Windows 8: One OS to Rule Them All?
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Windows 8 is on the horizon. Microsoft has designed the next-generation flagship operating system with a split personality that straddles the line between the familiar Windows 7 desktop, and the flashy Metro interface used with Windows Phone 7. Can Microsoft successfully tackle desktop and mobile with one OS?
Microsoft is not new to mobile devices. It had a smartphone before the Apple iPhone revolution came along, and it was pushing tablet PCs before the Apple iPad made it cool. But, as long as Microsoft’s history with mobile devices is, so is its stubborn desire to make everything about its Windows OS.
Windows 8 is built for tablets, but may not sway desktop users to upgrade. The original Windows Mobile was—as much as it could be—Windows ported onto a much smaller form factor. Windows tablets were more or less Windows laptops, but with the physical keyboard removed and replaced by a stylus for input.
What Microsoft failed to realize, and what Apple and Google have since proven, is that the mobile experience is different than the desktop experience. But, Apple has been moving in a direction to converge iOS and Mac OS X in some ways, and Google seems to blur the line some with Android and its Chrome OS—so Microsoft apparently wants to double down with an OS that can simultaneously run desktops and tablets.
Fair enough. The Windows 8 developer preview version I have now is pretty rough around the edges, but it has some pizazz, and definitely shows some promise. It still seems sort of “Jekyll and Hyde”, though—it can either be a flashy Metro UI tablet, or it can be a Windows 7 desktop.
The allure of having one cross-platform OS is the applications. It is more efficient for developers to be able to write one application that works on both desktops and tablets, it is more cost effective for companies to purchase software that works in both environments, and it is more convenient for users to be able to use the same tools on both platforms rather than swimming upstream to find ways to integrate and sync the two.
The problem comes back to the fact that mobile devices serve different roles than PCs, and writing a single application that can meet the needs of both environments is tricky—if its possible at all. Microsoft is working hard to entice developers and users alike with its upcoming Windows 8 app store, but where the proverbial rubber meets the road Windows 8 is still two separate operating systems.
Traditional Windows software developed for an x86 architecture will not work with the ARM processors that power most tablets. In fact, according to Microsoft the traditional desktop mode won’t even be an option on ARM-based tablets. Even if the hardware itself weren’t an issue, though, applications developed for the Windows desktop OS won’t just magically work in the Metro UI.
The fact that the Metro UI will be the only choice for ARM tablets, and also live alongside the traditional Windows OS on desktops means that developers will have to focus on applications targeting the Metro interface in order to capture both markets. On a traditional desktop or laptop, though, the Metro interface loses some of its appeal.
Metro is great, but it is built for a touchscreen interface. It works—in the technical sense—on a PC with a mouse, keyboard, and standard monitor, but I find myself flipping frequently to desktop mode because those just work better given today’s desktop hardware.
IDC analysts predict that Windows 8 will be a bit of a dud. I am not as pessimistic about the prospects of Windows 8 tablets as the IDC report suggests, but I agree that there seems to be little compelling reason for a user or company that has already made the switch to Windows 7 to go out and upgrade to Windows 8…on current hardware.
I love Windows Phone 7 “Mango”, and I do believe Microsoft is capable of providing a solid mobile experience for tablets. But desktop and laptop hardware need to evolve and adapt more to incorporate the touchscreen, tapping and swiping interface before the Metro UI or Windows 8 will be attractive as an upgrade option.
Don’t ever count Microsoft out, though. Microsoft is playing the long game, and it has enough influence to bend the hardware and software markets to fit its vision as long as it holds up its end of the bargain and delivers a worthwhile OS.
One Project To Rule Them All
Development Consultant Emmanuel Knafo explores the business value of having a single organization, single project approach to DevOps.
In this 3-part series, we will discuss the business value of having a single organization, single project approach in your Azure DevOps journey.
Why a single project approach you ask? Usually, organizations or enterprises start their Azure DevOps journey in one of two ways:
- A migration from pre-existing on-premise Azure DevOps Server (aka Team Foundation Server) project collection(s). This is usually done using High Fidelity tools such as the TFS Migrator Tool.
- Organically: meaning the organization or enterprise initially creates an Azure DevOps Organization with a project in it. Sooner or later, the need is felt to add more projects to this initial ADO organization or even create supplementary ADO organizations to house additional projects.
Part 1 of the series examines the business value of taking a single organization, single project approach in your Azure DevOps journey.
Part 2 of the series examines the fundamental techniques used in the Migration Tool which allows us to clone, and more importantly merge, multiple Azure DevOps projects into a single project.
Part 3 of this series takes a look at Security consideration and techniques. Security Requirements can vary widely from one enterprise to another. Under certain circumstances, it may even be a reason to deviate from the “One Project To Rule Them All” strategy and add another project.
One windows to rule them all
While Google’s Android platform continues to leave musicians disappointed, Microsoft has surprised everyone by showing off Windows 10 at Summer NAMM! Windows 10 is being designed as a unified OS across desktop and mobile platforms, and that includes some key new APIs for audio and MIDI! Since this is all done at the OS API level it makes it easier for developers to port the same code to all platforms that run Windows 10. This means that their phones and tablets will benefit as well with jitter-free MIDI and ultra-low audio latency.
Sonic State did an excellent write-up all of the details we have so far.There are some excellent tidbits in there including isolating audio processes to a single processor core so that the stream is not interrupted, presumably addressing the occasional glitches we hear on iOS when overloading iPads with multiple simultaneous apps.
Here is the Microsoft keynote. At 19:30 we get glimpse of the new Akai MPC running an embedded version of Windows 10. Propellerhead Software’s Gerry Bassermann shows up at 24:30 to talk about their work on Microsoft’s platform, including a demo of Figure ported to Windows Phone on a Surface. Microsoft further emphasized their commitment to touch interfaces on desktops as well. This video embed should work everywhere. but it’s janky as fuck, and I can’t find it on YouTube.
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Reader Comments 11
FINALLY! Some serious midi/audio competion for Apple’s over-priced/under performing/non-memory expandable hardware. I love their products, but the company is too greedy. This alternative will lose them customers if they don’t lower prices and allow for better i/o connectivity and memory expansion.
It will be great if this news motivates apple to finally address some of the. unfortunate idiosyncrasies that musicians must deal with if they want to integrate an iOS device into their recording or performing.
The Figure app on Windows. very intriguing. I enjoyed seeing Gerry from Propellerhead.
Bigwig and PreSonus: it seems very smart for them to embrace Surface/Win10 and I like what I see from them, though I don’t have either company’s software. With Microsoft’s embrace of touch-surface music creation/production, the future looks pretty nice. right now.
Windows? Please Lord, nooooooooooooooo!
Haters can hate, the rest of us will happily use whatever works. And maybe save a bunch of $$ at the same time.
Well, possibly. Whatever works would have to include a metric fucktonne of music software, though. That’s a lot of $$ right there, and a lot of development time. YMMV, but for me I can’t see any chance of getting a net benefit from jumping ship on any timescale worth considering.
I’m still using an iPad 2. It’s doubtful I’d buy another iPad. If the mythical Pro ever comes out, I know it’s gonna be really expensive, and at this point I’m not willing to invest more towards iOS.
If I buy another tablet, it’ll most likely be a Surface Pro. I don’t NEED a metric fucktonne of software, I just happen to have a lot on my iPad because it’s so cheap , or free.
I’d been looking for an (iPad) alternative now for close to a year. It just wasn’t meeting my specific needs when playing live (my main musical outlet). I got a Surface Pro i5 three weeks ago and for my needs, it is more than overcoming the limitations I had with the iPad. Still love my iPad, don’t get me wrong. And with apps like «AudioMux» and «Music IO», I would still like to integrate the iPad into my setup.
Meh. I’m not really anti-Microsoft, I just think they blew the lead they had 10 years ago and just have to continue tossing out old baggage from the Balmer years to be viable. This all flows from them pissing off Jim Clark and causing the anti-trust fiasco of the 90s. That forced them to replace Gates, who is smart and brilliant at the place where business meets tech, with Balmer, He Who, I can only imagine, is a great sales guy who barely understands tech production. Really, an OS that is years late and utterly fails on release? How many times did they do that? What a major snafu! Their board dropped the ball by not fixing that right away. They certainly wasted a decade on foolishness and horrible management. Balmer was the stone around their necks and stack ranking just about killed them, I think.
Microsoft Research does amazing top tier work, so we know they have the stuff to be great, but somehow that stuff doesn’t make it to market. It would be great to see them doing something fantastic, but I have to admit they lost my attention years ago. They need to really stun me with something adroit and special to get me to come back at this point. All of my newest Windows software is XP era and I gave up on them long ago, and I don’t want to buy another set of apps for a new platform without a five star reason to do so. The stuff I have on OSX and iOS is perfect for my needs and is paid for and runs well on three-year-old hardware. I don’t hate Microsoft, I just think they are mostly irrelevant in the current marketplace.
It is popular for people to characterize the problem as a Microsoft vs. Apple issue, but I don’t think they have a chance of taking much market share from Apple. I just did a couple of cross country trips and eyeballed every mobile device I saw. Tons of iOS, handful of Android. ONE Windows phone out of about 250 devices. ALL of the younger folks had iOS devices. I think Microsoft’s main competition now is mostly Google and also Generic Android, a free OS that manufacturers can customize as they like, which explains the pricing of the new OS. Microsoft needs to grab market share and if they don’t then they won’t get developers. My gut feeling is that it is already too late, they need to be amazing now or be a second or third tier player. Or worse.
Microsoft Research is AMAZING. Maybe they will develop v2 of this amazing music technology.
Microsoft Strives For One OS To Rule Them All
Microsoft enjoyed thirty years of dominance in the operating system arena. Most of those three decades, however, desktop and laptop PCs were really the only devices to worry about, and Microsoft had a virtual monopoly in that department. The tech landscape has shifted dramatically in the last few years—resulting in declining relevance for Microsoft and the Windows operating system—but there may be a way for Microsoft to get its swagger back and rule the OS market once again.
Speaking to analysts about the Q4 FY2014 earnings numbers, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated, «We will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes.”
The idea of converging Windows works on a number of levels, and will be a recipe for success if Microsoft can successfully execute it.
It’s A New World
To be fair, the Windows operating system still owns more than 91 percent of the desktop OS market. The problem Microsoft faces is that it is the biggest fish in a shrinking pond. What has changed is that desktops—and by extension the desktop OS—make up a significantly lower chunk of the overall devices used in the world. The rise of smartphones and tablets as primary computing devices has led Android and iOS to eat away at Microsoft’s importance in the tech world.
Microsoft has made attempts to compete on mobile devices with the Windows Phone OS, but it has achieved only anemic success. It’s greatest “claim to fame” is that it passed BlackBerry to become number three among the major mobile platforms. That is very little consolation, though, when both Android and iOS have more than twenty times the market share of Windows Phone, and combined control about 90 percent of the mobile market.
The idea of merging desktop and mobile operating systems is not unique to Microsoft. Apple has already been working toward that goal by meshing features of Mac OS X and iOS, and making the two platforms more seamlessly integrated with each release. Apple revealed at WWDC earlier this year that the upcoming iOS 8 and Mac OS X “Yosemite” will be much more intertwined than their predecessors.
A truly converged OS, on the other hand, is a bolder move. Microsoft isn’t just suggesting that it will make Windows, Windows RT, Windows Phone (and possibly Xbox) more integrated. Microsoft is saying it will design one single operating system that will work for desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other devices.
That goal has many implications. First, it will streamline development within Microsoft—uniting disparate development groups currently working on completely different operating systems, and enabling them to function more efficiently toward a common vision. Second, it means that third-party developers can develop one application that will work across all Windows devices. Microsoft already unveiled something along those lines when it announced universal app coding at the BUILD conference earlier this year, but developing for one OS will simplify things even further than just modifying the underlying code so that it can be shared across platforms.
According to Gartner, mobile devices will make up more than 75 percent of the total devices in 2014 and 2015, but if we look at all devices as one big picture Microsoft makes up nearly all of the remaining quarter of that pie. A unified Windows, combined with the economy laptops and tablets Microsoft and its partners are rolling out will make Microsoft a much more aggressive competitor across the board.
Currently, analysts like Gartner and IDC generally view traditional desktop and mobile as two separate things still. However, devices like the phablets, or Windows 8 Pro tablets muddy the waters because they live on both sides of that arbitrary fence. On a superficial level, merging everything into one operating system will accelerate the blurring of lines that is already going on between the traditional desktop and mobile operating systems, and help catapult Microsoft back to a position of greater relevance.
Microsoft is arguably in the best position to pursue this lofty goal, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a significant challenge. Microsoft has already faced hurdles, and a significant backlash against Windows 8—its first attempt to merge desktop and mobile together.
I’m a fan of Windows 8, and generally believe that most of the complaints about the OS amount to whining over trivial “issues”, but perception is reality, and much of the world perceives Windows 8 to be a flop.
In order to overcome the objections of Windows desktop loyalists, and still meet the needs of Windows smartphone and tablet users, Microsoft should design something that is responsive, and works contextually based on either the device it’s installed on, user preference, or both.
If Microsoft can develop a unified operating system that truly traverses all of the devices people use at work, as well as in their personal lives it will change the game. A single platform that enables people to continue using the same software and tools, and provides seamless integration from one device to the next is a Holy Grail that businesses and consumers will embrace…as long as the experience lives up to the promise.
Windows 9—assuming that is what the next iteration of Windows will be called—is already mid-development and speculation suggests we can expect to see it released in early 2015. I would not expect this bold new vision to hit the street that quickly, and would look for this new unified Windows operating system with the next major release of the Windows and Windows Phone platforms after Windows 9.
