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Microsoft To Release Cloud-Oriented Windows OS

Posted by timothy on from the name-tba dept.

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."

20 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft Dark Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Causes Rainy Day

  2. Don't hold your breath by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 5, Funny

    This sounds like vapourware to me.

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    ... I'm addicted to placebos
    1. Re:Don't hold your breath by Stan+Vassilev · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, sounds like Ulteo. I've played with Ulteo and it is pretty close, and technically MS should be able to throw enough people behind something like it.

      Hell no. Unlike some people, Microsoft knows what "OS" means, and it's an OS: process management, drivers, the entire party.

      If you want to get intot he right mindset about this project, consider it a spinoff of the Windows Server family (but will likely be a subset powered mostly or entirely by .NET).

    2. Re:Don't hold your breath by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      and it's an OS: process management, drivers, the entire party.

      Please click my link... Ulteo can be installed (and looks a lot like Ubuntu). I only ran in in a virtual machine, but it seemed like a pretty nice little setup. My big complaint is that they have apt-get, but you really can't use it or stuff breaks.

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      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    3. Re:Don't hold your breath by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I suspect you're closer than you think.

      Some time ago, rumour had it that Microsoft had allocated ~300 of its best engineers to work on Midori, a product based on its Singularity research OS.

      Singularity, for those not familiar with it, is a highly impressive piece of work. It's not actually Windows at all, in fact it bears absolutely no resemblence to any existing OS architecturally and didn't even support graphics when we were last able to look at it. But it was a ground-up fresh new OS that had the following characteristics: entirely .NET based (with extensions), extremely robust and extremely high performance.

      In particular, Singularity is able to go about 30% faster on I/O intensive apps than traditional server operating systems like Linux and Windows because it doesn't use hardware process isolation, but rather does everything in software. Hmmm, an OS with no graphics support, no applications, but which can run .NET applications far faster than the competition. Sounds basically ideal for a server OS or "cloud windows" if you ask me.

  3. Wonder if by thammoud · · Score: 5, Funny

    they have an HTML version of the Blue Screen Of Death.

    1. Re:Wonder if by Shaitan+Apistos · · Score: 5, Funny

      But you need to install silverlight to view it.

  4. hohum by BigBadBus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Somehow, putting the word "vista" in the same sentence as "succeed", for whatever reason, just seems plain wrong.

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  5. RMS was right! by MPAB · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/2146250

  6. Windows for cloud computing by aldoferrel · · Score: 4, Funny

    sounds like Airborne viruses.

  7. I sense a disturbance in the Force ... by hey! · · Score: 4, Funny

    as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in labored puns about windows and clouds and nobody had the sense to silence them.

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    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  8. Cloud computing by MisterSquirrel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:What is it? by truthsearch · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is the pre-announcement to announce an announcement. You'll have to wait for the actual announcement to find out what the hell it is.

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    Developers: We can use your help.
  10. Re:Distributed Blue Screen of Death by Chemisor · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, the Falling Blue Sky Of Death.

  11. Good Call, Microsoft by kat_skan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  12. What it is... by elfguy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  13. Re:Microsoft Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...lacks silver lining.

  14. Re:Don't hold your breath So hazy i can't see... by QRDeNameland · · Score: 5, Funny

    Project/Code Name?

    Since this is Slashdot, how about...

    "Insensitive Cloud"

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    Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
  15. Windows Cloud... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because it will take at least seven standard PCs to boot the next version of Windows.

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    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  16. This already exists in the wild by multipartmixed · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

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    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?