Steven Sinofsky may not be talking about Microsoft's future Windows plans, but the Windows Server team appears to see more value in letting customers know its road map.
In at least two slides apparently shown at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week, Microsoft suggests that a major release update to Windows Server is due around 2012, with one of the slides confirming the Windows 8 code name.
I've asked both the desktop and server teams for more context on the slides, which were noted this week by blogger Stephen Chapman. A similar slide cropped up--that time in Italian-- in August.
For his part, Sinofsky sat completely stone-faced when I asked him in our interview Wednesday where Microsoft was at relative to Windows 8--later noting that he hadn't even used the word Windows next to the numeral 8.
"I didn't say any of the words--Windows 8--those were all your words," he said
The 2012 time frame would roughly coincide with Windows Server's plans of having a minor release every two years or so and a major release every four years. It released Windows Server 2008 R2, a minor update, earlier this year as the desktop team released Windows 7.
In recent years, Microsoft has tended to line up its desktop and server releases fairly closely, although in this case the desktop OS was probably a more significant release than its server counterpart.
SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft trotted out some of its biggest customers on Tuesday to make its case that it still makes sense to spend money on software in a tough economy.
The gathering of invited corporate IT users here is designed to serve as the beginning of the business push for Windows 7, which is already available to larger businesses and goes on sale to consumers and small businesses on October 22.
A panel of Microsoft executives and customers talked about the pending launch of Windows 7 at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday.
(Credit: CNET News)Among those already trying out Windows 7 is Intel. The chipmaker did a lot of work to make Windows Vista work, but like many companies, it decided not to put it on its own desktops.
By contrast, Intel is adopting Windows 7 rather quickly. Already about 500 employees from throughout the company are testing the software, said CIO Diane Bryant. Of those workers, 97 percent said they would recommend the operating system.
"It's a very strong pull," Bryant said.
Although a good business case can be made for upgrading our machines, it can still be a tough sell, said IDC analyst Al Gillen.
CEO Steve Ballmer presided over an event that was, effectively, the business launch of Windows 7.
(Credit: CNET)"The problem is it costs money to save money," Gillen said.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who earlier Tuesday sent out an e-mail to customers arguing for "the new efficiency" driven by software, is slated to speak shortly at the event being held at the at the University of California, San Francisco's Mission Bay campus.
Update 9:55 a.m.: The panel has wrapped up and Ballmer has taken the stage. So far, we're hearing familiar talk about doing more with less and his case that technology is at the early stage of its influence on business.
10 a.m.: Ballmer starts his pitch for Windows 7.
Ballmer said his hope is that, once the new operating system hits the market, that individual workers will be going to businesses asking them to put Windows 7 on their corporate computers. "I think we are going to see a lot of that kind of demand," Ballmer said.
But, he acknowledged that alone won't sway businesses. "Even with that swell of interest, you are still going to have to confront the new efficiency."
There, he said, it will come down to whether Windows 7 really can make business workers more productive, something he clearly believes it can.
10:20 a.m. Ballmer has switched into the full-on sales pitch, highlighting the cost savings that can be achieved. Customers can expect to save $90 to $160 in costs each year per computer that they move onto Windows 7, largely from lower support and management costs. (It wasn't clear if this was as compared to a PC running XP or one running Windows Vista.)
Windows 7 can also make it cheaper to deploy new software, though Ballmer acknowledged that skeptics will point out the cheapest thing is just not to deploy new software at all. "I got that," Ballmer said.
Still, he said, it's a "very good place in the product cycle" to embrace Windows 7," Ballmer said, noting that businesses that move now would be early adopters, but not the first companies to do so, pointing to a list that included Ford, Fiat, BMW, Bombardier, Continental Airlines, Intel, Halliburton and Starwood.
Ballmer said he expects most companies will start moving to Windows 7 as they add new PCs, but won't do large-scale upgrades of existing machines and probably won't rush out to replace all their PCs either.
10:30 a.m.: On to questions and answers. Microsoft starts with a few written ones that came in over the Internet. First off: No, Ballmer is not free for golf next Monday--he'll be in London.
10:32 a.m.: Well, he took a couple more written questions but no live questions from the audience before the event wrapped up.
At last year's WinHEC event, Microsoft Vice President Bill Laing talks about Windows Server 2008 R2, dwarfed by servers from Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)Microsoft said that the next version of its SQL Server database, to be called SQL Server 2008 R2, will work with up to 256 logical processors as well as add a set of business intelligence capabilities previously known as Kilimanjaro.
The software maker had previously described Kilimanjaro as an add-on to SQL Server 2008, but not a new version. In an interview, though, Microsoft's Robert Wahbe said Kilimanjaro will indeed be a new version of the product, though it will share the same code base as SQL Server 2008.
"It is new capabilities but it is also a new release," Wahbe said. "We haven't been changing the core. That's the reason we named it R2."
The move to support 256 processors in SQL Server coincides with a similar move that Microsoft had already made on the Windows Server side, with Windows Server 2008 R2.
As for Windows Server 2008 R2--the server version of Windows 7--Microsoft said that it will be finalized later this year, coincident to Windows 7 on the desktop side. At this week's TechEd event in Los Angeles, Microsoft is also showing several new features of the product.
That's a far cry from several past releases in which Microsoft was cutting features to try to meet shipping deadlines, said Microsoft's Ward Ralston.
"It's generally a conversation of what ended up on the cutting-room floor," Ralston said. Instead, Microsoft is actually discussing a few additional capabilities that it will include in Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft had originally said that its Hyper-V virtualization layer would support 32 logical processors; instead, Microsoft said it will support 64 chips.
Another addition is the ability to create clusters that mix different flavors of chips. In the past, clusters had to use the same revision of chip, while with Windows Server 2008 R2, clusters can be made up of machines using different Intel or different AMD chips, though they still can't combine the two brands.
"Now they can look to reuse some of that potentially couple-years-old hardware," Ralston said.
SAN FRANCISCO--Windows Server boss Bill Laing said in an interview Friday that the server version of Windows 7 will ship this calendar year.
Using a little bit of deduction, I'd say that means Windows 7 continues to be tracking ahead of schedule. Although Laing's comments referred to Windows Server 2008 R2 and not to the desktop version, server products traditionally ship after desktop operating systems based on the same code base, owing to greater testing needs.
"We've really been executing," Laing said, noting that although the R2 product is a relatively minor release for the server unit, it still packs more features than he would have expected a year and a half ago.
As was the case with Windows 7, Microsoft shipped a beta version of the server update in January, after sharing it with some early customers in December. The next version, a release candidate, is due soon. Laing wouldn't say whether it would ship by next month, as is being speculated on the desktop side of things.
"I'm not sure yet," Laing said. "It's not far away, but we don't have a final date yet."
Microsoft's desktop unit has tried to give itself a lot of wiggle room by not committing to launch Windows 7 this year, although it has been working toward that goal for months. I've heard that the company plans to finalize the code as early as June if all goes well with the release candidate.
A spokeswoman for the desktop Windows unit did not immediately have any update to Microsoft's longstanding official comment, which is that Windows 7 will ship by next January.
I chatted with Laing about a number of other topics during an hour-long meeting Friday, including prospects of a Sun-IBM merger, the sorry state of the server market as well as the story behind Microsoft's new version of Windows for cheap servers. I should have more on all that shortly.
Microsoft Vice President Bill Laing talks about the server version of Windows 7, dwarfed by servers from Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET Networks)LOS ANGELES--After two weeks of focus on the desktop version of Windows 7, it's server counterpart finally got a day in the sun.
Vice President Bill Laing began on Thursday pointed out the obvious difference between the products that would use the server software, as compared to Netbooks and other PCs built on Windows 7.
"We actually use forklift devices to bring our toys," he said, pointing to several refrigerator-size servers that were on stage with him.
Laing traced the company's progress in developing its various server operating systems, which now span from its Windows Home Server product to the data center and high-performance computing versions of Windows Server 2008.
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 is now in technical beta, he said.
Next week, the company plans to launch the small and midsize business versions of its server products--Windows Small Business Server 2008 (formerly code-named Cougar) and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (formerly code-named Centro).
But the main focus was on the server version of Windows 7, known as Windows Server 2008 R2. It's noteworthy because, on the server side, Microsoft is characterizing Windows 7 as a minor release, while the desktop Windows 7 is being called a major release--albeit one with fewer low-level changes than came with Vista.
As for Windows Server 2008 R2, Laing confirmed its statement that it will be 64-bit only.
Other features include support for more processors--256 compared to 64 in Windows Server 2008--as well as live migration and the next version of its PowerShell scripting language. Live migration was a feature originally planned for the first release of Windows Server 2008, but the plan was scrapped as Microsoft aimed to get the product out the door.
WinHEC attendees received a prebeta version of the new server operating system alongside their copy of desktop Windows 7. Microsoft said on its server blog that the prebeta is available only to those at WinHEC or the TechEd EMEA conference, while everyone else will have to wait until the beta is released early next year.
In a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft said Monday that the next minor update for Windows Server will be the server version of Windows 7, which will be known merely as Windows Server 2008 R2.
(Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft said on Monday that the server version of Windows 7 will not be a major release and will bear the name Windows Server 2008 R2.
The move is surprising, given that in the past, Microsoft has used R2 monikers to signify a product with a few new features, as opposed to major changes to a product.
Microsoft declined to discuss what will be in Windows Server 2008 R2, but a spokesman confirmed that it is the server version of Windows 7. The release is due sometime in 2010, Microsoft said.
The server move calls into question just how different Windows 7 is going to be from Windows Vista on the desktop side. Steven Sinofsky, the head of development for the desktop version of Windows, has said that Windows 7 on the PC side would not make major changes to things like the kernel and driver model, but has maintained that it would be a major release of Windows.
Microsoft has said that the desktop version of Windows 7 would include a new multitouch interface, but has not talked about other features.
The software maker confirmed its naming plans, following a report by ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley. Initially Foley reported that Microsoft was skipping its minor R2 release and moving straight to its next major release. However, Microsoft clarified that it indeed sees Windows 7 on the server side as a minor release.
On its server roadmap page, Microsoft describes its minor, or update releases this way:
Update releases integrate the previous major release with the latest service pack, selected feature packs, and new functionality. Because an update release is based on the previous major release, customers can incorporate it into their environment without any additional testing beyond what would be required for a typical service pack. Any additional functionality provided by an update would be optional and thus not affect application compatibility or require customers to recertify or retest applications.
The question is, if Windows 7 Server needs no more testing than a service pack, is it really possible for the desktop team to add enough features on top of it to make Windows 7 a big improvement upon the oft-criticized Windows Vista.
If you are having trouble reconciling Microsoft's server and client positions, you are not alone. I pressed Microsoft's server side for more details on how this could be understood, but didn't get much help. I'll also check in with some folks on the desktop Windows team and see what I hear back.
Microsoft has said it will share technical details on Windows 7 at its Professional Developers Conference in late October in Los Angeles.
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