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Happy New Year everyone! At CES 2011 in Las Vegas, we hosted a press conference announcing that the next version of Windows will support System on a Chip architectures from Intel, AMD, and ARM. We announced that the next version of Windows will support System on a Chip (SoC) architectures including ARM-based systems from partners NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments. On the x86 architecture, Intel and AMD continue their work on low-power SoC designs that fully support Windows, including support for x86 applications. SoC architectures will fuel significant innovation across the hardware spectrum when coupled with the depth and breadth of the Windows platform. We are making this announcement now so that our ecosystem can start working together to enable the widest possible range of devices, from tablets on up, to ship with the next version of Windows. More detail about this exciting news is available in our press release and this Q&A with Windows & Windows Live president Steven Sinofsky.
MAKING WINDOWS RUN ON MORE TYPES OF EFFICIENT AND MOBILE HARDWARE IS THE FIRST RIGHT STEP. NOW YOU GUYS HAVE TO CREATE A USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNED FOR THE FORM FACTOR! BLOW US AWAY!
@Interframe1, thanks for your comment! It's great to see you taking part in the discussions on our blog posts. Can you check the caps lock on your keyboard? A lot of your comments are coming through in all caps.
This is big time. So excited for Windows and the new technology behind it. I can imagine what is going to happen with the new version. Congrats to all the developers and PR behind this, the coming months should be very interesting!
@Interframe1 this is about the 4th post you have made with all caps in the past 3 days. We understand your opinions are most important, but its like reading a post by Hulk Hogan "Brotha!"
@BRANDON LEBLANC I REFUSE TO TURN OFF CAPS LOCK UNTIL MICROSOFT PROVIDES AN ELEGANT AND AMAZING SOLUTION FOR TABLETS.
Brandon, this is indeed very exciting. Do we have an idea as to how long developers will have to wait before they can start to understand more about this - even in terms of 'years'? The Q&A seemed to suggest things were in the pipeline ... does this mean that PDC will be key for Windows 8 & ARM info?
Thanks
David
Will there be any announcement or presentation on a User Interface that actually works on a Slate device from Microsoft? Every demo I've seen of Windows on a Slate, including the Keynote last year by Steve Ballmer, clearly shows that the User Interface of the current Windows OS is not designed or ever intended to be used by Multi-Touch Slate devices.
I'm all for Windows on a Slate, In fact I would love to buy one, however: Microsoft needs a compelling, beautiful, engaging, easy to use User Interface for Slate Devices. Windows in it's current form was designed for Keyboard and Mouse input. The iOS was designed for Multi-Touch mobile devices. That is why Apple will continue to dominate in this area.
At this point, Microsoft will also not just get away with a "Me Too" device, it has to offer something different. Here is something different: http://bit.ly/fOFPsd
There are some brilliant minds at Microsoft Research that could completely knock the socks off of Steve Jobs if they were allowed to create a new Interface that could power Slate Devices. Imaginet a .net Developer able to create one application, and create "windows" or "interfaces" for each device within Visual Studio.
Microsoft could completely dominate in this field. I can't be the only one with these ideas. Steve Ballmer did an excellent job executing on Windows Phone 7 this year, sadly you are so far behind already. Don't be left in the dust with terrible announcements at CES, only to have to say "We missed two whole cycles..." in two years.
Act now, let the ideas flow, challenge the status quo, think way past the iPad, and execute execute execute.
Good luck,
Miguel
This is great... Seriously I'm glad to see MS doing this. :D
I watched the CES keynote, and I wouldn't help but go "Wow!" when we saw the tech demo of Windows 8 running on ARM and Tegra. The full power of Windows on a 3 inch device? Yes please!
Surface 2 looks like something I'd be prepared to do baby sacrifices to get, but I do hope the pricing is ready for consumer usage because the first version wasn't :P The Surface UI/tech could easily power some tablets or similar devices and let Microsoft as a company get back in the game!
I do wonder when we'll see a morphing of the Windows Phone 7, and Windows 8? I don't see much reason to have two-three different platforms if Windows 8 can handle it all? (Keep in mind the staggering advances the mobile devices has seen in terms of raw calculating power)
Brandon, can you comment on whether the SoC, including ARM, announcement limits the silicon partners to only those three? It doesn't seem to be explicit, and there are a lot of ARM SoC vendors. It would seem in Microsoft's interest to enable a broader silicon group as does Android. Thanks.
@Kasper, I agree that 2nd generation Surface is simply amazing. If available & large enough, I want one to replace our kitchen table.
You also bring up a interesting question about using Windows 8 as the future Windows Phone platform. My gut says this will happen. Microsoft could have taken the existing Windows Phone 7 / CE platform and made it available for Slates. The fact they haven't makes me suspect WP7 is the first & last in the Windows Phone v.Series to be based on WinCE. I imagine having a common core like this would allow Microsoft to iterate faster. 6mos ago, I would have said Microsoft should just take WP7 and put it on slates. But now, I believe that is shortsighted and think Microsoft is better off doing it right and making their marque OS available to & scalable over wider number of hardware architectures. Sure I wish they did this 3 years ago.
Why is my comment listed on this post? It's not the post I commented on... please delete my comments as it makes no sense on this blog entry! My comments were on your post where you reviewed how awesome the ASUS Slate Device was, which it's not, and thankfully, Steve Ballmer didn't try and compare it to iPad, and explained instead it was a Tablet.
@miguelcarrasco - sorry your comment appeared on the wrong post. I didn't see your comment appaear on Ben's post reviewing the ASUS EP121 slate - did you want to copy your comment and re-post it on that post? Let me know and I can delete it from here. Thanks for leaving a comment and sharing your thoughts!
hi,there,newbie's here,and Iheard of it ,it'd be some OS based on the cloud-computer...or someone can enter his OS anywhere...
thks
webby
Excited about Windows 8 - Windows 7 was such a return to form! I would like to see the following feature:
I would like Windows 8 to be self tuning, I would like it to track usage profiles and not install on startup, services and components that are not used, but to actively load DLLs and even applications that are always used.
For example, I hardly ever use Media Player but alway start Outlook and Internet Explorer. It would be great if after analysing my usage, Windows could stop pre-loading media player components, but pre-load aspects of Outlook. Therefore, the things I use most would start quickly and there would be a minimum of unused components. If I did use Media player, the missing components would load on selection, as a user I would accept slightly slower loading of infrequently used services.
If done well, this should remove the perception that Windows slows down over time!
A User Centric Operating System !
If applied in the Server Space it could be a Security feature by removing threat vectors!
Please give it some thought
Danny
@DannyThomas Do you feel your idea differs from prefetch/superfetch? en.wikipedia.org/.../Prefetcher If yes, how so?
I’m really looking forward to the new architecture support with Windows 8. I hope, however, we don’t have a repeat of the past in terms of each other version of Windows being awful. Windows 7 was so great… I hope MS does not take a step back. Now to what I’m really looking forward to; using Windows on a tablet form factor. I think by the time Windows 8 arrives we will mentally be on the 3 generation of the new wave of tablets. I really hope the Windows 7 tables shown at CES 2011 do make it to the market and not wait for Windows 8. I’m really looking forward to the Asustek Eee Slate EP121 and Samsung Sliding PC 7 models.
I am excited about Microsoft working on a Arm Port. Way to Go