Is Microsoft's Javascript chief killing his .NET creation?
A recent discussion with a friend about the origins of Microsoft's .NET runtime prompted a little research. How did it come about?
A quick search doesn't throw up any detailed accounts. Part of the problem is that much of it is internal Microsoft history, confidential at the time.
One strand, mentioned here, is Colusa's OmniVM …
Windows 8: Microsoft’s high-stakes .NET tablet gamble
There is a long discussion over on the official Silverlight forum about Microsoft's Windows 8 demo at D9 and what was said, and not said; and another over on Channel 9, Microsoft's video-centric community site for developers.
At D9 Microsoft showed that Windows 8 has a dual personality. In one mode it has a touch-centric user …
Virtual desktops mean virtual applications
Virtualising the client is not just about the desktop. It is also about application virtualisation.
“Half of large organisations with more than 5,000 PCs have already adopted application virtualisation,” says Gartner analyst Terry Cosgrove.
That compares with perhaps one per cent worldwide that have adopted a virtual hosted …
Desktop virt: Licence to bamboozle?
Desktop virtualisation presents many technical choices but they could turn out to be the easy bit. Licensing the software is where it all gets difficult, especially when the software is Microsoft Windows.
The problem is that Windows licensing is based on the assumption that you install software on hardware, but virtualisation …
Think carefully before you chuck out your desktops
Desktop virtualisation has its benefits but it is also an important structural shift. This is compounded by other changes likely to take place at the same time, such as a move to Windows 7 or an office move.
When the Co-operative Group decided to migrate some of its 18,000 desktops to virtual desktops and thin clients, it also …
Nothing to lose but your desktop PCs
Interest in desktop virtualisation is driven by frustration with desktop PCs and laptops. Maintenance, security, regulatory compliance – all are managed more easily with desktops that live on the server or in the data centre.
Users still need physical devices but if you use either a thin client or a virtual machine synchronised …
Let the Cloud Developer Wars begin
Microsoft is all for the cloud, says chief executive Steve Ballmer. IBM has its new Smart Business Cloud. Oracle has its Exalogic cloud in a box. Amazon’s cloud services are growing apace. Salesforce.com and Google have always been cloud.
The economic arguments are unassailable. Economies of scale make cloud computing more cost …
Rethinking desktop virtualisation
It used to be simple. Users could either run a local operating system, or use a thin client with screen, keyboard and mouse talking to an operating system running on the server. Today there are many models of desktop virtualisation, and few safe assumptions.
It used to be the case that virtual desktops could not handle …
Silverlight 5, thy name is 'Windows'
What is going on with Silverlight? Microsoft's browser plugin was conceived as a lightweight, cross-platform version of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), the .NET application framework for desktop applications introduced in Windows Vista. Silverlight was energetically developed to compete with Adobe's Flash, there was talk …
Microsoft+IE9: Holier than Apple open web convert?
It is a remarkable turnaround. Microsoft, the company that more than any other was responsible for freezing web standards by first killing the browser competition and then failing to update its browser for five years, has come out with a browser that is - at the very least - decent.
Internet Explorer 9 combines hardware- …
Moving to Windows 7: Is it worth it?
Windows 7 may be prettier than XP; but does it really pay to ditch a working Windows XP network and replace it with Microsoft’s shiny new version?
Every organisation is different, so there is no definitive answer, and migration is costly. That said, sticking with XP has costs as well. It is coming up to ten years old, and …
Building Windows 7 skills - will we need another 10 years?
Ten years of Windows XP means that the whole world knows how to use it, from administrators to users. How much training does it take to migrate to Windows 7?
The answer is that the training burden falls more on administrators than on end users. One area where Microsoft has a good track record is in application compatibility …
Prepping the great Windows 7 migration
Deciding to move to Windows 7 is the easy bit. The crunch comes in planning and executing the migration. Should it be a big bang or incremental? How much new hardware and software is needed? What can go wrong?
The truth is that a lot can go wrong, but only if you plan carelessly. Microsoft has produced a bewildering array of …
Microsoft's IE9: Don't believe the hype
Microsoft must be rattled by the steady decline in the market share of Internet Explorer. Worldwide it has gone from 68.5 per cent in July 2008 to 46 per cent today, according to StatCounter.
Internet Explorer 9, now in release candidate phase, is Microsoft's answer. Highlights include hardware-accelerated graphics, a new fast …
Flash versus HTML 5
“The mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short,” says Apple CEO Steve Jobs in his notorious Thoughts on Flash. “New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too).”
Adding to the confusion, every non-Apple …
Windows hits 25
November 20, 1985, saw the launch of Microsoft Windows 1.01, the first publicly released version. Of course it was late.
Microsoft boss Bill Gates announced Windows in 1983, promising release by the end of 1984, perhaps to counter VisiCorp's VisiON, an alternative PC graphical application manager that launched in December 1983 …
Adobe closes Flash-based Flex to outsiders
Adobe's open source development process for the Flex SDK – the library and tools for building Flash and AIR applications – has hit a roadblock.
Flex SDK product manager Deepa Subramaniam last week told MAX the public repository will be closed and patches will no longer be accepted from the community. The change applies to the …
Was Ozzie's head in the clouds as rivals stole his role?
Ray Ozzie's unexpected departure from his role as chief software architect does not look good for Microsoft, not least because it follows a series of other high-level departures.
It follows Microsoft Business Division president Stephen Elop's move to become CEO of Nokia last month, and the retirement of entertainment and devices …
Can Windows Phone 7 help Microsoft come from behind?
This week is Windows Phone 7 week. Microsoft is announcing details of the launch devices and operators, and I shall be watching and reporting with interest on the joint press conference with CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T's Ralph de la Vega.
But how significant is this launch? I think it is of considerable significance. Mobile …
Inside Windows Phone 7: ghost of Zune
A cinema in Manchester has formed the unlikely venue for a full-day drill-down on developing for Windows Phone 7, sponsored by Microsoft but organised by UK .NET community group DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper (seriously).
It proved an insightful day. Insight number one was that only 100 or so developers turned up, to a venue that …
IE9 strips to win Chrome fans
Microsoft took an unusual approach with Internet Explorer 9, first releasing "Platform previews" that showed off the new rendering engine but with little user interface, before finally issuing a beta that shows off its full features.
The engine is the big story, with its implementation of a significant chunk of HTML5, hardware …
Microsoft delivers Google Chrome IE9 beta
Microsoft is offering Internet Explorer 9 beta for download. Although this follows four earlier platform previews, this is the first time the new IE user interface has been shown to the public.
Like Google Chrome, IE9 combines the address and search boxes into a single "OneBox". It also integrates with the Windows 7 taskbar, …
Microsoft to embrace and extend HTML 5?
Microsoft watchers are poring over a series of Twitter posts from former Silverlight Product Manager Scott Barnes, a web design and user experience specialist.
According to Barnes, just back from a week of briefings at Microsoft, there is intense internal debate about the future of HTML 5, newly implemented in the forthcoming …
Microsoft trips on Visual Studio Lightswitch
Microsoft's Visual Studio LightSwitch, just released to beta, is a new edition of Visual Studio 2010 and will become the next step up from the free Express.
In other words, it will be paid-for but cost less than the existing Professional version. Do not be fooled though: although this is a low-end tool it is one with high …
IE9's Acid, speed and HTML5 trip to land lost surfers
The browser wars have taken a fresh twist with Microsoft's release of the fourth - and final - preview of Internet Explorer 9 before the beta in September.
The notable features are that it has improved standards support to the extent that it scores 95 per cent on the Acid 3 CSS test, that its JavaScript and graphics performance …
Aurora - a Microsoft cloud server for the small guy?
Microsoft has announced details of the next version of Small Business Server (SBS) - actually, make that two versions.
SBS 7.0 is an update of what we have seen before, a bundle of core applications including Exchange 2010, SharePoint, and System Update Services, tuned to run on a single Server 2008 R2 box.
SBS codename Aurora …
Microsoft's .NET at ten: big hits, strange misses
We take it for granted now, but it was ten years ago this week — July 7, 2000 — that Microsoft announced its brand-new application development initiative, the .NET Framework, at TechEd Amsterdam. The company then provided more detail at its Professional Developers Conference in Orlando, Florida, the following week.
It was Paul …
Why we love to hate Microsoft
Microsoft watcher Mary Branscombe has an excellent ZDNet post on Why do we (love to) hate Microsoft, and asks:
What would Microsoft need to do and say to you for you to be happy to call yourself a fan?
In part she's reacting to head of Microsoft PR Frank Shaw's Microsoft by the Numbers in which he highlights the success of …
First MeeGo Linux needs love and scrub up
MeeGo is a big deal. Devices plus cloud is the big trend right now and MeeGo has seen two industry giants - Intel and Nokia - combine efforts to create a Linux offering capable of competing with Windows on netbooks, Apple and Google on phones and tablets, and embedded operating systems on just about anything else from TVs to …
Adobe's second AIR defies Jobs' Flash iPhobia
Thanks to Steve Jobs, attention on Adobe Systems' Flash this year has mostly been on mobile a fact Adobe helped compound by recently releasing its AIR runtime - based on Flash - for Android partners.
Adobe's progress with AIR for mobile has been slow, while Apple's iPhone and iPad Flash ban has damaged Adobe's cross-platform …
Conviction and confusion in Microsoft's cloud strategy
Microsoft's Windows platform may be under attack from the cloud, but you wouldn't know it here at the company's TechEd in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The conference is a sell-out, with 10,500 attendees mostly on the IT professional side of the industry, in contrast to last year's event in Los Angeles, California, which only …
Microsoft's Ballmer and Ozzie tag-team on mediocrity
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and chief software architect Ray Ozzie put on a poor performance when quizzed by Walt Mossberg at the All Things Digital conference, judging from the live blogs of the event.
What was wrong? They allowed the conversation to be focused mainly on competing products: Apple iPad, Google …
BBC iPlayer to run on iPads. Eventually
Yesterday the BBC announced version 3 of its iPlayer catch-up service, which allows viewers to stream programmes for up to seven days following their initial broadcast, or to download them to keep for up to 30 days on supported platforms.
The new version adds social media integration, linking to Facebook, Twitter and Windows …
Was Microsoft's Office 2010 worth killing Clippy?
Microsoft Office earned $4.2 billion revenue in the first three months of 2010, only a little behind the Windows client at $4.4 billion, according to the company's most recent earnings release.
The figures show the suite remains deeply embedded in the business world, despite the availability of free or much cheaper alternatives …
Microsoft's Office Web Apps - Google killing not included
The most intriguing piece of an otherwise predictable Office 2010 - which volume customers can get as of Tuesday - is Office Web Apps.
These are the first ever, in-browser versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote from Microsoft. They represent a significant break with the past for a suite that's been one of Microsoft's …
Microsoft's Silverlight 4 - more than Flash envy
2010 is proving to be a big year for Silverlight, Microsoft's cross-platform browser plug-in.
"Four releases in two and a half years," said vice president Scott Guthrie at the launch of Silverlight 4.0 this month, and as Microsoft reveals more pieces of its strategy, the rationale for this energetic development is also emerging …
Microsoft stealth launches 'historic' programming language
Launching a new language is easy - getting it used is hard. The combination of existing code and existing skills is a strong barrier to adoption, and even excellent languages like Ruby and Python have struggled to break out of their niches.
What hope is there for F#, the new language that Microsoft has sneaked into Visual Studio …
Visual Studio 2010 - your chunky new friend dissected
Windows 7 is roaring ahead in acceptance, but look beyond the desktop and Microsoft's platform is not in great shape.
Microsoft is losing to Apple, Google and RIM on mobile, in cloud computing Azure is only just getting started, Internet Explorer is down to a mere 61 per cent market share on browsers, and there's been a slow but …
Windows Phone 7: Microsoft's exercise in self restraint
The key difference between Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile is not Silverlight, the Windows Marketplace lock-in, or the disallowing of native-code applications.
Rather, Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft's best effort at creating a user-centric device, something that is actually a pleasure to use. Its existence has everything to do …
IE9 - the big questions and Microsoft's half answers
“HTML5 will enable a new class of applications,” says Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's Internet Explorer general manager, speaking to the press at the company's Mix10 conference in Las Vegas.
But exactly what parts of HTML5 will the company support? And what will happen when changes are made as the standard evolves? Hachamovitch …
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 embraces - yes - HTML5
Microsoft is focusing on performance and HTML 5 standards support in Internet Explorer 9, the next version of its web browser.
IE is the most widely-used web browser, though its market share is in decline thanks to strong competition from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and others.
At the Mix conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday …
Windows Phone 7 - what's in and what's out
"In this release, our focus is on phones purchased by consumers," said Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel, describing the Windows Phone 7 developer platform to attendees at the Mix conference in Las Vegas on Monday.
"In this release" turns out to be a constant refrain, as he answers questions, usually in the negative.
Is there a local …
Windows Phone 7: free tools, captive Marketplace
Microsoft aims to lure Windows Phone 7 developers with free tools. That's the good news. The less-good news is that Redmond plans to lock down the platform à la Apple's App Store.
These revelations were part of Microsoft's baptism of the development platform for Windows Phone 7 on Monday at the Mix10 conference for web designers …
Visual Studio 2010 - chunky but has a great personality
Like Clerks director Kevin Smith, Visual Studio is a lot to get your arms around.
There's a new editor and shell built with the graphics-rich Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), version 4.0 of the .NET Framework that itself is packed with new features. Plus, there are some big changes in the target project types, from C++ to …
Android first to host Adobe's AIR for smartphones
Adobe Systems is bringing its Flash-based AIR runtime to mobile devices, with Google's Android the first potential host.
Adobe will show a preview running on Motorola's Droid and Milestone phones at the Mobile World Congress today in Barcelona, Spain, with general availability promised later this year.
AIR combines Flash with …
Ten years of .NET - Did Microsoft deliver?
Microsoft closes The Noughties by trying to keep up with competitors and to remain a top destination for developers by embracing cloud computing and open source. It opened the decade with another massive platform shift, though: the introduction of .NET.
.NET was announced at the first TechEd of decade in Amsterdam in the year …
Microsoft's Silverlight 4 - Flash developers need not apply
Microsoft's Silverlight 4 shows remarkable progress since version 3, released in July. The pace of development shows Microsoft is serious about making this work - but is it delivering something developers can use?
The answer is a guarded "yes". Version 4 is a huge improvement, resolving many of the most frustrating aspects of …
Microsoft Silverlight - now with hidden Windows bias
Silverlight 4.0 was the big hit at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference (PDC) this week. "I can see that Silverlight is the future of Windows client development" one attendee told me.
The basis for this enthusiasm is an array of new features that resolve many of the frustrations discovered by developers working with the …
Office 2010 fights Google with SharePoint bloat
Office is in a curious competitive position. On the desktop, Office is untouchable - even the free OpenOffice.org has done little to shift its hold, especially in business.
Microsoft should worry though about competing online document authoring and collaboration tools, especially those from Google. They lack features now, but …
Windows 7's dirty secrets revealed
While chief technology officer Ray Ozzie was away in the clouds at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference, technical fellow Mark Russinovich got down and dirty with the true heart of Windows - the kernel.
He presented a two-hour session on changes made to the kernel used by both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, shedding …
