Microsoft

LOS ANGELES--After spending much of Tuesday in the clouds, the second day of the Professional Developers Conference on Wednesday is expected to be far more grounded.

On tap is a discussion of the Office 2010 beta as well as the first details on Internet Explorer 9, although Microsoft is not providing code. Microsoft is also talking about Silverlight 4 and releasing a beta of that product.

8:30 a.m. PT: Windows unit president Steven Sinofsky takes the stage.

Sinofsky said that Microsoft approaches Windows 7 like building a movie theater. Microsoft's job is to provide "great seats, great sounds and maybe a concession stand" while developers make the actual movies.

Although developers were interested in hearing about IE 9, the most popular part of Steven Sinofsky's talk was when he announced that paid PDC attendees were getting a free Windows 7 laptop.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)

8:35 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is talking about the Windows 7 development process from before the code was publicly released through beta testing and release.

He's hitting on familiar refrains--trying to be more predictable, talking about features only when they are fully baked, and all of the "telemetry" Microsoft uses to get automated feedback.

Sinofsky is talking about the different mechanisms Microsoft uses from Windows Error Reporting, or Watson, to its Software Quality Monitor. Sinofsky notes that the monitoring tools require the user's permission in the final versions of Windows.

During the beta process, though, "we opt you in automatically," he says. (Not to quibble, but technically that's known as opt-out.)

Semantics aside, the shift to automated feedback has had a major impact on the way Windows is developed. In the past, Sinofsky said, bugs got fixed, in large part, based on "whoever screamed the loudest."

Sinofsky said it was basically "testosterone-based bug fixing."

With automated mechanism, Microsoft can see which problems are affecting the most people most often.

8:40 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is sharing some numbers about the Windows 7 beta.

Microsoft got 1.7 million feedback reports, or one feedback report every 10 seconds in the first two weeks after beta. There were 8.1 million installations of the beta, including 4.3 million installations of the release candidate.

There were 10.4 million error reports, which resulted in 4,753 code changes. The start menu was clicked 514 million times in the past six months, while the new Aero Snap and Shake features were clicked 46.4 million times during the same period.

8:45 a.m. PT: Sinofsky is talking about usability studies Microsoft does to test new features, and showing some examples of user feedback on the User Account Control dialog box.

First up, is a mother of a 5 year old who said that when she finally gets time to sit at the computer she'd rather not be interrupted. Instead, she suggested it would be better if there was a place she could go to find all the messages (not too different from the action center eventually included in Windows 7).

Now he's showing some testing of the Aero Snap and Aero Shake features that help manage multiple open windows.

"Get on down... I like that," said one user.

8:50 a.m. PT: If you haven't already, check out CNET's Ray Ozzie interview that posted this morning.

8:53 a.m. PT: Sinofsky brings out Mike Angiulo, who heads up Microsoft's dialogue with the "ecosystem"--folks like PC makers, software, and hardware developers.

He shows off Sony's super-thin, super-light Vaio X. I'm playing around with a demo model of this machine. People are really amazed with this computer. It's so light, some of the people I've shown it to could barely believe it was real.

Microsoft thought it would be good to learn how a laptop is made. It worked with Acer to build a 3.79 pound laptop with multi-touch, preloaded Office, etc.

"It was great for us as members of the ecosystem," Sinofsky said. The best news for those at PDC-- they are making the laptop available to paid PDC attendees for free.

That got the crowd excited. "Not this one, this one is mine," Sinofsky said, clutching the one he is showing off.

The laptops won't be ready for pick-up until 12:30 though. I encourage you to stay here for the rest of the talk."

9:08 a.m. PT: Talk shifts to Internet Explorer.

"There's a balance between standards and real-world," Sinofsky said.

Sinofsky talks about where Microsoft is headed with Internet Explorer 9.

We're about three weeks into the Internet Explorer 9 development, he says.

Sinofsky acknowledges some areas Microsoft needs to do better. One is the Acid 3 benchmark, IE 8 got 20 out of 100 on that test, while IE 9 is at 32 out of 100.

Performance, particularly JavaScript performance, is another area. He shows WebKit.org's SunSpider benchmark which shows IE 9 in the same ballpark as test versions of other leading browsers. Earlier versions of IE performed much worse on SunSpider than other browsers.

"We're getting very close to basically being a wash," Sinofsky said.

9:14 a.m. PT: Sinofsky shows another feature of IE 9--the ability to easily do rounded corners.

More importantly, the IE 9 rendering engine will shift text and graphics rendering to the graphics chip. That allows smoother text and faster performance. Although some browsers shift a bit of 3D work to the graphics processing units in PCs, Microsoft says IE is the first to tap hardware acceleration for standard text and graphics.

Sinofsky shows a few examples, including Bing Maps, where unaccelerated graphics rendered 14 frames per second, while hardware acceleration in IE 9 allowed upwards of 60 frames per second.

Geek detail: The IE logo on the taskbar for IE 9 was gray, as opposed to the blue logo of IE 8.

9:26 a.m. PT: Developer Division head Scott Guthrie on stage talking about Silverlight and Silverlight 4.

Priorities for the next version include improved media features, such as access to Webcams and microphones on a PC and output protection for those with premium content.

Developer Division head Scott Guthrie followed Stephen Sinofsky on stage on Wednesday, showing off some of the features of Silverlight 4.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)

Guthrie demos a photo booth application, including video and still capture as well as different pixel shader effects, such as a crayon filter. The technology probably allows a lot more, but Apple fanboys would be right to point to the photo booth application on the Mac (though this is a concept app and Silverlight 4 is browser-based technology, not a desktop application).

Another focus for Silverlight 4 is improving Silverlight outside the browser.

9:37 a.m. PT: Guthrie's having a little trouble with some of the Silverlight demos, showing IIS server's support for creating iPhone-capable video.

"If someone is backstage and wants to kick the browser, feel free to," Guthrie said. "We'll try one more time."

9:40 a.m. PT: Guthrie is talking some of the technical features of Silverlight 4, including a new text editor that supports Roman fonts, as well as Arabic, Hebrew, and Kanji, among other alphabets.

9:45 a.m. PT: Guthrie shows a Silverlight-based video jigsaw puzzle. Turns out it is a video of the infamous Rick Astley video. "You've all been rickrolled," Guthrie said.

Also, for those who want to see the IIS smooth streaming on iPhone demo that Guthrie struggled to get working, it is on the Web here.

9:50 a.m. PT: It's getting code-heavy now, as Microsoft demos how to create Silverlight stuff in Visual Studio 2010. Meanwhile, there's some more detail on Microsoft's IE 9 plans in this blog post.

9:55 a.m. PT: Microsoft hasn't started talking about the Office 2010 beta yet, but it looks like you can start getting it from Microsoft's Web site.

10:04 a.m. PT: Still no Office talk on stage, but the beta is live and Microsoft has posted an article noting that Office Mobile 2010 is also in beta and available for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones via the Windows Mobile Marketplace.

The beta also adds an Outlook Social Connector, which allows users to bring in Windows Live and other social networking feeds into Outlook. LinkedIn is the first that will take advantage of it--early next year--but there is a software development kit for others to do so.

10:15 a.m. PT: The beta of Silverlight 4 is now available for download, Guthrie says. The final release is due in the first half of next year.

10:17 a.m. PT: Office unit senior vice president Kurt DelBene is introduced to talk about Office 2010.

10:20 a.m. PT: DelBene talking about efforts to bring Office not just to the desktop, but also via hosted services.

By the way, while I've been live blogging, we've also posted a story and photo gallery looking at the Windows Azure data center container that is on display at the PDC show floor.

10:35 a.m. PT: DelBene notes that the Office 2010 beta is now available, as are betas of the Office Web Apps for businesses as well as office Mobile for Windows Mobile 6.5.

"I hope that you will all download (Office 2010)," DelBene said.

As I note in my story on the Office 2010 beta, though, the Web Apps remain in their current Tech Preview form on Windows Live. There's no time frame for when they will get updated to the beta versions, which include Word editing and the OneNote Web app.

10:45 a.m. PT: Lots of Sharepoint demos. Lot's of coding. I'll spare you the details.

The beta of Office 2010, expected this week, is now available to developers who are part of Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet developer programs.

Members of the public are also expected to get access to the beta this month, with the announcement likely to come on Wednesday as Office executive Kurt Del Bene gives his keynote speech at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

As noted by ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft has already set up public Web pages for downloading the beta, although clicking on the download links returns a message that the beta is not yet available.

(Credit: CNET News)

In addition to the desktop applications, the beta would appear to include the browser-based Office Web Apps (although I am still checking the details on that one).

Also expected at the PDC is the formal launch of Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud-based operating system as well as demos from the Seadragon and Live Labs teams, among other announcements.

Microsoft is already making some news at PDC. The company said on Monday that it is making available as open-source code its .Net Micro Framework.

Two pieces of the framework, though, its TCP/IP stack and its cryptography features are not included in the open-source release. In a blog posting, Microsoft's Peter Galli said that Microsoft is expected to remain involved in the development of the .Net Micro Framework, working alongside the community.

CNET News will have live coverage of the show, including Ray Ozzie's keynote speech, on Tuesday.

Those who can't wait until next week for the beta of Office 2010 can apparently find the code already on torrent Web sites.

According to Neowin, the beta code has popped up on peer-to-peer sites in recent days.

Meanwhile, another enthusiast site has posted screenshots of what it says is the beta of Office 2010 and its source--Microsoft itself. Craving Tech said that it got the code on a flash drive from the software maker, and the site has posted a number of screenshots.

Microsoft is widely expected to release the updated test version at next week's Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. Microsoft has said that it will have a beta of Office 2010 this month and has hinted on its Twitter feed that it will have big Office news next week, all but guaranteeing the release of the beta.

The beta is an update to the technology preview of the software that was released in July. That version also leaked to the Web ahead of its official release.

In addition to the desktop versions of Office 2010, Microsoft is also prepping browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. It has released a preview version of the Web apps (except for OneNote), but it is unclear if those will see an update next week.

For its part, Microsoft is staying mum. "We have not officially released the beta code of Office (2010)," a representative said. "We recommend that people do not download code from unauthorized sources."

Among the features of Office 2010 is a "paste preview" function that lets people see what different options will look like before they paste text from the clipboard.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft plans to offer a substantial discount for college students who want to pick up a copy of Windows 7.

Starting October 1--and for a limited time--those in the U.K. will be able to preorder Windows 7 for 30 British pounds, according to a Microsoft Web site. In a Twitter posting, Microsoft said that U.S. college students will be able to get the software for $30, but the Web site it linked to does not yet have details on the offer.

"This offer is specifically designed for those students who are not planning to purchase a new PC this year but would still like to take advantage of what Windows 7 offers," a Microsoft representative said. Those who order the software will be able to download it when Windows 7 ships on October 22. Students interested in the deal need a valid college e-mail address.

Microsoft plans similar offers in Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico, France, and Germany, though the prices will vary somewhat.

In the U.S., students can preorder their copy of Windows 7 beginning later Thursday, while those in most other countries where the deal is being offered will have to wait to order until October 22. In most markets, the offer will end on January 3, though it will run longer in some places, such as Australia, where it will be available through the end of March.

The offer was noted earlier by Microsoft enthusiast site Neowin.net.

This is the latest deal from Microsoft, which earlier offered a preorder offer the let users buy the upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium for $49. That deal ended July 11 for those in the U.S. Microsoft is also offering a "family pack" option.

Ruston Panabaker, Microsoft's principal program manager of strategic silicon partnering, shows how later builds of Windows 7 were able to let the processor enter low-power states for longer periods of time, saving more power.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO--Upgrading a newer machine from Windows Vista to Windows 7 might mean that you get to see the last few minutes of that DVD on a long flight.

At a demo on Tuesday, Microsoft showed two identical laptops playing the same DVD, with the Windows 7-equipped notebook getting 20 percent better battery life than one running Windows Vista. In general, users can expect newer systems running Windows 7 to offer 10 percent to 20 percent better battery improvement when watching a DVD.

"We're achieving a very significant amount of battery savings," said Microsoft principal program manager Ruston Panabaker.

Microsoft and Intel declined to say just how much overall battery life improvement Windows 7 might offer as compared to Vista, saying there are too many factors that can influence such results.

"I don't want to state a number," Panabaker said at the event, which was organized by Intel and Microsoft.

Microsoft and Intel showed these power consumption improvements results for a system running Windows 7, left, and Vista. The left chart shows consumption while the system was idle; at right, when playing a DVD.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

The event was designed to outline the joint work that the two halves of Wintel have been doing to make Windows 7 perform better in areas such as virtualization, power management, and performance.

On the performance side, Microsoft and Intel showed a reference system that can boot up in 11 seconds, although again real-world performance is likely to vary a lot based on what's inside the PC and how well tuned it is. For instance, the system shown Tuesday had a solid-state drive and other high-performance componets.

The move comes as Microsoft gears up for the October 22 launch of Windows 7.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing for Microsoft is the fact that Intel itself is willing to use Windows 7 within its own corporate walls. The chipmaker has been an XP-only shop throughout Vista's life. In an interview here, Intel VP Stephen Smith said that Intel had some internal applications that weren't Vista-compatible and the benefits of moving to Vista didn't justify the costs.

By contrast, Smith said several hundred people inside Intel are already running Windows 7 on their corporate machines.

CNET News' Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.

Playing a DVD, a Windows Vista Ultimate system, left showed an estimated battery life of 4.14 hours, but the Windows 7 Ultimate system on the right showed 5.5 hours.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

There are a whole bunch of reasons why Windows 7 should appeal to businesses, but one threat--the still-sluggish economy--could overshadow all of those reasons to move to the new operating system.

"I think they have a really good product at a really bad time," Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry said in a telephone interview this week.

Among Windows 7's business-oriented features is "XP Mode"--a downloadable add-on that lets applications that won't work natively in Vista or Windows 7 run in a free, virtualized copy of Windows XP.

(Credit: Microsoft)

While Cherry says that there is definitely a lot to like about Windows 7, the release comes at a time when IT budgets are shrinking and companies are trying to limit new technology projects, even ones as badly needed as updating aging stables of desktop and notebook PCs.

"Even if they like it, I don't know how fast it is going to go when it is ranked against all the things IT has to do against a shrinking budget," Cherry said.

Among the things that should appeal to businesses about Windows 7, Cherry said, are its improved compatibility and performance, Windows XP Mode and a DirectAccess feature that allows for automatic virtual private network-like connections to a corporate network anytime a PC is connected to the Internet. (See chart below.)

Windows 7 goes on sale to consumers and small businesses on October 22. However, large businesses with volume licensing deals can get access even earlier, although most will wait before putting it on anything other than test machines. Gartner analyst Michael Silver said that, as with other releases, most businesses will take a year or 18 months before starting to deploy Windows 7. However, he added that "we've had a surprising number of calls with organizations, some very large, planning to move fairly early."

With little appetite for widespread spending to beef up old machines, Cherry said that many businesses may just upgrade to Windows 7 as they buy new machines. "I'm not sure that isn't going to be the majority way that this is handled," Cherry said, pointing out that would still be an improvement from Vista, where most companies wiped the operating system off of new PCs and instead installed Windows XP.

One quibble that Cherry has is with the way that Microsoft bills Windows 7 as a major upgrade even though so little has changed under the hood.

"I think they confuse major with important," Cherry said. "It's an important update. It's one you want to take advantage of."

Windows 7, Cherry said, is noteworthy simply because it addresses many of Vista's shortcomings and makes the key improvements that Vista brought now accessible and attractive to businesses.

In many ways, he considers Windows 7 to be the "R2" release of Vista, borrowing the nomenclature Microsoft uses to describe updates to its server products. That's not a bad thing, he said, noting that server customers have rather liked the way Microsoft alternates between minor and major releases.

"R2 has been a very solid approach for (Windows Server)," Cherry said, "and people know what they are getting."

As an indication of just how close Windows 7 is to the border between minor and major, the server version that was developed simultaneously is being designated as Windows Server 2008 R2--a minor upgrade.

Cherry said that perhaps Microsoft should just embrace Windows 7's "minorness."

"You really don't want two major releases in a row," he said, arguing that the major architectural changes made with Vista are akin to pouring new concrete. "It needs time to cure. It needs time to settle in," he said. "It doesn't mean that, as an interim release, Windows 7 isn't important."

(Credit: Directions on Microsoft)

Apparently Microsoft isn't doing everything with Windows 7 differently from how it did Windows Vista.

As was the case with Vista, Windows 7 will get its formal launch in the Big Apple. CEO Steve Ballmer will preside over the October 22 event, with the usual array of hardware partners showing off their latest wares.

Microsoft used a human billboard to help mark the New York launch of Windows Vista.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

But that's not the only Gotham event for Microsoft in October. The company is also doing a consumer open house at the Park Avenue Armory, led by Robbie Bach, on October 6. Microsoft plans to highlight everything from the Zune and new phones to hardware products like keyboards and mice.

Microsoft is hoping to turn that event into an annual event.

New York was also the site of Vista's launch, which included a fancy lunch at Cipriani with the press, a human billboard as well as a trip to Best Buy for Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft finalized the code for Windows 7 last month. It will hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22, though some large businesses with volume licenses can already get the code if they wish.

There's nothing like trashing the competition.

The Free Software Foundation is using the launch of Windows 7 to try to convince businesses to dump Windows in favor of an open-source operating system.

(Credit: Free Software Foundation)

And that's exactly what the Free Software Foundation plans to do on Wednesday, staging a demonstration in Boston where it will encourage businesses to throw away Microsoft Windows in favor of free alternatives.

In addition to the public display, the foundation is sending letters to the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, warning that Windows is a threat to their businesses' privacy, security, and freedom.

Although the demonstration and letter center around Microsoft's imminent release of Windows 7, Free Software Foundation Executive Director Peter Brown says the protest has to do with Microsoft's approach in general and not with the specifics of Windows 7.

"Any time Microsoft tries to push them to a new version, it's a good time to make that case," Brown said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

With Windows 7 getting fairly positive reviews, Brown said he knows it could be tougher to garner public support than was the case with the oft-criticized Vista.

"There's kind of this attitude of 'Well, it's better than Vista,'" Brown said, "so we are kind of working against the grain."

But, he said, the stakes are high--and it's about more than just which operating system gains market share. Brown points to Amazon.com's recent deletion of e-books from the Kindle as an example of the kinds of action that could become commonplace if the world becomes more filled with digital rights management technologies.

"That's the kind of power that proprietary software gives to these corporations," he said. "When we give that power, sooner or later somebody comes knocking, whether it is the government or the corporations themselves. Free software is kind of the answer to that."

Although the letter focuses on Microsoft, he said the group is also concerned with other products, including the new Snow Leopard operating system from Apple, which goes on sale on Friday.

"It's not just Microsoft," Brown said. "It's a problem generally for society that we should accept proprietary software when there is an alternative."

While Microsoft's Windows 7 will go on sale in just about two months, there is still a little time to get a free copy of the operating system.

Well, at least a free test copy of Windows 7, anyway. Users have until Thursday morning to download the "release candidate" version of the software--the final test version of the operating system. It's a good option for those who have a spare machine to try out the software or for Mac users looking to experiment with running Windows either in virtualization software or via Boot Camp.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has provided free, unlimited downloads of the release candidate version, but plans to halt distribution after Thursday (Update: I'm told the bits will stop flowing at 8 a.m. PT on Thursday, so I'd get started by tomorrow at the latest)

"After that date, you will still be able to register your product and get registration keys but, the media will no longer be available for download," Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog posting this week.

Even for those that get the software, the free ride only lasts so long. The release candidate will only work through early next year. The software will expire entirely on June 1 and, starting March 1, it will begin shutting down every two hours to remind users that the end is nigh.

As for the software itself, although it is not the final version, I used the release candidate for months and found it to be quite stable and reliable. For those who are looking to ultimately use the software, though, I recommend just biting the bullet and upgrading to the final release.

Folks will also want to remember that to move from the release candidate to the final version requires a clean installation of the operating system, meaning backing up one's data, reinstalling Windows 7, and then restoring the data and reinstalling any applications.