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.
Correction, 10:33 a.m. PST: This story initially misstated when a Windows 7 feature-complete beta will be available. It is early 2009.
LOS ANGELES--Choice was the watchword in the Windows 7 discussion Wednesday, as Microsoft aimed to highlight what it sees as its chief advantage over rival Apple.
Steven Sinofsky, sporting a bit of a Steve Jobs look, shows off Windows 7 at the WinHEC 2008 conference in Los Angeles.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News)"A key part of Windows 7 is to enable a full spectrum of choices," senior vice president Steven Sinofsky said in a speech at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here.
While the new Windows will enable high-end machines with multitouch, it will also work on low-end machines. While Vista has largely been absent in the fast-growing Netbook category, Windows 7 is aimed to work well on such low-end devices--a number of which are on display at WinHEC.
Among the machines Microsoft showed was an Eee PC with a 1GB hard drive and a 16GB solid-state drive, which the software maker said could run Windows 7 with "room to spare."
For hardware makers, Microsoft has a feature called "device stage" that lets them offer up things like manuals, links to services, and access to content stored on the device in one place.
On stage, Microsoft showed a Nokia phone hooked up to Windows 7, automatically making available all the content on the device.
The company also said it will support a number of additional audio and video formats out of the box, including Divx, H.264 and unprotected AAC.
Windows 7 also has integrated support for sensors, such as light sensors, accelerometers or GPS, or even more exotic kinds of input. For example, Microsoft showed a ThinkPad with a spectrophotometer to help handle color calibration.
Sinofsky also noted that even though Microsoft has put a lot of focus on touch, it is not abandoning its Tablet PC work. Ray Ozzie last week told TechFlash that touch can be mainstream, while Tablet PC was "truly niche," a description that apparently irked the Tablet PC enthusiast crowd.
As for when folks will actually get their hands on 7, Microsoft didn't offer new details, beyond saying a feature-complete beta will be available in early 2009.
Sinofsky did mention a "release candidate to RTM phase," suggesting that Microsoft is only planning a single beta.
LOS ANGELES--One of the biggest problems with Windows Vista had nothing to do with the software Microsoft shipped.
Microsoft's Jon DeVaan speaks about Windows 7 as the company kicks off its WinHEC 2008 conference in Los Angeles
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)It was all of the things Microsoft didn't ship. In the years leading up to Vista's release in November 2006, Microsoft changed course several times, leading to wasted time and energy for hardware and software makers that had made bets on features or timing that later were changed.
In a speech to hardware makers attending the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), Microsoft's Jon DeVaan said that the company is aiming to rebuild trust that Microsoft will deliver products with the promised features and at the promised time.
And Microsoft is also hoping that most partners won't have a lot of work to get ready for Windows 7. "We have the tenet that if something works in Vista it really should work in Windows 7," said DeVaan, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows core operating system division.
The company is hoping to improve some things from Vista, particularly start-up times as well as performance when managing a lot of open windows.
Battery life is another area where Microsoft hopes software improvements will make a meaningful difference. The company said that in some cases it is getting up to an extra hour of DVD playback and at a minimum, the same PC should get 20 more minutes of time in 7 than the same system would get in Vista.
That's the difference between a cliffhanger and getting to finish your movie, one of the Microsoft workers said during a demo onstage.
The "device stage" in Windows 7 serves as a central point where hardware makers can offer a range of options from synchronization to product manuals to settings.
(Credit: Microsoft)LOS ANGELES--After unveiling most of the details around Windows 7 to developers last week, this year's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) isn't expected to be the barn burner it is in some years.
WinHEC will have the same venue as last week's Professional Developer Conference, the same Windows 7 bits and, indeed much of the same pitch that Microsoft gave last week, albeit with a more hardware-oriented bent.
Still, I expect to find enough tidbits about the OS to make it worth your (and my) time. I'll have full coverage starting Wednesday.
In particular, look for Microsoft to talk up its Device Stage--a feature in Windows 7 where hardware device makers can offer all kinds of information about their add-ons.
Julie Larson-Green, vice president of program management for the Windows Experience, demonstrated the feature last week, showing what she might be able to do by connecting a Motorola phone to her Windows 7 PC.
"I can set up my sync capabilities," she said. "I can manage the media on my device. I can browse files. I can go and find that documentation because I probably threw out the manual when I got the box, so I can go online and get that. And anything that the device does can be exposed through the device stage."
Microsoft will need support from PC makers for other things, such as touch, but I would expect them to make much the same case they did at PDC--namely that Vista was the tough adjustment and that there should not be too much heavy lifting associated with getting ready for Windows 7.
I've been playing around with Windows 7 myself. I'm trying it out on a Lenovo X300. With its solid-state drive, the most striking thing is how fast the Windows 7 machine both goes to sleep mode and wakes from sleep. My only complaint--it doesn't seem to be working with my USB Sprint card, making me more Wi-Fi dependent than normal.
I'll have more to say on my Windows 7 impressions in a follow-up posting this week.
Also at WinHEC, I'll be talking to PC makers and generally nosing around. In the meantime, if you have Windows 7 questions, send them my way by Wednesday and I will do my best to find answers at the show.
Microsoft is launching its Windows 7 blog, but it still doesn't have much to say.
On the plus side, Windows engineering boss Steven Sinofsky did at least put a date to when he would share some more details.
"The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on October 27 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week both represent the first venues where we will provide in-depth technical information about Windows 7," Sinofsky and Windows Core operating system head Jon Devaan wrote in a posting on Thursday. "This blog will provide context over the next 2+ months with regular posts about the behind the scenes development of the release and continue through the release of the product."
Microsoft had already said that Windows 7 would be on the PDC docket in some manner.
Sinofsky acknowledged that Microsoft continues to say less than many people would like, but repeated his standard line that the company doesn't want to share details until they have reached a certain level of concreteness.
In an interview with CNET News in May, Sinofsky did disclose a few details--namely that it would use the same driver model and basic kernel approach as Windows Vista and that the company wanted the whole thing on the market by January 2010, three years after the mainstream release of Windows Vista. Microsoft also showed in May a glimpse at a new multi-touch interface that will be part of Windows 7.
Sinofsky did suggest that the company wants to be more open at some point as it tries to create a product that serves the needs of a customer base as broad as Windows does.
"We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion about how we balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows," he wrote. "We promise and will deliver such a dialogue with this blog."
One thing that should be pointed out, Microsoft has said that it is engaging much earlier and deeper with computer makers as part of the Windows 7 design process. From what I've heard from PC manufacturers, this has been true so far. "It's like night and day," one PC company executive told me.
- prev
- 1
- next
