I know microsoft bashing is all the rage but something has been lost in translation here. What Satya Nadella meant was Microsoft will ship windows on different form factors (tablets, phones, PCs, servers etc) from the same code-base.
The OS kernel will more or less be the same. However the UI experience will be vastly different as you can image.
That makes some sense; that's what Apple has been doing as well. Both OSX and iOS use the Darwin kernel and base, along with some shared user libraries, but then each has considerably different UI on top.
But it will only be the same code base to a manager or bean-counter. There will so much conditional code and special casing that maintenance will be a nightmare. Fix things for system, break the others. (Or "same code base" just means all stored with in the same repository.)
> [It] gives developers the entire volume of Windows, which is 300 plus million units as opposed to just our 4% share of mobile in the US or 10% in some countries
Great strategy, nothing new or visionary, but something tried and tested. Use your strength in one market to enter a new one. From my (much more modest) experience at Red Hat, I know this can work.
Apps will still need to be modified for the smaller or bigger screens, and I doubt the APIs will be exactly the same either. Plus, this will only apply for new "WinRT apps" and only to Windows 9 devices. So maybe it won't be 4 percent, but it will be 14 percent, at most, like what they have now in "computing devices" as market share.
What i'm really hoping to see is a phone that can have a keyboard, mouse and monitor attached to it. When that happens then Windows Phone UX turns into Windows Desktop UX on the monitor. Or a laptop with a dock for my phone ... ???
Microsoft previously had Win8 , RT and Windows Phone.
The latter two needed to be distinct because they were ARM based so there would be software compatibility issues with software that was developed for Win8.
The plan here seems to be to build all Windows phones and tablets with x86 chips to eliminate that issue.
With the delays to x86 (Broadwell, Skylake) I don't see how they can completely abandon ARM. Is Microsoft really doubling down on Intel now? Do we really think x86 will ever overtake ARM as the de facto mobile platform? Just because Microsoft's ARM-based products are all flops doesn't mean ARM is dead for other manufacturers and software makers.
Anyone care to fill in some blanks for me as to why Microsoft is so embolden now? What is Intel up to?
This is a smartass comment, but it cuts right to the core of Microsoft's foolishness. They are still out fighting a battle against Apple for mobile, which they lost a long time ago, meanwhile their enterprise stronghold is under seige.
I just hope they do away with the stupid ass start screen for their Server OS. It doesn't belong there no matter what any one says. It belongs on PC (I guess) systems and touchscreen devices.
And before you jump on me about "use server core you moron", that's not feasible in my environment. We have users who cannot solely rely on powershell to do most of their day to day work flows.
Sounds like they're really doubling down on their devices that could never have succeeded because they were too late.
I kinda wish I could have been in the meeting where they decided that windows 8 should be the same for all their different devices, it sounds kind of appealing at first, 'One experience for mobile, tablet and desktop' until you think about it for a second.
As someone that has a Windows Phone and uses Cortana, yes. Everything he was doing is a pretty standard response or action from Cortana.
I mention this every time, but I think the most interesting thing about it is that developers can integrate their apps with it. For example, you could open Cortana and say "Send a Yo to John Doe" or "GenericBankingApp, transfer $25 to my checking account".
I've been meaning to sit down and build a couple small apps that take advantage of this, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Unifying team/platform and APIs is not the same as unifying the architecture. Windows on ARM, for instance, was previously 'unified' with Windows 8 on the x86/64. To the best of my knowledge Microsoft is referring to the former.
It's like an auto manufacturer trying to standardize controls between a corvette and a dump truck. No... both of those are different machines with different use cases. They need to have unique user interfaces.
I just fear that the dimension of the full os once installed will be absurd. Win8 is already 13-15 gb alone... If they try to put on the new windows also all the features needed for phones the situation can become really bad.
At that point can be needed at least 24gb of intern memory on the phones to just run wp
I don't think that's how it will work at all. Android phones run on a Linux kernel, does that mean that an android phone needs to install a full linux distribution comparable to Ubuntu or Debian? No.
[+] [-] ayi|11 years ago|reply
The OS kernel will more or less be the same. However the UI experience will be vastly different as you can image.
Mary Jo Foley explains it well here - http://www.zdnet.com/what-one-windows-really-means-and-doesn...
[+] [-] _delirium|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jqm|11 years ago|reply
Maybe complaining about some of Microsoft's decisions has more to do with user frustration and less to do with being "all the rage"?
[+] [-] equoid|11 years ago|reply
Same old Microsoft, same old mistakes.
[+] [-] geertj|11 years ago|reply
> [It] gives developers the entire volume of Windows, which is 300 plus million units as opposed to just our 4% share of mobile in the US or 10% in some countries
Great strategy, nothing new or visionary, but something tried and tested. Use your strength in one market to enter a new one. From my (much more modest) experience at Red Hat, I know this can work.
[+] [-] higherpurpose|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] caruana|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sp332|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tinco|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jiggy2011|11 years ago|reply
The plan here seems to be to build all Windows phones and tablets with x86 chips to eliminate that issue.
[+] [-] louhike|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Touche|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BigChiefSmokem|11 years ago|reply
Anyone care to fill in some blanks for me as to why Microsoft is so embolden now? What is Intel up to?
[+] [-] billpg|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyllo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] el_duderino|11 years ago|reply
And before you jump on me about "use server core you moron", that's not feasible in my environment. We have users who cannot solely rely on powershell to do most of their day to day work flows.
[+] [-] popeshoe|11 years ago|reply
I kinda wish I could have been in the meeting where they decided that windows 8 should be the same for all their different devices, it sounds kind of appealing at first, 'One experience for mobile, tablet and desktop' until you think about it for a second.
[+] [-] higherpurpose|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris_wot|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Rakathos|11 years ago|reply
I mention this every time, but I think the most interesting thing about it is that developers can integrate their apps with it. For example, you could open Cortana and say "Send a Yo to John Doe" or "GenericBankingApp, transfer $25 to my checking account".
I've been meaning to sit down and build a couple small apps that take advantage of this, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
[+] [-] nick_riviera|11 years ago|reply
Not joking but x86 on phones doesn't work either.
More suckery to come...
[+] [-] Eyas|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mkesper|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rvschuilenburg|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] higherpurpose|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jqm|11 years ago|reply
It's like an auto manufacturer trying to standardize controls between a corvette and a dump truck. No... both of those are different machines with different use cases. They need to have unique user interfaces.
[+] [-] pilsetnieks|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tdsamardzhiev|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yulaow|11 years ago|reply
At that point can be needed at least 24gb of intern memory on the phones to just run wp
[+] [-] SideburnsOfDoom|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pilsetnieks|11 years ago|reply