Tag Archives | Operating Systems

Microsoft: Windows CE is Closer to End-of-Life than Windows

On Monday, Microsoft debuted its long-awaited Windows Mobile 6.5 update at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. But as Microsoft moves forward with its “Midori” operating system incubation project, the longevity of Windows CE–the platform that Windows Mobile is based on–is in doubt, according to internal company documents viewed by Technologizer.

The documents refer to a “general sense that Windows CE is far, far closer to its end-of-life than Windows.” Indeed, Microsoft does not believe that the existing ecosystem of Windows CE devices, applications, third-party developers, and customers will force it to continue developing Windows CE indefinitely. “The device space is evolving fast enough that legacy support is less of a concern (than it would be to migrate users from the existing Windows code base,” it noted.

Midori is a componentized, Internet-centric operating system being architected from the ground up by a team led by Eric Rudder, senior vice president for technical strategy at Microsoft. Last summer, I reported that Microsoft was considering creating a layered, thin platform for mobile devices out of it–a product which could replace Windows Mobile over the long haul.

In such a scenario, Microsoft might end up with variants of one basic OS platform–Midori–on both traditional PCs and other mobile devices. The caveat is that Microsoft remains uncertain how far the company can go with a single codebase at Midori’s core.

According to the internal Microsoft documents, “There’s a limit on the hardware range that can be addressed with a single codebase, no matter how factored and substitutable the components. The litmus test of whether a device is too small to support with code may be if it can download code. Even if we cannot execute our code on tiny devices (light switches & smart sand), we may be able to extend our model to those devices, in the form of naming, the protocol for remote calls, etc.”

The documents noted that a general-purpose device OS must be carefully designed to be reconfigurable into myriad of configurations. That is not impossible to accomplish–Apple did it successfully with OS X, which powers both Macs and iPhones. Microsoft’s Visual Studio development tools are being updated with Application Lifecycle Management that will make it easier for it to create multiple versions of Windows based on the same codebase (assuming that Microsoft uses Visual Studio to develop Midori).

As I previously disclosed, Midori is designed to have a single framework for all device types called Resource Management Infrastructure (RMI). RMI is designed to manage and monitor I/O bandwidth, memory, power, and other resources, and to take them into account as it schedules tasks for processing. Microsoft believes that Midori’s power-based scheduling would be a good fit for mobile devices.

“I think we’re about to deluged over the next few years with Mobile Internet Devices as Intel pushes the Atom chip and AMD rushes to catch up,” Forrester Research principal analyst Jeffrey Hammond told me. That would seem an interesting place for Midori as the hardware is pretty similar [to traditional PC design], but power and form factor are different.’

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Microsoft Bows to Critics, Will Change Windows 7 UAC

Windows 7Yesterday I wrote about the Windows 7 dust-up that involved a couple of security bloggers’ concern that malware could silently turn User Account Control off, and Microsoft’s seeming unwillingness to talk much about the issue other than to say it wasn’t really a problem. Today, Microsoft’s Jon DeVaan addressed the controversy on the Engineering Windows 7 blog. The gist of his 2100-word post: Microsoft appreciated the input, but UAC’s behavior wasn’t an issue, because malware could only fiddle with UAC settings after it had gotten on a PC, and Windows 7 is really good at warding off malware. And to change UAC’s default behavior to alert users when UAC settings changed would be inconsistent with the approach which Microsoft’s testing had shown that real people liked.

I make no claim to being a security expert (or even the intended audience for DeVaan’s post, which was aimed at developers). But like the rest of Microsoft’s response to this mini-firestorm to date, it was profoundly unsatisfying. No matter how strong Windows 7’s anti-malware protections are, some bad stuff is going to get on some PCs. Why not make it tough for it to perform one task which would unlock the ability for it to do further damage? Screwy but possibly appropriate metaphor: It’s like an apartment manager telling tenants that a presence of a burly doorman in the lobby meant that anyone found in the building changing the lock on a particular conso must be doing so with the owner’s permission.

That post went up at midnight. At 3pm, another one appeared–cosigned by DeVaan and Windows 7 honcho Steve Sinofsky. With reasonably good humor, it ate crow and said that Microsoft will change Windows 7’s behavior:

With this feedback and a lot more we are going to deliver two changes to the Release Candidate that we’ll all see. First, the UAC control panel will run in a high integrity process, which requires elevation. That was already in the works before this discussion and doing this prevents all the mechanics around SendKeys and the like from working. Second, changing the level of the UAC will also prompt for confirmation.

It’s startling that it took Microsoft so many false starts before they got this right: Even if Microsoft was right on some theoretical, technical level, the issue had snowballed into an argument the company simply couldn’t win, period. Nerds will be nerds, and nerds are often stubbon, prickly, and prone to falling victim to the hobgoblin of little minds. But good for Microsoft for (eventually) engaging in healthy, bloggy debate, and being willing to concede its mistakes and move on. Knowing when you’ve screwed up and being unafraid to admit it in public is very 2009.

More at Dwight Silverman’s TechBlog, Mary-Jo Foley’s All About Microsoft, and I Started Something by Long Zheng (one of the guys who raised the issue in the first place).

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Windows 7: Versions Aplenty

Windows 7As my colleague Ed Oswald blogged, details are out about the versions of Windows 7 that Microsoft will make available. Here’s the scoop on the six versions as explained at Geekzone:

Windows 7 Starter: up to 3 concurrent applications, ability to join a Home Group, improved taskbar and JumpLists;

Windows 7 Home Basic: unlimited applications, live thumbnail previews & enhanced visual experience, advanced networking support (ad-hoc wireless networks and internet connection sharing), and Mobility Center;

Windows 7 Home Premium: Aero Glass & advanced windows navigation, improved media format support, enhancements to Windows Media Center and media streaming, including Play To, and multi-touch and improved handwriting recognition;

Windows 7 Professional: ability to join a managed network with Domain Join, data protection with advanced network backup and Encrypting File System, and print to the right printer at home or work with Location Aware Printing;

Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate: bitLocker data protection on internal and external drives, DirectAccess for seamless connectivity to corporate networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, BranchCache support when on networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, and lock unauthorized software from running with AppLocker.

In other words, the lineup is mostly similar to the situation with Windows Vista, except that the version that’s called Windows Vista Business will be replaced with one called Windows 7 Professional. But there are, apparently, some subtle differences in emphasis.

According to Geekzone, Windows 7 Starter will be available on netbooks and Windows 7 Home Basic will be for emerging markets. I hope it’s true that Home Basic won’t show up over here, since the existence of Windows Vista Home Basic was a contributing factor to the train wreck that was Microsoft’s “Windows Vista Capable” program. But the news that Windows 7 Starter, unlike Windows Vista Starter, will be marketed in more developed nations is potentially a big deal. Microsoft is presumably doing so in order to get Windows onto super-cheap netbooks that would otherwise run Linux. Will people who buy such machines be happy with an intentionally crippled copy of Windows that can only run three programs at a time? We’ll see, I guess.

Some folks had held out hope that Microsoft might move to a simpler, easier-to-understand lineup of Windows versions a la the one that Apple offers. (There’s only one version of OS X, unless you count the Family Pack as a separate edition.) No such luck, apparently–which is kinda understandable given the far larger universe of people who Microsoft must attempt to make happy. (Apple, presumably, feels no need to figure out how to make Macs appealing to people in the world’s poorest nations.)

According to Mary Jo Foley’s post at ZDNet, Microsoft learned from the customer confusion that resulted from all the Windows Vista versions…but whatever lessons it learned still resulted in a mess o’ Windows 7 versions. That says a lot about Microsoft. Even though the theory is that most people will only encounter Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional.

Of course, there’s one version of Windows that’s not in the new lineup which would sell a lot of copies if it were available. That would be Windows XP. Maybe Microsoft should sneak it in under the name Windows 7 Classic Edition or something…

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Windows XP Remains the Dominant Business OS. What’s Next?

Windows XP LogoWindows Vista has been available for over two years now, but Windows XP has proven its staying power.  It remains the dominant desktop operating system for businesses in Europe and North America, according to a new report by Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray.

While I’m hesitant to make any conclusions about a survey without reviewing its methodology, the findings mesh with similar research from other analysts. Gray surveyed IT managers–I don’t know how he defined the position–and found that Windows Vista was powering fewer than 10% of PCs within enterprises. Windows XP remained strong and steady with a 71% share of the market.

“While most IT managers are anticipating the struggle with managing their upcoming dual-OS environments of Windows XP and Windows Vista, some recognize it will only get worse as they are required to more broadly support Macs, Linux, and even consumer PCs as a result of Tech Populism’s impact on the client domain,” Gray wrote.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Windows Vista: thirty-one percent of respondents have begun to migrate to it. That finding led Forrester to predict that Windows Vista will be the OS that displaces Windows XP, despite interest in Windows 7.

My sense is that Microsoft is aiming Windows 7 most directly at consumers, not businesses. The changes Microsoft is making to the Windows Taskbar are long overdue, and well done, but business users might require training to work with it and other new features in the OS. Other changes, including more mellow User Account Control settings, also target home users.

Windows Vista is a fine OS for businesses. It got off to a rough start due largely to compatibility issues, but many of those issues were ironed out in Service Pack 1.

With Vista Service Pack 2’s release imminent, it is stable and reliable enough for businesses to migrate to. It also provides better support for many core applications and hardware than Windows XP does.

My take: If given a choose between the reasonably mature Windows Vista and a new, unproven OS such as Windows 7, any IT manager worth his or her salt would migrate to Vista and not skip a generation.

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Patent Holding Company Sues Computer and Software Makers

Software patents are increasingly being used like lottery tickets: If you file enough of them, you’ll eventually have the winning number for litigation. Information Protection and Authentication of Texas (IPAT) has sued a dozen computer makers and some software developers for allegedly violating two security related patents that it holds.

IPAT filed a formal complaint in a south Florida district court last Thursday. Some of the defendants are Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo. It has also separately filed suit against software makers including Microsoft and Symantec in a Texas court.

The patents, US patent No. 5,311,591, titled “Computer system security method and apparatus for creating and using program authorization information data structures,” and its continuation, US patent No. 5,412,717, deal with how an an operating system monitors and enforces application permissions.

These folks would make Vito Corleone proud. IPAT is asking for jury trials to shake down the alleged violators for as much as it possibly can.

If this case doesn’t demonstrate why patent reform is necessary, I don’t know what is. The patent, which was granted in the 1990s, does not seem unique, and I hope that prior art is found which invalidates it.

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Eight Ways Windows 7 Could Flop

Windows 7What the heck is going on with Microsoft’s rollout of Windows 7? The OS seems to be on schedule to not only meet Microsoft’s timetable but possibly beat it. The free beta version runs better than some shipping versions of Windows I’ve paid for, and takes care of some long-standing problems. No features have been promised for Windows 7 and then deep-sixed when Microsoft couldn’t make them work. And the company’s marketing for the OS to date has been so restrained that it’s practically bashful.

Doesn’t anyone in Redmond remember that Windows upgrades are supposed to show up years late, missing major selling points and including new features of questionable value, and accompanied by marketing claims that no piece of software could live up to?

As far as I can tell at this point, Windows 7 is in surprisingly solid shape. It may well help Microsoft–and, more important, Microsoft customers–bounce back from the mistake that was Windows Vista.  But it won’t be a cakewalk. And I’m worried about at least eight things that could still go awry.

Continue Reading →

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Windows 7 Beta: Back Again Until 1/24

windows7-logoAfter an embarrassing false start, Microsoft has put the Windows 7 beta download back online. It says it’ll be available until January 24th, and it’s removed the initial cap of 2.5 million downloads it had set.

If my experience is any evidence, it has things under control–I snagged the beta without incident, installed it easily, and am adding applications now, mostly with good success. (Everything’s worked well so far except my HP OfficeJet printer’s setup software.) More thoughts soon; if you’re running W7, I’d love to hear yours, too.

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Windows 7 Beta General Availability Delayed

windows7-logoStretch your legs, go outside, and get fresh air–the Windows 7 beta is delayed until tomorrow. Windows team blogger Brandon LeBlanc has announced that Windows 7 is such a hot commodity that the company has to shore up its server infrastructure to meet the demand.

Developers who have MSDN or TechNet subscriptions can download Windows 7 Beta today; it will (in theory) become generally available tomorrow at 12 PM PT. Direct download links are live if you want to get the jump on all the people that will spend their Saturdays downloading a beta operating system, but installations without product keys are limited to 30-day trial periods.

As an aside, has anybody told Microsoft about BitTorrent yet? It seems to be a reliable way to distribute big files to lots of people.

If you want to upgrade to the Windows 7 beta from Windows XP, you are out of luck–it doesn’ offer an upgrade path. Upgrade installations are only supported for PCs that are running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. The company has not yet announcing finalized upgrade paths for Windows 7, a spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. The beta is available in one edition that is roughly equivalent to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.

It behooves Microsoft to provide an upgrade path from Windows XP Professional. Only about 10 percent of enterprises have deployed Windows Vista as their major OS, Information Technology Intelligence Corp’s principal analyst (and owner) Laura DiDio said yesterday. Windows 7 can’t arrive soon enough.

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Windows 7: Download It if You Dare

windows7-logo[UPDATE 5/4/2009: If you came across this looking for the Windows 7 Release Candidate, check out this post.]

[UPDATE: So much for Ballmer’s big announcement. Microsoft has pulled the public Windows 7 beta and says it’ll try again tomorrow.]

As Steve Ballmer announced it would at his CES keynote on Wednesday, Microsoft has made a beta version of Windows 7 available for free download by anyone who wants it. Here it is. As Microsoft says, you shouldn’t install this on your primary PC, or at least not over your primary current Windows installation:  For one thing, the beta will time out on August 1st, requiring you to reinstall a copy of Windows over it. But if you’ve got a spare PC or spare disk partition, there’s no better way to satisfy your curiosity about W7 than to start using it.

If you do give it a whirl, I’d love to hear what you think (here’s my pretty favorable take on the earlier preview version). Once I get back from CES, I’ll try out the new beta and let you know how I think the OS is shaping up…

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Apple Files Patents for 3-D OS Interface

apple-logo-2As everybody knows, when Apple files for patents, the tech media is whipped up into a frenzy with speculations of what the filings may mean. The latest discoveries by Slash Lane (that can’t be his real name, can it?) at AppleInsider are no different.

According to the latest filings, Apple is working on a three-dimensional user interface which would maximize screen real estate by essentially layering them on the two-dimensional screen.

The filing was made in June, about the same time Apple began detailing its work on Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6). AI notes that none of these UI elements have made an appearance in builds of the upcoming OS as of yet.

Simply put it appears as if the user would almost be working in a box of sorts, with a top, bottom, and two sides. Each side would be able to hold some type of data or interface element.

It appears from the filings that the new desktop would always include a floor and a left or ride side, with the top used as needed. Even so, it would mean for the first time in the history of the Mac OS the main menubar would not be positioned at the top of the screen.

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The OS would make use of already 3-D like aspects of 10.5 such as ‘stacks.’ However, it would all be controlled to create the perception of depth. Even further, aspects like the floor could be controlled to show only portions of it at one time, allowing the amount of data sitting their to be “vast and sprawling” as Lane puts it.

For more detailed information, see the AppleInsider post.

While this all sounds quite interesting, I have to agree with the chatter that this may make Mac OS overly complex. I think the real challenge in getting this 3-D desktop to work is how to make it so that it doesn’t become so difficult that learning how to use it drowns out any potential benefit.

Even so, its nice to see operating system developers begin to question the status quo of today’s standard user interface. Really, not much has been done to change the way we interact with our PCs and Macs outside the current two-dimensional window-based interface.

Lets see where this goes.

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