What it is that makes this upcoming Windows version so special. Strictly speaking, it's just a fine-tuned versions of Windows Vista, a fact that should make people who are already on the fence about Vista a little nervous. But in use, Windows 7 is Vista done right. It's smaller, faster, lighter, and prettier than Vista. It's much less annoying, with much fewer UAC pop-ups, yes, but also fewer other interruptions, thanks to an effort to keep tray notifications under strict control. It will run on systems as unimpressive as a netbook--yes, yes, it really will--and scale up to systems with 256 processor cores. What makes 7 so interesting, ultimately, is the surface stuff, though. It's just nicer looking. And it works better, thanks to hundreds of little UI tweaks that just delight people. Again and again at PDC, I watched as jaded and weary developers moused around with Windows 7: As they discovered a little feature, like Aero Snaps, where dragged windows latch onto to the edges of screens, or the pop-ups on the new taskbar, their faces would just light up with instant smiles.
At the early morning session on the final day of PDC 2008, architect Jeffrey Snover officially confirmed that Windows 7 and the R2 edition of Windows Server 2008 will both get version 2 of PowerShell as standard installation options.
In addition, Snover said, thanks to the ability for an upcoming version of the .NET Framework to run in systems without graphical overhead, PowerShell v2 will also be supported in Server Core, the streamlined, command-line-only installation option for Windows Server introduced with the 2008 edition. Server Core is typically meant for systems that do not need to be administered directly, and can instead use remote management tools.
Developers this week heard more about the planned upgrade of Microsoft's platform for integrating e-mail, instant messaging, conferencing and telephony at this week's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.
The upgrade is dubbed Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and it is currently available only for private beta testing. OCS was dwarfed by many other high-profile launches at PDC this week. However, Microsoft did conduct a handful of technical talks on the planned OCS release.
Microsoft on Tuesday showed off a pre-beta version of Windows Server 2008 R2 at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. The company is also promoting the upcoming release (also known as "Windows 7 Server") on its various blogs and Web sites.
While Microsoft isn't talking specific dates yet (the live version is expected to debut in late 2009/early 2010), it is talking features -- including confirming that Windows Server 2008 R2 will be 64-bit only.
"32-bit is done," wrote Technical Product Manager Oliver Rist on a Windows Server blog post. "Frankly it was high time. Customers have been unable to purchase a 32-bit server CPU for over two years now, and the advancements in CPU architectures really dictated that we squeeze as much performance out of customers' hardware purchases as possible. The move to 64-bit is a first step."
Microsoft is putting the Windows client OS on a diet as a way to bring the PC OS into the age of cloud computing. Windows 7, Vista's follow-up, already will be a thinner, more streamlined OS, replacing some of the software Microsoft previously included with the OS with Web-based Windows Live Services. And if comments made by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference this week are any indication, Windows will slim down even further in the future, returning to the original intent of an OS -- a way to optimize the hardware it runs on -- instead of being a bloated piece of software whose performance and value rely on compatibility with installed applications.
Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 at its Professional Developers Conference on Monday, and developers may be pleased with the new parallel computing capabilities now available in the CTP.
To better deal with the problems of concurrency, where threads of code run at the same time and sometimes share resources, Microsoft has added some new .NET Framework libraries to work with Visual Studio 2010.
The point of the new libraries is to provide developers with profiling and debugging tools for parallel computing while using the familiar Visual Studio interface.
Microsoft is evolving its strategy for relational data services in the cloud.
As the company's vision for cloud-based computing is shared with over 6,000 developers this week at its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft is announcing that SQL Server Data Services is now the storage component of a broader suite of data-related services called "SQL Services." SQL Server Data Services is renamed SQL Data Services.
SQL Services is part of the Azure Services Platform for building cloud applications intended to run on Windows Azure, Microsoft's new cloud-based operating system, unveiled here on Monday. The Azure Services Platform consists of Live Services, .NET Services, SQL Services, SharePoint Services and Dynamic CRM Services. PDC attendees can register for the Azure Services Platform and request .NET Services, Live Services and SDS provisioning.
Microsoft promised last month to release information at a steady rate so as not to overwhelm developers, but today's code dump might be a bit much.
This week, developers at the Professional Developer Conference not only got their hands on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, they also got Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0.
Visual Studio 2008 has only been on the market for a few months but Microsoft is letting no grass grow under its feet by getting to work on the new version. Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer division, was a keynote speaker on this second day of PDC, where he discussed how Microsoft is making the transition from traditional clients to cloud-based services.
In a long-expected and overdue move, Microsoft on Tuesday announced that they are bringing crucial parts of its best-selling office productivity suite to the Web as cloud-based services. Dubbed Office Web Applications for now, this service will allow users to view and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote documents online using a Web browser.
"As part of the next release of Office, we're announcing that Microsoft will deliver Office Web applications--lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote--through a browser," Microsoft Senior Vice President Chris Capossela said. "With these new applications, people can use a browser to create, edit, and collaborate on Office documents.
Since its founding in 1991, Microsoft Research has produced a number of technologies that have gone on to find their way into key products for the company. Today at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference, the group used the event's final keynote to show what might be ahead in future offerings.
While Microsoft Research has played a role in developing everything from Microsoft Windows 95 to Xbox Live, the group's head, Rick Rashid, has his own notable legacy, having developed the Mach microkernel back in the 1980s.