “x64 becoming default OS” and “mainstream x64 adoption for both business and consumer” during 2006 with the release of Vista. This certainly isn’t the case and certainly won’t be the case in the coming years.

So Microsoft will be mulling this over again….back to the drawing board. Do we make Windows 7 x86 compatible or draw the line in the sand?

I think you can bet your bottom dollar that Microsoft has this exact conversation with the banking establishments and in the end x86Windows 7 hit’s the shelf in the coming years.

The great x64/x86 debate is quite comparable to the TCP/IP v4/v6 one. TCP/IP v6 might offer great scalability, greater this and great that. But at the end of the day it’s going to both cost a lot of people a lot of time and money to adopt it for what would seem negligible benefits on the most part. On the other side of the coin you can see why Exchange 2007 benefits from x64 architecture, it’s a resource hungry application, but until we see those kind of stakes on the desktop, don’t expect to be using those x64 instructions on your processor anytime soon….if at all.

By Stuart Graham

Frequently Asked Questions About Windows 7

Paul Thurrott updated his Windows 7 FAQ today. Information below. Again note his beliefs that Microsoft will ship Windows 7 as 64 bit only.

Q: Is Microsoft working on an operating system after Windows Vista?
A: Yes. The next client version of Windows was originally codenamed “Blackcomb,” though the company renamed it to “Windows Vienna” in early 2006 and to “Windows Seven” or “Windows 7″ more recently. I prefer Vienna, so I’ll continue to refer to it by that name here.

Q: Why Windows 7?
Since Windows Vista is really Windows 6.0, Vienna will presumably be version 7.0.

Q: I heard that Windows Vista will be the last major OS release from Microsoft. Is that true?
A: No. Windows-based PCs will continue to form the center of our digital lifestyles, and as Microsoft executives have noted in recent days, there are still plenty of areas in which Microsoft can improveWindows. Some obvious examples include voice recognition and storage.

Q: So is Vienna going to be a major Windows version?
A: No. Windows Vista was a major release, and Vienna will be a relatively minor, or interim, update. Microsoft is currently on a development path where every otherWindows version is a major release.

Q: When will Vienna ship?
A: Microsoft currently plans to ship Vienna in 2009, about two to two and a half years after Vista. The next major release of Windows is expected two years after Vienna, in 2011. (Windows Server updates are on a similar cycle.)

Q: What features will be included in Windows Vienna?
A: Microsoft hasn’t publicly committed to any features for Vienna and the company is currently still deciding what this next Windows release will look like. We do know a few things about Vienna, however: It will include a new version of Windows Explorer that is being built by the same team that designed the Ribbon user interface in Office 2007. It will likely include some form of the “Hypervisor” (Windows Virtualization) technologies that will ship shortly after Windows Server “Longhorn”. It will also likely include the WinFS (Windows Future Storage) technologies, though they won’t be packaged or branded as WinFS.

Q: That’s it?
A: Remember, it’s early yet and Microsoft is being very secretive about future Windows versions. However, the company has publicly issued a bit of information about the broad capabilities it intends to include in Vienna. This information comes from a publicly-available Microsoft slide deck:

Easier. Vienna will make it easier for users to find and use information. Local, network and Internet search functionality will converge. Intuitive user experiences will be further advanced. Automated application provisioning and cross-application data transparency will be integrated.

More secure. Vienna will include improved security and legislative compliance functionality. Data protection and management will be extended to peripheral devices. Vienna will advance role-based computing scenarios and user-account management, and bridge the inherent conflicts between data protection and robust collaboration. It will also enable enterprise-wide data protection and permissions.

Better connected. Vienna will further enable the mobile workforce. It will deliver anywhere, anytime, any device access to data and applications. It will enable a robust ad-hoc collaboration experience. Wireless connectivity, management and security functionality will be expanded. The performance and functionality of current and emerging mobile hardware will be optimized. The multiple device sync, management and data protection capabilities inWindows will be extended. Finally, Vienna will enable flexible computing infrastructures including rich, thin and network-centric models.

Lower cost. Vienna will help businesses optimize their desktop infrastructure. It will enable seamless OS, application and data migration, and simplified PC provisioning and upgrading. It will further efforts towards non-disruptive application updating and patching. Vienna will include improved hardware- and software-based virtualization experiences. And it will expand the PC self-help and IT Pro problem resolution diagnostics inWindows.

Q: Will Windows Vienna be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions like Vista?
A: Vienna will almost certainly ship only in 64-bit versions. This is in keeping with Microsoft’s x64 migration schedule.

Q: Will Microsoft release any Windows updates between now and Vienna?
A: Yes. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1, codenamed “Fiji”) will ship simultaneously with Windows Server “Longhorn” and will include a new kernel version that makes that release up to date with the kernel version in Longhorn. Fiji will almost certainly include a revision to the Media Center software inWindows Vista as well. For these reasons, we might consider Fiji a major release for a service pack. Certainly, no previous service pack has ever included a major

SOURCE

Blog divulges OS details of ‘Windows 7′

For the second time in five weeks, information about a key upcoming Microsoft product has come to light because of a presentation placed on the company’s Web site by an employee in Denmark.

According to a PowerPoint presentation download PDF created by a technical staffer at Microsoft Denmark, the software vendor plans to invest in four major areas in the next client version of Windows after Vista. Microsoft has already begun working on its next OS, and one executive indicated last month that the company hopes to ship the follow-on during 2009 — although Microsoft later issued a statement saying that it is “not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows.”

The PowerPoint presentation, which is dated January 31 and can be accessed via Microsoft’s download.microsoft.com site, was publicised on Aeroxperience, an independent blog aimed at Windows Vista developers.

The Aeroxperience posting says that two slides in the presentation contain information that “more than likely applies to ‘Windows Seven,’” the codename that Microsoft is said to be using internally for the successor to Vista.

According to the slides, planned areas of investment for end users in Windows Seven include making it easier to find information and improving mobile connectivity. For example, a detailed list of future Windows features includes converged local, network and internet search capabilities and improved wireless connectivity, management and security.

For IT professionals, the presentation indicates, planned improvements include added security measures, such as extending data protection and management capabilities to peripheral devices and expanding usage monitoring capabilities for compliance purposes. Cutting PC operating costs will also be a priority, via new features such as simplified provisioning and upgrading of systems, according to the slides.
Last month, Aeroxperience was the first to report that Microsoft planned to spend US$1 billion per year on development of the next version of Office, which is referred to by Microsoft employees as Office 14 and is expected to be ready for release in the first half of 2009.

In the Office-related posting, Aeroxperience cited a different PowerPoint presentation apparently created by another Microsoft Denmark employee that was also hosted on the download.microsoft.com site. That presentation has since been taken down by Microsoft, although Aeroxperience still has copies of some of the slides on its web site.

Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the various blog postings related to Windows Seven.

About Windows 7

Windows 7 (formerly codenamed Blackcomb, then Vienna) is a future version of Microsoft Windows. It is expected to be the successor to Windows Vista. Microsoft has confirmed that the planned development time frame is at least three years, putting the release date around 2010[1]. On July 20, 2007, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 7 is "the internal name for the next version of the Windows Client OS".[1]
Microsoft has refrained from discussing the details about Windows 7 publicly as they focus on the release and marketing of Windows Vista,[2] though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged at developer conferences such as Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in 2006