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Report: Windows Blue Reaches Its First Milestone Build
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley has been collecting tips on Microsoft's accelerated Windows development schedule, codenamed 'Blue.' She reports that the program, which is attempting to replace the multiyear product drops for the Windows-branded desktop, server, phone, and network services products with a more agile release cycle, with better continuity across the suite, has just hit the first of two scheduled milestone builds. What's in the build? As with North Korea's nuclear program, details are scarce, but so far we have a Chinese Windows start screen; indications that the kernel number has been bumped from 'NT 6.2' (Windows 8) to 'NT 6.3'; and a job posting for a Windows Blue SDET (test engineer). Slashdot reported on Windows Blue in November."
Let me guess... they've gone further on their way to declare desktop applications as deprecated? With Windows 8, Microsoft has made it clear that it thinks that desktop applications are on their way out, and the only way to go is to make programs for Metro.
Oh, and I'll put this out there: won't run unsigned programs by default, though I suspect that this will be like OS X 10.8 and allow being turned off.
All part of boiling the frog.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Why is it that sometimes code names are better than the name of the final product? "Windows Blue" is a better name than simply "Windows 9". Similarly, "Xenon" was a better name than "Xbox 360".
Nintendo's fond of that, too. "Nitro" versus "DS", "Dolphin" versus "GameCube", "Revolution" versus "Wii".
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
According to the article, Blue is a Windows 8 refresh. I assume that to mean that it's going to add all the stuff that Windows 8 was lacking when it came out, particularly in relation to its mouse / keyboard and "classic" behaviour. But even metro is a bit shit on the desktop, lacking stuff like folders to group icons, zoom in / out, certain multi-select actions and so on.
Where in my post did I talk about wanting full Virtualization and Max performance? I didn't so please stop trying to read something that is clearly not there.
The question is
Do MS system require rebooting when applying patches?
Yes
Do other Operating System apply patches without the need for reboots?
Yes
ergo,
If MS is going to a continuious update cycle then they really need to reduce the number of reboots required after applying patches.
If they don't they are going to piss off a lot of users with the increased reboot frequency.
not that hard really is it?
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
I use windows 8 and don't get what the fuss is about. I basically don't use the metro interface and don't intend to ever do so until I can do ALL my work in it. That is, I don't dislike the UI per se, but dislike having to switch back and forth. I don't really care if MS gets a share of what I pay for applications either, but here is the chicken and egg problem: I won't buy any metro apps until I use that interface. I won't use that interface until I can use it exclusively. I won't use it exclusively until all my applications are there.
I have met a few people excited about the Metro screen. But these people barely know how to use a computer and to them, Metro is a lot easier to find what programs they want to run. I personally don't mind Windows 8 and Metro although the first thing I did was set the default for all Metro apps to the full version and pin my most used programs to the taskbar. Any time that I need another program, I simply hit the windows key, type in the first few characters of what I want and hit enter. Metro pops up and goes away quickly.