Windows 8 development to begin in earnest in July of 2010?

Arstechnica is reporting that the latest rumor is that Windows 8 development will begin in earnest half way through 2010.

Based on the analysis of multiple (7) job description postings on Microsoft careers site, they are speculating on the development date.

For more information about the job postings and the article, click here

Things I would like to see in Windows 8 – Part 3 – a 3d interactive desktop

One of the features that I am really surprised hasn’t shown up in Windows yet is the 3d interactive desktop.

Windows Vista had Windows Dreamscene.

Windows DreamScene was a Windows Ultimate Extra. With Windows DreamScene, you were able to change your Windows Vista desktop background to a video clip, which would run in a continuous loop to make your desktop come to life.

Cute.

Windows 7 didnt really build on that concept.

The problem is that’s not enough. I would like to have desktop backgrounds that have objects that can be interacted with.

A car in the background where I could store my videos under the hood and my documents in the backseat.

A treasure chest in the distance where I could store my Microsoft Word files etc etc..

I’m sure some company has come up with something similar but it seems to me that it should be something that is intrinsic to the actual operating system itself.

What do you guys think?

Things I would like to see in Windows 8 – Part 2 – The Control Panel

So, this is a tougher one to write about.

Microsoft have struggled to simplify the control panel for the past several years and iterations of Microsoft Windows.

Things got better with Windows 7 as they have made several improvements and it looks a lot more intuitive.

Screenshots below…

Windows 7 control panel 1

Windows 7 Control Panel 2

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that there is still way too much going on in the control panel.

My cousin was telling me the other night that he was at some Microsoft event and the Microsoft employee giving the presentation had trouble locating a feature in the Control Panel.

I don’t have the perfect solution proposed but I do know that for Windows 8, it needs to get simpler.

There are way too many things going on in the control panel right now..

What do you guys think?

Thurrott confirms Windows 8 2012 date but..

Paul Thurrott has basically confirmed the push by MSFT to try and ship Windows 8 3 years from now.

He does however have some disturbing news about the approach going forward…

“The plan is this: New versions of Windows and Windows Server will ship in lockstep every three years going forward. There won’t be major and minor versions as before, just new versions. This plan—in case it’s not obvious—is based on the success Microsoft had in delivering Windows 7 in three years…”

He does go on to point out the potential flaw with this plan which is, just because the approach worked for Windows 7….

Seems to me that a uniform time for shipping a new OS feels like a blogger saying he or she has to write a blog post at the same exact time every day.

It sounds nice in theory but usually the execution sucks…

Things I would like to see in Windows 8 – Part 1 – Faster Start up time

One of the things that has always bugged me about the Windows operating system is how slow the boot up times have been.

In fairness to Microsoft, this seems to be something they have started making some progress on.

Windows 7 boot screen

Windows XP took forever to start up.

Windows Vista wasn’t that much better but Windows 7 has made real progress.

My PC takes 22 seconds to get to the login page from the time I actually start the PC.

Not too bad but I believe that we can do better.

Here’s what I would like to see: Windows 8 deployed with boot times of between 5 to 8 seconds on the high end.

It would work this way.. In the control panel, you would be allowed to specify and configure 3 applications that you would like to use as soon as your PC starts.

For most users, it would probably be 1) The browser 2) Mail and 3)Maybe an MS office application.

Based on those choices, upon bootup, those applications would be ready first and would have real time system resource priority.

Once the user was on and working, the rest of the operating system could slowly “wake up” in the background.

I think we are at the point where technology has caught up to this particular feature and most PC’s have enough CPU/Ram to make it happen.

What do you guys think?

Just what is 128 bit processing anyway for Windows 8?

So there has been a lot of hoopla about 128 bit processing for Windows 8.

There has also been speculation that it’s all BS and isnt going to happen.

Just what is 128 bit processing anyway?

Wikipedia defines it as the following:

In computer architecture, 128-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are at most 128 bits 16 octets wide. Also, 128-bit CPU and ALU architectures are those that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. There are currently no mainstream general-purpose processors built to operate on 128-bit integers or addresses, though a number of processors do operate on 128-bit data.

The System/370, made by IBM, could be considered the first rudimentary 128-bit computer as it used 128-bit floating point registers. Most modern CPUs feature SIMD instruction sets (SSE, AltiVec ect.) where 128-bit vector registers are used to store several smaller numbers, such as four 32-bit floating-point numbers, and a single instruction can operate on all these values in parallel.

These are 128-bit processors in the sense that they have 128-bit registers, but they do not operate on individual numbers that are 128 binary digits in length.

In addition, some of the uses for 128 bit processing would be:

• 128 bits is a common key size for symmetric ciphers in cryptography. It is also the size of Globally Unique Identifier and IPv6 address.
• 128-bit processors could become prevalent when 16 exbibytes of addressable memory is no longer enough (128-bit processors would allow memory addressing for 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 bytes (~340.3 undecillion bytes or 281,474,976,710,656 yobibytes ). However, physical limits make such large amounts of memory currently impossible, given that amount greatly exceeds the total data stored on Earth.
• Quadruple precision (128-bit) floating point number can store qword (64-bit) fixed point number or integer accurately without losing precision. Notice that since the 8087 (1980), x86 architecture supports 80bits float-points that store and process accurately 64bits integers
• Many modern[update] graphics cards have a 128-bit or 256-bit data bus to memory.
• Sony’s Playstation 2 CPU Emotion Engine is advertised as a 128 bit processor. It has 128-bit SIMD registers, like many processors, but is only a 64-bit processor in the traditional sense as it can only use 64-bit memory addresses.
• The AS/400 virtual instruction set defines all pointers as 128-bit. This gets translated to the hardware’s real instruction set as required, allowing the underlying hardware to change without needing to recompile the software. Past hardware was 32-bit CISC, while current hardware is 64-bit PowerPC. Because pointers are defined to be 128-bit, future hardware may be 128-bit without software incompatibility.
• Larger bit rates are also common on graphics card chips with some bus sizes reaching 512-bits long.

More to come on this topic…

The Windows 8 artwork competition

Well, Windows 7 has come and gone so we are starting to look forward to Windows 8.

At Windows8update.com, every month until Windows 8 is released, we will be giving out $250 a month to the best Windows 8 artwork that we receive as an entry on the site.

The rules are simple:

• It must be graphic artwork
• The work must be original
• It must be unique
• It must be creative
• It must incorporate elements of Windows 8
• It can be funny or thoughtful (your call)

That’s it.

Send your image ( maximum of 580 x 580 pix) to the following email address: Windows8art (at) nnigma (dot) com

Please include the following with your image

• Your name
• Preferred email address (for Paypal payment)
• Image Description: Tell us about the image

All entries will be posted on the Windows 8 website and based on the comments every month, we will pick a winner and pay by Paypal.

Once again, we will give this money out every month until Windows 8 is released.

This should be fun.

We are looking forward to your entries..

Google chrome os planned for 2010 release

Great article by CTOedge about the upcoming Google chrome OS

Google is now open-sourcing the development of the system in a project known as Chromium OS.

The Chrome OS code base, user interface experiments and initial design are now free and accessible to the public.

Although Google does not expect to have a version of Chrome OS ready for consumers until 2010, the operating system is already having a major impact.

Google is developing Chrome OS as a completely Web-based system. All applications will be Web applications, meaning everything a user does will be browser-based, eliminating the need to install, manage or update software.

Google is also hyping the security aspects of Chrome OS, saying each application resides in its own “security sandbox” and the system will verify the integrity of its code each time it restarts, with an automatic reboot if anything seems suspicious.

In addition, by running applications in parallel and streamlining processes and operations, Google says it will give Chrome OS users the fastest Internet experience possible.

Essentially, Chrome OS will leverage the capabilities of cloud computing to turn the existing Chrome browser into an operating system that is not burdened with the need to store any data.

With its planned release of Chrome OS, Google is taking on the entire Windows operating system, never mind the Office solution set. And because Google is actually offering a substantially different alternative to Windows, rather than simply duplicating it or open-sourcing its capabilities, it may succeed.

Should be interesting to see the impact if any of these competitors to Windows 7 and Windows 8.

New Windows 8 Theme

Deviant Art is a good source for all custom extra plugins and wallpapers.

One Deviant Art user “mufflerexoz” has created a Windows 8 theme for Windows 7.

The Windows 8 theme provides lots of new features along with a newly designed interface. It looks very similar to Windows Vista and Windows 7(Great combination) but there are many GUI changes like redesigned taskbar, Explorer, new boot screen and login screen, etc.

Check out the link below and download the themes,Logon screen,Wallpapers,System Tray icon, Tclock Lite & Watermark.

Windows 8 Transformation Pack

Windows 8 release set for 2012?

Microsoft has released two roadmaps at this years Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC 2009) which both seem to suggest a Windows 8 release in 2012.

Credit Steven Chapman

The roadmaps that Microsoft showcased at the conference show the Microsoft server releases over the years.

The first of the two roadmaps does mention Windows 7 (but not Windows Vista) along with Windows Server 2003 and 2008 releases.

The 2012 release is codenamed Windows 8.

Windows 8 will be a major release as opposed to the release updates Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

Based on Steven Sinorfsky’s reputation (and the stellar job he did on 7), it probably will make that date…