Comments on: Welcome to Windows (Mobile?) 7

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:05:21 +0000

@Karl

Watch this space.

By: Karl

Karl — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:18:59 +0000

@Peter

Execubabble. Don’t confuse it for real words.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:08:26 +0000

The picture gets even more interesting:
http://www.microsoft.com/msft/download/transcripts/fy09/StrategicUpdate_Ballmer_Liddell_022409.doc

“Windows, Windows Mobile, and those two will become I’d say closer in many ways. There’s still a real distinction between what’s a phone and what’s a PC. And yet the amount of technology that can be shared across that border continues to go up.”

“We’ve got Windows Mobile 7 coming next year. We’re getting more and more synergy with Windows, so the browser improvements, et cetera, should be quite rapid.”

“On the first Windows slide I actually showed you the union of Windows and Windows Mobile, compared to Apple, compared to RIM, because I think that’s the right way to think about it, that’s the way we think about it. There will be really shared technology across Windows and Windows mobile. The browser is an example, the presentation surface is an example. Some day even the kernel will be an example.”

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:34:15 +0000

@Karl

I don’t entirely agree – yes, I am sure that changed from WinCE to a true Windows kernel probably breaks a lot of stuff built for Windows Mobile (CE), it will actually introduce a lot of commonality with Windows development.

They will share more API sets in a more compatible way, and Windows Mobile will get a lot of dev that justhappens in the mainstream Windows world – proper .NET for one.

And also – the Windows CE kernel has some strict limitations in terms of processes, threads, addressable memory etc – sure many of these have been lifted, but a true MinWin kernel will remove these altogether.

They would need to layer a new UI portion – but a lot of work has been done for Windows 7.

A big issue would be the underlying processor families to support it – would it be Intel’s mobile processor only? Or would they update to suit other processor families?

By: La imagen delatora

La imagen delatora — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:38:44 +0000

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By: Karl

Karl — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:16:46 +0000

You’re reading too much in to that picture. The effort to modulise the Windows kernel was born from the Longhorn failure. It may be useful if Microsoft wants to use it for phones, but it would mean:
1. Everything they’re doing now is in vain. Any architecture improvements in the current WinMo will be wiped out when the new architecture takes effect.
2. Software will probably be incompatible, removing a major advantage of the WinMo platform.
3. The W7 kernel probably won’t bring much to the table. It does lots of things that mobiles don’t need, and lacks lots that they do need. It would be quicker to add new things to the WM kernel.
4. It won’t help interoperability between the two platforms at all.

By: SolidJediKnight

SolidJediKnight — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:56:16 +0000

I don’t know if WM 6.5 could be retooled and slimmed down enough to give a Windows 7 quality in time. I’m not saying its impossible. However, they’d need to trounce Apple in terms of popularity to gain the hat trick. I do hope that the next version of WM gets really tuned up fast. The endless complaints I hear about the previous and current versions have given me plenty of headaches.

By: Devin

Devin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:20:48 +0000

Hmm, interesting point. That would also fall in line with what should be seen in WM 6.5 versus WM 7.