Microsoft will soon release 'Windows Cloud' OS, Ballmer says

[QuiescentWonder]

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... e=rss_news

October 1, 2008 (IDG News Service) Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer revealed a few details on Wednesday of a forthcoming operating system that will help developers write Internet-based applications.

Within a month, Microsoft will unveil what Ballmer called "Windows Cloud." The operating system, which will likely have a different name, is intended for developers writing cloud-computing applications, said Ballmer, who spoke to an auditorium of IT managers at a Microsoft-sponsored conference in London.

Cloud computing is a term often applied to programs that are presented in a Web browser, but the actual computing is performed at a distant data center.

Ballmer was short on details, saying more information would spoil the announcement. Windows Cloud is a separate project from Windows 7, the operating system that Microsoft is developing to succeed Windows Vista.

Companies such as Google Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. have embraced the concept of delivering software over the Internet, as it can mean lower costs and less maintenance for those who use the applications. Microsoft, which has built its fortunes on desktop-based software, has been anxious to show it also has plans for adapting its software for the Internet.

Ballmer was quick to point out that Microsoft doesn't envision products such as the Office productivity suite moving entirely off desktop PCs and onto the Internet. But Microsoft is working on a service that would let people do "light editing" of Office documents at places such as a public Internet kiosk, Ballmer said.

"That's all I can say on that," Ballmer said. "Otherwise, we have no drum-roll announcement in a month."

Microsoft is developing online components for many of its products such as its SharePoint collaboration software, the Exchange e-mail server and its Dynamics Customer Relationship Management software, Ballmer said. Microsoft calls its strategy "software plus services," where its core applications are augmented by Web-based functionality.

Microsoft is facing increasing pressure from Google, which offers a Web-based productivity suite called Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

Ballmer was dismissive of Google, saying Docs and Spreadsheets has "relatively low usage" and that users want richer features in an office software package. "We want software more powerful than software that runs in a browser," Ballmer said.

[milatchi]

Maybe it will run on top of WinFS.

[Frozenport]

milatchi: that made me smile
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

While I doubt they have any serious competition from Google Docs, what is staring kill Microsoft is the reality that a cheaper less functional operating system embodied in something like Ubuntu is sufficient for most people...

I think they are not addressing their key problem; cloud computing will only speed up this process because it has a very strong potential for cannibalizing Microsoft's existing market.

[leonbollerup]

Hi,

What do you guys think :

a) Will it be a base OS, optimized for web applications ?
b) Will it be a "WebOS/Webdesktop" like startforce and BA-Desktop ?
c) Will it be based on Midori ?


//Leon

[QuiescentWonder]

d) I don't have a clue.

I don't know anything about clouds. I do know that you can already write web applications with AJAX. I haven't got a clue what the web application community could gain from another entire operating system.

[Napstack]

i think it wont base on midori

[Smartie77]

Hi,

What do you guys think :

a) Will it be a base OS, optimized for web applications ?
b) Will it be a "WebOS/Webdesktop" like startforce and BA-Desktop ?
c) Will it be based on Midori ?


//Leon

Based on Vista/Server08/Win7, of course stripped to the very core Desktop alone. I cannot see this for average customers on retail, but maybe OEM only for selected PCs.
The Retailers Market is reserved for "Win 7", so they would not release a OS before that, because that would confuse customers.

Midori is a thing on its own and it will take years until we see it.
Win 7 will be out sooner than most of us think.Because it is still Vista/Server08 ( patched and tuned ) the OS itself is already done, its only a question now what and how the applications are finetuned and which will be included.

I dare to say we will see it (Win "7") before mid 2009 on retail.Vista as it should have been right from the start. Of course a new name, for Vista stands for slowness and crashes - that's why MS wants to erase that name as soon as possible. By doing Win7 they can keep the base which they spent so much money and manpower on and sell it a second time. A pretty nice marketing trick.

[QuiescentWonder]

b) Will it be a "WebOS/Webdesktop" like startforce and BA-Desktop ?
c) Will it be based on Midori ?

Forgot this before: No and No.