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Windows 7 Won't Have Compact "MinWin" Kernel
An anonymous reader points us to an interview Microsoft's Windows 7 development chief, Steven Sinofsky, did with CNet. He reveals that Windows 7 will be a further evolution of Vista, and will lose the rumored MinWin kernel. "We're very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7; in fact, they'll work the same. We're going to not introduce additional compatibilities, particularly in the driver model. Windows Vista was about improving those things. We are going to build on the success and the strength of the Windows Server 2008 kernel, and that has all of this work that you've been talking about. The key there is that the kernel in Windows Server 08 is an evolution of the kernel in Windows Vista, and then Windows 7 will be a further evolution of that kernel as well."
In related news, the US Military is going to build off the success of the Iraw war, the travel industry is going to build off the success of the Titanic and David Letterman is going to build off the funny of this comment.
We're very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7
What, all five of them?
I wrote my first program at the age of six, and I still can't work out how this website works.
"drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7; in fact, they'll work the same"
Bzzt! Logical inconsistency detected! Abort/retry/fail?
apterous.org
If my Vista Ultimate is less than a year old, do I get a free upgrade? I have a VERY bad feeling about this.
Goddamned kids! Get off my lawn!
"We're very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7"
Windows 7 will be incompatible with just about every third party application. Any compatibility with other Microsoft will be purely incidental.
"We are going to build on the success and the strength of the Windows Server 2008 kernel"
We're making it an even larger resource hog. Idling, Windows 7 will likely occupy 2 or more cores, and 4GB of ram.
"The key there is that the kernel in Windows Server 08 is an evolution of the kernel in Windows Vista, and then Windows 7 will be a further evolution of that kernel as well."
We're going to try our best to make Windows 7 so convoluted that no one can possibly discover the vast security holes.
Hope this is a bit easier to read.
"We have no idea if drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work at all on Windows 7; in fact, they didn't work on Vista either. We're going to introduce additional incompatibilities, particularly in the driver model. Windows Vista was about perverting those things. We are going to build on the relatively lack of bad publicity of the Windows Server 2008 kernel, and that has all of this work that you've been complaining about. The key there is that the kernel in Windows Server 08 is an incompatible fork of the kernel in Windows Vista, and then Windows 7 will be a further incompatibly forked up fork of that kernel as well."
(I'm sorry)
For Vista, they promised loads of stuff, then stripped most of them out, presumably for a later version.
Thw MinWin kernel has been touted as non-production from the start IIRC, so that at least comes as no surprise at all.
I do wonder what all Windows 7 will not have; I would rather make a list of that.
For instance: WinFS, MinWin, capability to operate with less than half a terabyte of RAM, users... add to the list as needed; maybe after we define what Windows will not have, we can guess at what it will have.
Sadly, I only have bloat on that list so far...
Ignore this signature. By order.
It'll be simple for the marketing drones:
Do you remember the last time you had a steak? A really big, thick juicy steak. Yeah, that was great, wasn't it. That was XP.
And then you remember how it clogged up your colon, and you couldn't do anything for a day or two? That was Vista
And then you remember how it all finally came out, when you spent a half-hour on the can, insides being stretched to Hello.jpg proportions, tears laced with internal-bleeding running down your face, screaming and punching holes in the bathroom drywall, until finally at last everything was right again, and wave of adrenalin-induced euphoria washed over you once the pain was gone, finally gone? That was Vista SP1
Don't you want to experience that wonderful feeling of eventually bliss all over again? Windows 7, coming soon to a colon, urr, computer near you*.
(c)Windows(tm) Marketing(tm) Team(tm) 2008)(tm)
*Steak not included
UTF-8: There and Back Again
I didn't even know winFS was still alive... Or is FS short for Frankenstein?
But your comment is exactly what I was thinking. We've seen it before, the touting of features on the next-best thing from Redmond, and we were much amused. They were constantly dropping features off the list, up to the point where there really were no technological advancements left in Vista.
They really appear to be doing the same: "The Windows 7 marketing speak will be a further evolution of our experiences with marketing Vista".
(and to the mods: parent should be modded insightful, not funny)
Strange how such bad news could also in hindsight be some of the best news of the decade :)
which is totally what she said
I am really happy about this.
as a linux user, (i befriended the penguin after one day of vista) watching MS drop the ball a second time is good news.
i can feel it.....
2010 will be the year of linux on the desktop.
(at least for some people it will be, just like how 2007 was the year of linux on MY desktop)
-I only code in BASIC.-
Would it be facetious to suggest conducting an experiment? Say, by destroying their whole command structure, top-down... starting with George W.
We can then take notes of their behaviour.
Ignore this signature. By order.
Also, .NET has really withered on the vine. Though you will always be able to find shops that use .NET, the general consensus that I've heard is that .NET is dying.
Last I read the WinFS project is totally dead.
The Windows database filesystem is something MS has been developing, announcing, and then killing off since the early 90s. It's sort of the Redmond equivalent of a phoenix, or maybe a Terminator.
At this point, I think they sort of *have* to announce it as a feature of every upcoming major version of Windows, only to cut it before the release of the OS. It's a tradition with almost 20 years behind it!
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
so WinFS == Duke Nukem Forever?
DEMETRIUS: Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.
Shakespeare invents 'your mom'
They actually only upgrade the default wallpaper, DRM and hardware requirements.
These Linux/Mac zealots always have something to complain about. Microsoft stripped that stuff out of Vista to give the users a fast and snappy system everybody could enjoy on any PC. If they kept all those features Vista would have been a real slug instead of the lightning fast OS it is now.
[/sarcasm]
But look at all the DRM technology they built into every layer of the APIs!
"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live." - Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"
You say that like its a problem.
I prefer to consider Windows Vista to be like the overclocked Voodoo quadcore with twin nVidia 8800s I run it on: reassuringly exclusive.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Actually Windows Me is the version that I would recommend.
(someone mod me up please)
In other news, Microsoft employees were spotted in computer stores across the country writing the number 7 on existing Windows XP and Vista boxes using Sharpies.
Now that, sir, is some damn good trolling.
Why would a kernel chase a chicken?
(he says expecting a punch line to follow)
i'd understand if it was a colonel.
Blazing Spiders
I don't know about WinFS being a phoenix or terminator. Those would be effective. I've always pictured each new Windows project as the Black Knight:
"Look, you stupid Bastard. You've got no features left.""Yes I have."
"Look!"
"It's just a flesh wound."
Colonel Sanders?