64 bit Windows Adoption
Yesterday I wrote about the decision to release Windows 7 in both 32 and 64 bit and the need for Microsoft to have a problem-free launch.
Just for your interest here is an article on the rapidly rising adoption of Windows 64 bit in the enterprise, the Seattle Times posted an article today. This diagram is from the article – you can see the adoption of 64 bit increasingly rapidly over the last year, however as with all products with an initially low market share, doubling and even tripling their share is fairly easy early on as has been seen with Apple in the consumer computer market in the US.
Burning ISO Images
I’d already heard something to this effect before the pre-beta release but it was great to see support for burning ISO images had finally made it into Windows.
Hopefully this will mean one less crap-ware application bundled by Computer sellers, although in the past I have been glad of Toshiba providing a utility with my laptop for burning ISO images.
It’s conceivable that physical discs will soon become irrelevant and instead all software will be installed via ISO images and virtual drives and distributed via the internet.
Windows 7 Taskforce
A few months ago Long Zheng created a couple of websites with the aim of providing some interactive and useful forums for users to identify Windows and Mac user interface quirks and for the developers to have a useful resource when attempting to resolve these.
The main question was whether or not the developers where actually taking notice of these sites and apparently, according to Zheng himself:
Windows 7 News Roundup
It’s Sunday, it’s quiet and I don’t really feel like writing about much.
Time for a link post, here are a couple articles from around the blogosphere:
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld: Windows 7: The Story So Far
Just a summary of everything we know so far about Windows 7. Nothing new here, but worth a read if you wanna catch up on all the Windows 7 news that didn’t make it onto Techmeme.
50 times. During one day.
Long Zheng, istartedsomething: Evolution of the taskbar in Windows 7 - “Superbar”
As usual Long Zheng manages to pick up on some tiny detail the rest of us miss. I very much agree with his point here too:
“Now you would probably be wondering why I just spent so much effort writing about a taskbar, and the answer is because this is what Windows 7 is about. They’re going to take existing interface elements like the taskbar and give them a new coat of paint with some sparkles. Different enough so you notice them, like Walt Mossberg did.”
I began talking about this topic over the last couple weeks and will have another article coming up soon. Check back for it or subscribe to our feed.
Long Zheng Link Love
I pointed out a couple days ago that much of the available Windows 7 information is broken by a small, group of people including Long Zheng, Paul Thurrott, Ed Bott and Mary Jo Foley.
Here on Shipping Seven we like to give credit where it’s due and to actually source our articles unlike some other websites we could mention. This kind of manual scraping is no better then simply having a bot do it. Re-wording it as if it’s an original piece just makes it worse.
But anyway, enough of that.
Long Zheng just posted up another of his interesting finds with Windows 7 beta testing to be compulsory part of Windows Logo program, effective June 1 2008.
“Vista capable” was a mistake from the start and after the recent law-suits and leaked emails it’s not a mistake Microsoft wishes to make again.
Considering the damage, wether justified or not, done by Vista on the public’s perception of Microsoft multiplied by the smug “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign it’s a priority that a level of trust be restored to Microsoft’s image.
Customers have a need to ensure compatibility with the new releases of the OS and that hardware (systems and devices) are fully functional after an upgrade. This will enable Microsoft and partners to evaluate the results and correct issues in the new OS and the associated hardware as part of the release plan.
Considering the fact that one of the Windows 7 pillars is already to significantly improve performance and that there will be no major device or driver changes we can expect few compatibility or performance problems with Windows 7. In fact PC’s capable of running Windows Vista today should run faster with an upgrade to Windows 7 in 2009 or 10. No promises of course.
A Speculative Look into Our Multi-Touch Future
May 28, 2008 by Jimmy Rogers
Filed under News
Last night at D6, the be all and end all of executive tech conferences, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates presented themselves in a panel-like discussion (check here and here for the video highlights). While their accounts of the history of Microsoft, especially the beginnings, were interesting, the thing that everyone was waiting for was the rumored first look at Windows 7’s new user interface. Well, we were definitely not disappointed.
Before I dive in with my analysis, make sure you’ve seen this video from last night and checked out our own article on the various images:
Windows 7 Multi-Touch Demo
Windows 7 D6 Photos
What the video depicts is rather unexciting to the educated multi-touch crowd: maps, directions, pictures, and simulated music devices. All of this has been done before by either the iPhone or some other experimental project. What excites me is the fact that it will be built into the core of the Windows 7 OS.
There have been versions of Windows in the past that specialized in stylus integration for use on a tablet, but this goes above and beyond. Assuming the best of all possible worlds, this is the user interface (UI) paradigm shift that movies like Minority Report suggested to our imaginations. While Windows 7 may not debut a gloved and holographic interface, it certainly does appear to be a major evolutionary step in that direction.
Touchscreen interaction with a computer opens up many possibilities to developers who want to utilize the new technology. Permanent menu bars and other OS standards may begin to vanish as gestures like two-fingered touch and shape writing replace common commands. In the video above they demonstrate either an extended touch or a two-fingered touch to open a “dialog circle” (instead of a dialog box) that allows for pre-set items to be selected. While this has already been experimented with in a stylus interface, I believe much more complex pattern-recognition systems may lead to an almost infinitely customizable command interface.
Think about program operations for a minute. There was a “touchable paint” program used to draw a tree with all 10 fingers. Nothing you’ll use every day, but I can certainly see game and design software developers beginning to think how they will implement finger-touching. Of course the mouse will be with us for quite some time, but eventually some controls may evolve to be too complex for a simple, static pointer.
Just some thoughts: post yours in the comments!
[Via AllThingsD]
[Image sources linked to them, movie rights with 20th Century Fox]
- Jimmy Rogers is a freelance technology blogger and the author of his own blog, Mason Tech Beat.
Multi-Touch. Big Whoop.
Well I think my header is better then this lot that I see in my feed-reader today
See the demo of Windows 7 multi-touch
Windows 7 gets all “touchy-feely”
Next Microsoft operating system has touch controls Windows 7 Features Revealed Microsoft demonstrates Multi-touch Microsoft to add multitouch interface to Windows 7
Microsoft demos ‘touch Windows’
Microsoft demonstrates Multi-touch Windows 7
Microsoft Touts Touch-Screen Feature for Windows Windows 7 likes it when you touch
So much for the tech echo chamber anyway.
I’m not criticising Microsoft here, just the tech coverage of it. Multi-touch sounds is a great addition to Windows, but this huge explosion of coverage just shows how starved for news most of us tech websites really are.
While it was nice to see some of the Windows 7 technologies in action, none of this was new or unexpected. What’s with everyone sounding as though the last thing they actually expected was for Windows 7 to have improved touch capabilities?
Considering Windows XP had touch capabilities about 5 years ago should there be really be such shock that Windows Seven has made the natural evolution towards improved technology and being a better product? I mean seriously…
The cat’s out of the bag now, Windows 7 is going to have Multi-touch support.
Whatever. Does anyone remember this last year?
On December 11, 2007, Hilton Locke, who worked on the Tablet PC team at Microsoft reported that Windows 7 will have new touch features.
Yep, 6 months ago. Pretty damn exciting stuff then too.
Windows 7 D6 Photos
These photographs are taken barely an hour ago as Bill Gates demonstrates some of Windows 7’s new features and interface at the D6 conference.
I must admit I’m very surprised as I never expected Windows 7’s new UI to actually be anything like the concepts in the left screenshot below. However as you can see from Gizmodo’s actual photograph of Windows 7 it would seem this really is part of the new Windows interface, for applications such as Live maps anyway.
Check back or subscribe for more coverage soon.
A Tight-Lipped Interview with Steven Sinofsky
May 27, 2008 by Jimmy Rogers
Filed under Feature, News
After reading Ina Fried’s interview with Steven Sinofsky I have one recommendation. Don’t bother.
Sinofsky, head of Windows engineering over at Microsoft, gave the most corporate, double-talking interview I have ever heard. In a discussion that must have taken ten minutes, Sinofsky took questions about the secretive nature of Windows 7 development, the timing of the release, and new features to expect out of the box.
By “took questions,” by the way, I mean he allowed them to be said in front of him. Sinofsky answered virtually none of the questions of any importance to those watching the development of the new OS. Much of the interview was spent identifying why his division has been so tight-lipped throughout early development. His reply to that went mostly along the lines of “we’re talking to people…hardware developers…software developers…our other friends…just not you.” It seems Microsoft’s formula for sucess with Windows 7 is to produce no expectations whatsoever, so when it finally appears its mere existence will constitute a salable feature.
Even on points of general philosophy about the release, Sinofsky dodged with comments about “making the best product they can” and so forth. On their direction with growth to new user groups he said,
“…I think what I would say is that we’re talking about different types of customers, and different types of customers have different needs for information and are able to absorb it in a way that I think is mutually responsible.”
If you can get anything out of that vague mess it might be “different strokes for different folks.” Either their new philosophy is still in the works or they don’t have one at all.
He did confirm that the target release date is still the end of January 2010. In most of the commentary I have seen, this release date is a terrible choice for the consumer market because it (just as with Vista) bypassed the entire holiday buying season. A release around September 2009 would be much more reasonable for said buying season, but clearly they do not believe it will be ready. If this is the case, why pick January? Wouldn’t June or September 2010 be much more reasonable times to push Windows 7 into the marketplace?
One of the bright spots of the inteview is that upon release, Windows 7 shouldn’t be fraught with the same issues that Vista had. Electronista points out that, based on what Microsoft has indicated, the drivers and features of Windows 7 will be readily available to developers so that it will be more reliable and noticably better than Vista out of the box. Many of the best features of Vista, like DirectX 10, have yet to be seriously implemented by software developers.
For further reading on the Sinofsky interview check out Ina Fried’s own take on it as well as the aforementioned Electronista article.
There is definitely a possibility that we will hear at least a little more about Windows 7 soon though. The D6 conference (tonight as I’m writing this) will feature Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates on stage and the All Things Digital blog confirms that Windows 7 will not only be discussed, but some of the user interface will be demonstrated as well. Definitely check back with Shipping Seven later on today and tomorrow for coverage of any announcements regarding Microsoft’s next racehorse.
- Jimmy Rogers is a freelance technology blogger and the author of his own blog, Mason Tech Beat.
Build’s and Milestones
I realised after writing a few articles here that maybe It’s getting a bit confusing, all this talk of builds, milestones and refresh releases. So I just thought I’d present exactly what the development timeline has been so far.
2006
July: Microsoft reveals Codename for operating system after Vista is Windows 7.
November: Windows Vista is released November 2006. 20 million copies are sold in the first month, but is immediately hated by all. After the compatibility issues and bugginess, businesses talk of waiting for Windows 7 to upgrade.
2007
February: Ben Fathi states:
“We’re going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe it’s hypervisors. I don’t know what it is” [...] “Maybe it’s a new user interface paradigm for consumers.”
October: MinWin is announced and demonstrated publicly.
December: Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6519 is released and leaked.
Hilton Locke says:
“I will say that if you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7. Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales.“
2008
February: Windows Server 2008 is released in February and incorporates some of the discarded Longhorn features.
April: Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6574 is leaked. No indication of when it was released.
May: Job posting on Microsoft reveals possible Windows 7 feature:
“In Windows 7, our team will be responsible for creating, mounting, performing I/O on, and dismounting VHDs (virtual hard disks) natively. Imagine being able to mount a VHD on any Windows machine, do some offline servicing and then boot from that same VHD. Or perhaps, taking an existing VHD you currently use within Virtual Server and boost performance by booting natively from it.”
