Comments on: Microsoft taking a sip of Midori

The software maker has an "incubation project" that is exploring what an all-new operating system might look like. But it's too soon to say that the company has found Windows' replacement.

[runswithscissorsXX]

microsoft - maybe you should take your head out of the clouds, and focus on giving the public a decent operating system? because vista is crap, absolute bollocks, and reading about the efforts going into this (and many other) projects you have little or no intention of following through with is pretty upsetting considering vista is such a flop.

[martalli]

Microsoft really must create an entirely new OS that would reflect the security needs of computers constantly connected to the Internet. Current comnputers and processors are completely capable of running most operating systems virtually... Instead of completely creating a new OS from scratch, MS could also take a BSD and create a new base, as Apple did and run XP and/or Vista in virtual machines. Their real task would be creating a new UI and a slick virtual machine. If they focused on those two tasks, they would be one step ahead of even Apple, since the extra cost of Parallels, etc. would be bundled into your new Microsoft OS license. Unlike Linux and the GPL, the BSD license really carries no requirement for them, no "cancer" or otherwise. Of course, since they have $45 billion they feel willing to throw at Yahoo, they ought to have enough money to rewrite an OS....but why reinvent the wheel when it is already being mass-produced for free by the BSD projects?

[kmomrik]

I completely understand the concept of you post and agree most of what you're saying about starting something on the BSD base... I think that'd be a great for a new company to do.

However, I have to wonder if you actually read the article of if you simply saw that Microsoft was trying to develop a new OS and had these thoughts. Building on the BSD core (in my opinion) would bring Windows (or whatever it would then become) too close to Mac OS. People use Windows because they like the functionality of being able to use (pretty much) the same thing they've used since the early 90s. If Windows became a BSD based OS... it would be viewed as EVIL MICROSOFT Operating System XX as a direct competitor to AWESOME, GREAT, BEST IN THE WORLD Apple Mac OSX. You can make the absolute BEST product in the world, but if no one buys it or believes you... it is worthless.

The point of the article is that Microsoft might try to build on the semi-sucessful Singularity project to make a consumer version (apparently codenamed Midori). The conclusion that the author makes is that Windows survives and THRIVES on the fact that the people who really USE it don't want it to change that much. They want it to do more things (obviously), but not take away things they're used to. They've maintained 90+% marketshare against the self (and fanboy) proclaimed BETTER Mac OSX and Linux by not really giving it's customers a really strong reason NOT to use it. They're struggling to gain additional market share for the same reason. While they're not giving their customers a reason NOT to use it... they're not really makeing a very strong case for new users to START using it.

These are just opinions... I'm not an expert... I'm not a professional analyst... I'm just a person who can see that what is is what is simply becuase it is... and not get twisted by people trying to tell me the sky is a big curtain and the grass is really just a very very very large shag carpet. Don't pi$$ on my head and tell me it is raining.

FYI... I'm a linux user. I've been using Knoppix, Mandriva, and Ubuntu for about 5 years.

[Perry_Clease]

"I'm a linux user. I've been using Knoppix, Mandriva, and Ubuntu for about 5 years."

Have you tried http://midori.sourceforge.net/

[jtmajorx]

Wow, I love the MS knockers that continue to read posts about MS. Go to your Mac fan-boy posts or Linux posts. As far as Vista goes, Mojave has shown that the speculations of Vista were mostly word of mouth. Vista (like all MS OS) had a rough start, that's all. I'm an active Vista user, and while the advances are modest, I appreciate them. I like that Win Firewall has its own MMC now, and I even like UAC. Vista is a great OS, a little resource hungry, but Microsoft has never be afraid to stimulate hardware to catch up with its software, it's a pain at first but carries great benefits in the long run. Also, on a personal note, I love how people beg for a more secure MS environment, then when MS delivers everyone complains about it, and those who care to knock that Vista is more secure, go read the results of CanSecWest.

[Imalittleteapot]

Oh Mojave, that five minute demo thing that got to run on a computer of Microsoft's choosing. How exactly does that prove Vista won't have problems on your own system? All that proved is if you're so new to computers that you can't even tell what operating system you're looking at you may be the type of person that likes Vista.

Yeah, I'm going to switch my whole business to Vista because this guy over here that doesn't even realize he's using Vista when he's using Vista says Vista is cool. Yeah, like Vista or hate Vista Mojave didn't prove anything.

[kwhsy82]

Deja vu. NT started as a new OS (from guys hired from DEC, like Cutler). Vista started as a new OS (with a guy from the outside also, Allchin from Banyan). NT started since MSFT needed a server operating system. Vista started because MSFT believed the old Windows OS would never be secure. A couple conclusions: (a) It takes a long time to make an OS since (b) a lot of the OS is about device drivers and compatibility. NT took a while to cease being "New Technology: and Vista is taking years to get third-party support figured out.

It's not entirely obvious to this ex-MSFT person exactly what drive MSFT to "start over" with yet another OS, unless it were for small-scale devices. That might be a valid reason -- a thin client for things like cell phones, low-cost laptops and even XBox.

On the PC side: The issues with Vista are NOT with the kernel, right? It seems to have withstood any security challenges, etc.. Yes, it's a large OS, but at this point, the PC vendors have adapted in general with 2 gigabyte RAM systems. The issues with Vista were with third-party compatibility and the UI. I think I"d argue too that the issue is with IE -- in a day of web apps, isn't it IE's mission to get software vendors excited, not the OS anymore? It's also not obvious to me that fragmenting Windows right now (where Ballmer is pointing a dearth of applications being written for it) is the way to go.

[RompStar_420]

Vista Shmista, OS X Baby or Linux, screw Vista and Office 2007 is a joke!!!!! I actually like Office 2003 and this is a total crap! I heard that a women came up with the brilliant idea of the ribbons, maybe Women should now use that crap, give us men back our classic look.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Wow. Nothing like offending every female on the planet with your comments to add credibility. Nothing like it at all. Wow.

[compudoc318]

wow, you are a total loser arent you??? "give us men back our classic look" what? are you afraid to change, can't learn something new??? go watch some spike tv you loser

[sanenazok]

I guess "cloud computing" is the flavor of the month so MS brings back some old projects from the closet. Sure NAS and remote computing are great ideas, but c'mon who's going to have a computer game that has 10GB + of content being sent over a remote connection? The laws of physics beg to differ, the data can't travel faster than speed of light and so if something takes 10 seconds to load locally it'll take 100 seconds to load remotely. I don't think cloud computing is going to be appropriate for the home or any business that cares about its data (which is all of them). Gawd even Apple screwed the pooch on cloud computing...it can get better it'll never be as easy to control as physical data storage.

[ralfthedog]

Hey Microsoft, how about an ultra thin 64 bit OS with excellent support for symmetric and asymmetric processors. Save the 8 or 16 GB of ram for the applications. The job of an OS is to provide resources to the application and get out of the way.

As to cloud computing, it is an excellent way for the writer of the software to control what you do. If parts of the application run on some server outside your system, they can decide when you upgrade. They can make you rent your software as a service VS purchasing it for a one time fee, and they can turn you off anytime they want (They can even take your data).

"Microsoft will no longer support the managed portion of Windows 2011 after July 31 2015. Users must upgrade to Windows 2014 by that date or Windows will no longer be usable."

[valeriod]

> That said, up to this point, every update to Office and Windows
> has been some type of incremental improvement, not a ground-up rewrite.

Not true: Windows NT has been completely new code.

The problem there was that instead of the modularity of UNIX Dave Cutler choose the monolithic architecture of VMS... but you can't blame a dinosaur for being a dinosaur.:-)

Hopefully Midory will bring some freshness and will also spur development into the Open Source community to go beyond Linux.

[cross platform]

Funny I'm using what you call " Crap " on my 4 year old Gateway everyday. From spread sheets to games it works really well. You do gat a small performance hit but you'd expect a newer OS to have greater resource demands. That's the way it's always worked for Apple and the Mac OS. I know I used to be a Mac user. I switched mainly because of games.. I went through the transition from OS 9 To X and the adjustment period was similar.

[onlyauser]

Microsoft...be smart and help the world as you help yourself...EMBRACE LINUX.

[gigo1000]

I agree with ralfthedog, "The job of an OS is to provide resources to the application and get out of the way."

I think part of Apple's current success is their approach to that. It has been reported that their next OSX upgrade will be a nuts-and-bolts upgrade that reduces the size and increases the speed of OSX. It will be the applications running above the OS that benefit from that reduced size and increased speed. If the OS is optimized then it gets a speed boost as well.

[JayWes]

Great, This new operating system shall be so hacker proof that the 100,000,000,000 hackers working from now to doomsday can not create a worm, virus or any other unmentionable or ugly item to plague users.

HA, Ha: if a human creates a secure system; then another human, by defination, can hack it. Such is true, even from before the early days of code-breaking ; such will be true until the second coming!

[Vegaman_Dan]

Your ignorance has no bounds.

[mwebb64]