Ballmer offers more on 'Windows Cloud'
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Thursday promised it won't be long before the world gets to meet what he is calling "Windows Cloud"--something that acts like Windows but operates over the Internet.
"Just as we have an operating system for the PC, for the phone, and for the server, we need a new operating system that runs in the Internet," Ballmer said Thursday in a speech before France's CIGREF (Club Informatique des Grandes Entreprises Françaises). "I bet we'll call it Windows something. We're going to announce it in four weeks. We might even have a trademark by then. So, for today I'll call it Windows Cloud. And Windows Cloud will be a place where you can run arbitrary applications up in the Internet that runs .NET."
CEO Steve Ballmer
(Credit: Microsoft )Ballmer first mentioned the "Windows Cloud" name in a speech in London earlier this week. Microsoft is expected to unveil "Windows Cloud" (whether it bears that name or not) at its Professional Developers Conference, which takes place the last week of October in Los Angeles.
Microsoft has already unveiled its Live Mesh, a consumer-based service that synchronizes data across multiple devices. The software maker has promised that application developers will also be able to write Mesh-based applications and that the tools to do so will be detailed at the PDC. Windows Cloud appears to go significantly beyond that, however.
The move into cloud computing, Ballmer said, will require a shift in Microsoft's overall developer tools, Ballmer said on Friday. "Part of that means putting .Net in the browser, which we've done with our Silverlight technology," Ballmer said, according to a transcript posted on Microsoft's Web site. "And yet I don't think the whole world lives in a browser. PC applications have better user interface, and you can integrate them more. Browser applications run on non-Windows machines, and they're easier to manage. We need to bring the benefits of both of those things together on Windows, and through our Silverlight technology permit the targeting of other systems."
Ballmer also talked about desktop Windows at the event, first addressing Vista and then talking briefly about its successor, Windows 7.
"Windows Vista is a product where we made some very conscious choices for some very good reasons that have been very painful," Ballmer said. However, he said that the company has now shipped about 180 million copies of the operating system.
"Deployments in large corporations are now ramping up quite nicely across the world, but in the enterprise I would say we are still earlier."
He then promised that Windows 7, as the company has been saying, will be compatible with Vista.
"No more breaks," Ballmer said. "So, any work we're doing together with you or you're doing on your own to test your applications for Vista compatibility will also apply to Windows 7. We hope you choose to deploy with Vista, but all of that work is good, important work for the long term."
Microsoft plans to release a pre-beta version of Windows 7 to developers attending the PDC.
He also said that Vista has lived up to its target of being, statistically speaking, the most secure version of Windows to date.
Ballmer also talked about the shifting expectations people have for software, pointing to the MySpace generation as one that expects people to have social capabilities built-in to their software.
"The young people you hire today, they grow up on MySpace, Facebook, and instant messaging," Ballmer said. "They grow up with a fundamental notion that applications have knowledge of other people. In order for business applications to go that direction, we need to provide fundamental platform operating system services that really provide what I might call the social web or the social graph."
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
That is as predictable as the final result: failure.
Ha ha.
An interesting revelation. And it sound totally, completely clueless, like Ballmer doesn't get cloud computing at all. Cloud computing is about reaching out of the whole 'Operating System' concept all together. Clueless.
After so much of the world (and marketplace) has simply become fed-up with Microsofts illegal, unfair, unethical, insanely-greedy, incompetent, and entirely self-serving manipulations and products (and, after the complete disaster that "Vista" has shown itself to be)... Microsoft is rabidly-desperate, beyond virtually any reason, to be able to absolutely control computer-owners. They (Microsoft) want to be able to finally, effectively, tell people that... they really dont -OWN- what they pay for (...since Microsofts longstanding lies about, so-called, "software licensing", has so resoundingly disintegrated, both legally, and in any sane consumers perceptions). Furthermore, Microsoft has always wanted to be able to force "upgrades", changes, and remove (or charge more for) "functionality"... whenever... Microsoft thinks it might be in Microsofts (bottom-lines), best interest (regardless of the law, consumer wishes, or marketplace realities). Microsoft has also always attempted to, absolutely, control of (and charge) absolutely everyone in the entire computer industry... merely for the -privilege of working with computers, at all. And, Microsoft now, especially, wants to be able to perpetually charge everyone... based upon absolutely ANY criteria, or charging scheme, that Microsoft can dream-up (per user, per operation, per byte, etc.) just for consumers computers to keep working.
The simple fact is that such complete-control, and forcible revenue-extraction, is exactly what Microsofts entire "Cloud Computing" (a.k.a. "Software as a Service") is all about. And, if Microsoft thinks that people will fall for this... well... Microsoft probably still thinks "Vista" will, somehow, be a success.
:)
Microsoft is a business that exists to make money. It's a willing-buyer, willing-seller relationship. If you don't want to use Microsoft's products then use somebody elses, and if you can't afford it then do without it. Nobody is forcing you to pay Microsoft.
Typical poor shmuck who complains about everythink Microsoft, and has no knowledge what so ever.
If you want hope, i sugest you look to cross-platform programming languages, such as JAVA. That might be the answer you're looking for. Run any OS you like, and use the same programs, but we're a good 20 years off that yet. that is before any major application takes advantage, such as MS office, or Adobe photoshop.
Another thing you might want to look at is widespread open source software, sch as GIMP, Open office, and Blender. These may end up being the standard, where it wont matter what OS you run, but again, Open source is in it's infancy, and is only just beginning to be taken seriously.
Give it a while, and when Linux is a way the average user can operate their computer, and we may see microsoft toppled. But do you want that? MS is big enough, that if it falls, it could cripple the stock market.
[...OS/2 Warp History...]
[....In November, 1994, OS/2 Warp 3.0 was released. It was the first PC operating
system to have built-in Internet support....]
http://my.att.net/s/s.dll?num=10&spage=search%2Fresultshome1.htm&channel=english&searchType=web&source=&string=OS%2F2+Warp&where=&sm.x=18&sm.y=16&sm=Go
As it is well known - The "apples" (Windows) do not fall very far from the "roots" of the trees (Code-Base OS/2)!
[....IBM Gets Okay To Process Federal Housing Loans
IBM said it expects to have approval by year's end to offer mortgage origination services for federally backed mortgages in all states. ...]
http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/outsourcing/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201805226
[....IBM, Bankers at Odds Over OS/2 Migration Path
Vendor advises OS/2 users to switch to Linux, but ATM makers are leading push to Windows....]
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,83884,00.html
Think that the "Financial and Economic Re-Education" now needed by the world started with the Bush Administration - Think Again!
"Technology Rules The World".
They pay people to use live.
When will they pay people to use Vista. That might be the next strategy.
You people whom claim to be supporters of open-source when in actual fact you're just a support of free stuff. Stick to your free OS, and remember that you get what you pay for.
"Windows Cloud" is where Microsoft takes a huge step forward into an unoccupied space, leaving the rest to play catch up. It's no surprise that you people can't grasp the concept, and lack the intelligence and vision to see that Microsoft is the best tech company out there.
Your tone is a little insulting, considering i remember a world before windows existed. I know exactly what i am talking about thank you very much.
Cloud is a waste of time and money, as was silverlight, as in fact was .net. .net was not an improvement, it just meant you had to learn to program -again!
You say vista is a 'brilliant operating system', well, if brilliant means unfinished, then yes. What about it is brilliant? What about it, if it comes to it is new? Aero - a pointless attempt at 3d which hogs the CPU. Remove it, and what do you get - a huge performance kick. What about the search feature? How is it a feature? It must have taken a whole 3 minutes to code. Strio those away, and you have a paranoid and unstable attempt at an operating system.
As for calling (I assume you mean linux when you say free), why is google using it then? Whilst im not overly keen on it, i think it is stable, and a usefull OS.
You sir are far too pretentious for your own good.
- by Drazhna October 3, 2008 8:13 AM PDT
- Ok, now that one of the (unfortunately) bigger cable ISP's has a customer monthly usage cap on bandwidth, this fuzzy 'cloud' model comes off the horizon.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(26 Comments)It's going to be an opening for others to find the niche they need back on Earth, and leave MS in the air holding their nebulous hat in their hands.