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Microsoft To Release Cloud-Oriented Windows OS
CWmike writes "Within a month, Microsoft will unveil what CEO Steve Ballmer called 'Windows Cloud.' The operating system, which will likely have a different name, is intended for developers writing cloud-computing applications, said Ballmer, who spoke to an auditorium of IT managers at a Microsoft-sponsored conference in London. Ballmer was short on details, saying more information would spoil the announcement. Windows Cloud is a separate project from Windows 7, the operating system that Microsoft is developing to succeed Windows Vista."
Causes Rainy Day
This sounds like vapourware to me.
Sorry, I own the rights to the word "cloud".
How about Windows "Fog"?
More appropriate, yes?
they have an HTML version of the Blue Screen Of Death.
It seems so obvious now.
Is this a web-based back end for hosting apps on a server? Is it an online platform of application infrastructure? Is it a toolkit/API for writing apps like Ruby-on-Rails?
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
The number of posts for this article (I think) are like the announcement itself: vapor.
I don't even know if that was sarcasm.
Our bugs are smarter than your test scripts.
Cloudy Windows!!!! Well, I'm glad I have my Windex handy.
Does this mean the BSOD will instead be the 'partly cloudy' screen of death? Or will it just rain on me?
Pax Vobiscum
Somehow, putting the word "vista" in the same sentence as "succeed", for whatever reason, just seems plain wrong.
My web domain.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/2146250
Insert fart joke here
sounds like Airborne viruses.
So is the blue screen composed one line at a time by each node, or handled by the head of the cluster?
Can you play a distributed halo on it, or is DistHalo for Windows Cloud Vista Ultimate DX11 Version UK Edition Service Pack Five only?
Is every card in solitaire represented by a thread, or is only the extensive AI distributed?
Will the DRM be offloaded to individual nodes or centralised?
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in labored puns about windows and clouds and nobody had the sense to silence them.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
It's a marketing phrase, designed to encourage you to offload your computing to the Cloud. The Cloud is where someone else controls your information, not you. Stallman says it's a trap. I'm inclined to believe him. When MicroHard starts promoting it? All the more reason to be leery of it.
I think I'll hold off until the refine the idea with Windows Oort Cloud.
Life is like a jar of jalapeños, what you do today may burn your ass tomorrow.
I haven't been following this stuff.
Is it safe to assume that some competitor has just released a working toolkit for developing cloud applications that works pretty well? And that Ballmer needs to get the pointy-haired boss to stop Dilbert from using that toolkit, and redesign the mission-critical project around Windows Cloud?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
but are those my financial records on that torrent server?
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I am so excited about $NEXT_VERSION of Windows. It will go beyond just solving all of the problems with $CURRENT_VERSION, it will be an entirely new paradigm. Forget about security problems, those are all fixed in $NEXT_VERSION. And they're finally ridding themselves of $ANCIENT_LEGACY_STUFF.
Also, there'll be $DATABASE_FILESYSTEM. It'll be awesome!
I wonder how $NEXT_VERSION will compare to $NEXT_NEXT_VERSION.
("Windows Cloud"? Good freakin' gosh, what do they have for a marketing department?)
http://rocknerd.co.uk
He's saying that in a month they're going to announce (not ship) something, but he can't talk about it now? So he's telling us that he's not telling us something, but sometime later he will? Why doesn't he just, like, not say anything?
The whole point of cloud computing is to run your server apps on whatever is available to run it. These apps do not, should not, and typically CANNOT do any configuration or long-term storage on any individual instance they run on, so everything they do is compartmentalized through specialized IO and shared storage APIs, which can be reimplemented on pretty much anything.
Sure, on the desktop everybody supports Windows, because they've got the drivers, Office is popular, etc etc. But going to any from-scratch model like cloud computing, Microsoft carries absolutely zero advantage or momentum from their other market saturations.
Are you sure you got that word right? Windows Chair has a much better ring to it, especially if it's a Steve Ballmer project,... ;-)
Maybe now we understand his real motives for his most recent IRL flamebaiting.
Never attribute to Hanlon that which can be adequately attributed to Heinlein.
Mod me down for being a little jaded against ideas like this, but I just had to say something...
Ok, so, it still requires the client to boot some sort of OS stub, right? It still needs a method to connect to the Internet...and it sure isn't going to be BOOTP or PXE. You'll still have to have a local OS, but will apps/games run on it?
How is this going to benefit anyone except the corporate coffers? Of course $mega_corps love this idea! They don't care about your experience, they care about taking your money, and remaining in control.
If cloud computing grabs hold of us, we'll have to pay per month. Even just $20/month over 5 years = $1200...heh, yeah, sounds like a superdeal for everybody! Oh, and of course they will charge more per accessible app...and don't expect to use the same app for years, you'll be pushed forward to new apps without your consent.
Do I stream my data, like movies too?
What about bandwidth caps? How about your throttle?
What happens when my Internet connection goes down?
What happens when THEIR Internet connection goes down?
What happens when their SERVER goes down? Subverted? If someone doesn't notice?
What happens when I need custom apps installed? What if they aren't "approved"?
Who do I call when an app doesn't work/crashes?
Will my printers work? How about the rest of my attached devices? Legacy devices?
What happens if I want access to my stuff while I'm not near an Internet connection?
Who gets to look at my operating log?
Are advertisements banned?
Imagine how convoluted the simple task of inserting a scanned image will be.
A modern OS needs to be local, all this will be is just an in-browser-web-app, OR some virtual desktop a la Terminal Services.
It won't happen. /rant
Good Call, Microsoft. With five editions of Vista competing with three editions of XP and nine editions of Server 2008 (including three that are just the regular versions without the hypervisor software), plus separate 64-bit versions of everything, the Windows product line wasn't nearly diffuse enough.
Windows Vista that doesn't accept being offline and can store apps in a proprietary XML like format that you can display with 'the advanced and intergrated new exiting underlining technology MS has developed and maybe patented' *cough*aka IE8 extension for offline pages*cough*.
Sounds like something even I could have made by adding and removing some stuff in Ubuntu and remaster the image...
Here be signatures
Project/Code Name?
Candidates:
Tacoma
Wincoma
GLAUcoma
Cloudy
Misty
TearDrop
Charmin
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
A Windows OS for Cloud Computing sounds like Kryptonite for Richard Stallman.
Of course, we already knew that Microsoft was our industry's Lex Luthor.
-Vendal Thornheart
that RMS was just railing against the cloud on Monday?
/...
How is cloud computing really any different than using a (dumb) vt100 terminial to access programs such as email, word processors, chat, mud's, and any data you might have stored on the server?
It really sounds like all cloud computing does is turn your home computer into a vt100 terminal with better graphics.
Except that you can't be assured the people running the server have any sort of ethics, sense of privacy, or security measures in place.
I wonder if this is going to bring back 1400 baud modems too?
Not a new idea at all.
For the love of gods, don't do it...
"Windows Cloud is a separate project from Windows 7, the operating system that Microsoft is developing to succeed Windows Vista."
If it's the slightest bit better than its predecessor, I think it'll be better described as the OS that FAILS Windows Vista. Once and for all.
Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
So how do I get my server into the cloud anyway? Do I need an airplane, or a balloon? How can I find a long enough power cord? Is that a blue screen, or just a reflection of the sky?
And most importantly, can I cluster a Microsoft cloud with an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud?
It's not new and it's not vaporware, it's also not Windows on the cloud. It's called Microsoft Mesh. It's been in used for many months, although only the first few services are available. Right now you get PC to PC and PC to Web synchronization of data. It's pretty much the best document remote access / sharing solution right now.
MS wants to add applications too, which many people compare with Google Docs but it's not that at all. It's basically a way that people will be able to use the same app from anywhere, have multiple people use the same application thru this mesh. How it will end up working is.. as of yet unknown.
The upcoming PDC conference in October will be all about Mesh, which is what Balmer is referring to.
...so they can recycle the wallpaper from Windows 95.
...lacks silver lining.
Project/Code Name?
Since this is Slashdot, how about...
"Insensitive Cloud"
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Fear Uncertainty Cloud (your judgement)
The writing has been on the wall for something like this for a long time. Gates has been talking for years about how this is where he thinks the future is. Microsoft has made a strong push lately for their various Windows Live products, and some of them are quite good (Mesh, Skydrive, Writer). The only thing I'm curious to see is how heavy the OS is. Will it be geared towards netbooks, like the eeePC? Or will it still require some juice on your local machine?
"It's a reverse vampire...they....they crave the sun!"
Demo is available here:
http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/27549_winrg.swf
I would put the viris nets as way ahead of Microsoft on the cloud computing front for Windows Operating Systems.
I would ask what protections are in the Microsoft release to stop the instant creation of massive bot-nets.
Firms really are attracted to the latest buzzwords and hot topics like a fly to a shit are they not?
Just in case this is the latest "Netscape moment"*, the latest hot technology that might prove useful so they will carve up a slice of it for themselves and smother innovation with a deluge of patents and FUD. Stamping their branding irons into the body of development to get their logo and product into every corner.
I'm careful to avoid mentioning any specific firm here - because this goes for them all I think.
*by which I refer to the fact that initially the web was ignored by firms until it was clear it was a big thing at which point they all waded in with monopolistic behavior, fired up their legal teams and petitioned for more control of it from us miscreants and wasters in case we created something they could not profit from and lock down. I think nobody won that one, I would say there is too much DRM and monitoring, others would argue the other way.
Clouds ARE insensitive, you clo .... (struck by lightening, vaporized...)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
It was flash-based OS. It is still available here: http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/27549_winrg.swf
Don't get confused. It is just Microsoft's response to GoogleAps ie: Google Docs, Gmail, Google Spreadsheet, Google Calendar, etc.
come with a copy of solitare?
Good people go to bed earlier.
When applications go up (or down) in a puff of blue smoke (or vapor)
Unlike some people, Microsoft knows what "OS" means, and it's an OS: process management, drivers, the entire party.
Surely you're mistaken. If I recall correctly, several years ago Microsoft testified that their web browser was an integral part of the O/S during an anti-trust hearing or some other little nuisance distraction. Or maybe I'm just imagining that.
"Blue screens, shinning on me.......Nothing but blues screens do I see....."
Be gone from my sight or prepare to feel my flaming wraith!
Because it will take at least seven standard PCs to boot the next version of Windows.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
[Insert rant about how Microsoft should rather take time patching their old systems (or even better: creating a new one that actually would be _useful_ and _nice to use_) instead of developing new ones]
A good education is a bit like a STD - it makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and gives you a desire to spread it.
Its just that its made of an 'unmanageable heap of spaghetti code." Then ten minutes later, your hungry for more RAM.
every year since a couple of decades ago around this days Microsoft announces a "totally new" "improved" "safe this time" vapour-oriented Windows OS. At least is updating their vocabulary with the offer this time.
Look at what they are afraid of:
http://eeepc.asus.com/global/
See that category list with links? It will keep growing and growing and the only thing you DON'T need to run cloud based client computing is the bulky XP or Vista. Launching "Office" on a EeePC is going to Google Docs site for example. It is all WWW standards and other standard networking products.
They figure there is no place for them with current offers. Back in 1995, Marc Andreessen made the biggest mistake by openly saying "Netscape will soon reduce Windows to] a poorly debugged set of device drivers.", the windows of 1995 he talks about is not existent anymore, it is full of hacks on hacks, patches on patches, 5-6 frameworks doing same job. So people look to a system which will do everything on Web with least overhead. It is Linux.
All they now need is some "DirectCloud" with the usual suspect coding some Linux non working backwards clone. You get what I mean.
This windows cloud computing stuff is already used to send millions of emails a day and so on. The product itself really isn't news, the only news is that Ballmer is finally giving it a product name so we can talk about it more effectively in the media.
For a list of computers participating in the Windows Cloud, go here and request an rsync feed for the XBL.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
What will they say to people who try to access the cloud without authorization? I think the error message should be: "Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!"
At least it would make more sense to go with that Stones song than Start Me Up.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Amazon has been beta testing running Windows servers on EC2, and from what I've heard from Amazon, one of the challenges is creating a Microsoft license that will allow Microsoft to capture revenue from this and similar projects elsewhere.
I wouldn't be surprised if they used a business model similar to Red Hat's cloud image, where Red Hat gets a tiny payment for every hour the server is running.
From wikipedia:
"Midori is the code name for a managed code operating system developed secretly by Microsoft. It has been reported[1][2] to be a possible commercial successor to the Singularity operating system, a research project started in 2003 to build a highly-dependable operating system in which the kernel, device drivers, and applications are all written in managed code.
The code name Midori was first discovered through the PowerPoint presentation CHESS: A systematic testing tool for concurrent software.[3]
Midori has also been rumoured by some IT journalists as a possible replacement to Microsoft Windows.
Midori is meant to be unbound to the physical hardware of the computer and is assumed to be a much more virtually-oriented system than its precursors. It's also said that it assumes that the user will be online at all times. Midori will be easily moved between different environments without reinstallation."
No, it has one
Just call it "The W.C."
Sounds like Microsoft is again trying to jump on the wave created a competitor: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vcloud_vmworld08.html
Windows "Pie in the Sky" Edition
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
"Seattle"?
How's this for a project name: "Air Biscuit"
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
Just to lightn the mood a little...
I suppose if you were struck by something that decreased your opacity continuously until you were transparent, the last moments might seem like you were "vapor", but that definitely strikes me as an intentionally opaque way of describing the phenomenon.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
There is no quote in TFA that actually mentions him saying it. It almost sounds like Windows Cloud is something like Google AppEngine.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
The holy grail, the return to the days of the mainframe ( in concept ) where you can charge your customers for *anything* they do.
No pay, no play.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I would have voted for "Windows Nimbus."
This should be the next poll.
but it is not clouded...
Rhapsody. It will finally bring safe multitasking to Windows.
Windows Cloud and Rainy Showers Edition - every four minutes an innovative new "rain" feature keeps you alert by randomly deleting characters in any document you have open. (This replaces the BSOD)
Windows Cloud and Storm Showers Edition - as above but works every seven minutes.
Windows Cloud and Pony Edition - its pink.
Windows Cloud and Fog Edition - text and background are all in the same grey colour.
Windows Cloud Extreme Ballmer Edition - once you log in, it shows a page similar to Goatsx, only Ballmers rear end and a picture of the sun shining from the appropriate place.
Microsoft is good at making things pretty easy for developers. No, not as easy as being a script/HTML monkey but if you want to build an application for Windows using VB or build a Web site using ASP.NET, Microsoft makes it easier for their platform(s) than any other platform. A mediocre developer can fire up Visual Studio and do something pretty cool. A good developer can do really cool things. My expectation is that they'll do the same thing in the (buzzword alert) 'cloud.'
The Mono group own all the copyright on all the Moonlight code, and part of the EU agreement is Microsoft agreeing to develop some interoperability projects. Rolling back on the specific pledges they made in regards to Mono and Moonlight would likely bring down EU fines.
Microsoft is likely to remain largely closed off in other regards, but I don't know if they are going to suddenly try to close off Silverlight to block Moonlight users. Even they tried, it isn't like they can close off the source code for Moonlight, given that they don't own it. The Mono team can continue to support Moonlight so long as they choose to.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
What's the point of writing another OS to do this? Are they saying that Windows isn't good enough to perform these "cloud" functions? If so, then why don't they rewrite Windows so it is good enough?
Or is it just a part of their trend of having dozens of versions of each OS, like "Vista: people with small hands and lactose intolerance Edition"?
... and then they built the supercollider.
For anyone too lazy, busy, or disinterested to do that link chasing, Ulteo is a Linux Distro, based off of Ubuntu.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ulteo
Although there is an 'Online Desktop' thing as part of the project - but I find my interest too lacking to learn what exactly that is.
Just download citrix. Boom! instant Windows cloud.
We masses were beating each other to oblivion, trying to get a piece of the 'vista performance' !!
just as i was on my way home today, i have seen hundreds of people running over each other, seeking vista performance from local computer stores. thankfully it arrived on time - vista performance through cloud computing with a NEW windows version !!!
oh sing ho, merry dol !!
Read radical news here
A windows version running a cloud computing network would give us all the opportunities we need to examine black holes.
While we're at it, we can examine the rips in space/time continuum too.
Read radical news here
LOL! You made my day.
"The operating system, which will likely have a different name," is actually WINDOWS VISTA! Doesn't Vista sound cool NOW? Clouds? Right here in the screen saver! Doesn't Vista look COOL? Isn't it AWESOME? You can tell from how it looks how great it is! See? LOOK at it. No, don't touch, that's what this specially trained Windows Operative is for. He touches things so you don't have to! You can JUST LOOK!
Stallman was right. It's hype. It's cool because it's new and not many people understand it. Ballmer offers proof. If it's still cool (if and) when this Windows critter emerges, it will cease to be at that time. My money says MS will never release this because people will fall out of love with it before that.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
is whether the BSOD is coming from my machine, or one of the others in the "cloud"?
Note - Liberal use of <sarcasm> tags may or may not need to be applied.
I cant trust my home system with a windows, but i sure will trust a cloud service based out of it. Imagine every time I want to refresh my page, a windows network message pops up asking "Do you want to refresh". This will lead to a new pscho buzz-word : "Internet Frustation based suicides" - people commiting suicides cause their web services (hosted on Windoes Cloud i think "Vista caused suicides" is already a part of the dictionary ;) )
An
I think there was a preview in the 98 start up screen. Windows on a cloud and everything. If they are bringing it back it will be more amazing than the massive hint they gave in the XP default background.
Have BIOS load the OS from microsoft.com server and you data is stored on your local harddrive.
IMHO, cloud computing is just a new way of implementing the old mainframe/dumb terminal architecture again. Microsoft is all about control of their assets, which means anything they sell to you. This has nothing to do with convenience to the consumer, it's all about control and money. Microsoft holds your data and apps hostage until you pay them, and keep paying them. Really bad idea for consumers, really good idea for Microsoft. The terms "trust" and "Microsoft" are mutually exclusive.
Windows Cloud OS??? This is bull excrement. I want to OWN my programs (like Word 2000), not have to keep renting it "off the net" year after year after year.
Hmmm. Looks like I'll still be using XP 'til the year 2020.
I refuse to touch Vista and Cloud sounds like garbage too.
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
Main Entry: cloud. Part of Speech: noun Synonyms: blemish, cat's-tail, cloudiness, clipse, mare's-tail, nebula, nebulosity, nimbostratus, nimbus, obscurity, rack, scud, stigma, storm scud, tarnish, wane cloud
Main Entry: cloud; Part of Speech: adjective Synonyms: clouded, cloudy, flocculent, fuliginous, murky, nebular, nebulated, nebulose, nebulous, nimbose, nubilous, obscure, overcast, roily, turbid
Main Entry: cloud. Part of Speech: verb Synonyms: becloud, befog, befuddle, blacken, blemish, blur, confuse, cover, darken, distort, dust, film, fog, gloom, haze, hide, mist, nebula, obfuscate, obnubilate, obscure, ominous, overcast, perplex, screen, seed, shade, shadow, smog, stigma, sully, swarm, taint, tarnish, thunderhead, vapor, veil
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
They way I understood it back then is that the OS has some micro-kernel with minimalist hardware abstraction and a .NET virtual machine, with as much as possible being run as -NET byte code inside the VM, thus "hardware process isolation, but rather does everything in software". (= Everything is taken care of inside the .NET VM).
Nonetheless, it's Microsoft we're speaking about. .NET idea is good conceptually. But once the cloud is up, count on thousand of subtle incompatibility because tons of legacy .NET applications rely on API not found on Cloud OS (either calling older APIs even if they shouldn't - like OLE/COM or Win32 - or calling some nonstandard specific microsoft extensions to the standard - the one that is often criticized by other .NET implementors like dotGNU or Mono). .NET applications some shop has. .NET compliant and not tap into some extensions that mainstream NT-based OS provide but Singularity-based OS don't.
Count on them to royally both the final commercial product.
The Singularity concept is interesting as a minimalist environment but :
- some marketing people will decide that lots of windows' stuff has to be bolted to please the buzzword compliency (WINFS all over. Count on the resulting product being some awful siamese monstruosity of Singularity and Windows Server 2010 collided together).
- the whole will be victim of it's own strategy. Microsoft's world has been so efficient at playing the lock-in game that anything that is not a perfect clone of Windows has little viability. The
Even if it will probably marketed as such, the Cloud OS won't be able to run out-of-the-box unmodified copies of all the
You'll have to wait until Visual Studio 2010, for Microsoft to release tools and environment that can force a software to be strict
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Cloud computing OS, jumpin' jehosaphat, vapour ware becomes a reality, the mind boggles, a vapour OS, to run vapour ware applications all on vapour ware hardware ;D.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen