Half of Windows 7 Machines Running 64-Bit Version
Here at
MSM, we've been working with 64-bit versions of Windows for a while
now, but mainly in a server environment. There have been a few
issues that need attention compared to running 32-bit versions of
Windows but all-in-all, thanks to .NET it's been an easy
transition. Once we moved to Windows 7 on our workstations, we went
64-bit but this was mainly to make it easier to setup SharePoint
2010 development environments.
So, it was interesting to come across the statistic that about
half of Windows 7 machines are running the 64-bit version (
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/enterprise/359374/half-of-windows-7-machines-running-64-bit-version).
In the article Microsoft seem to claim that it's actually
advancements in hardware that have led this migration from 32-bit
but with Windows 7 they have worked very hard to make running the
64-bit version almost transparent and a lot of peripheral
manufacturers are now offering 64-bit drivers. This makes working
with Windows 7 64-bit very easy, not something I could say of
working with the 64-bit version of XP.
Windows Phone 7
It's interesting to read about the progress Microsoft has made
on their new mobile phone platform, Windows Phone 7. Development
hit an important milestone recently(
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2010/07/18/a-windows-phone-7-milestone.aspx)
and Microsoft are reportedly giving all their employees a Windows
Phone (
http://techflash.com/seattle/2010/07/no_more_excuses_microsofties_everybody_getting_a_
windows_phone.html).
It's great to see that Microsoft are really putting serious
effort into their development and they're getting considerable beta
testing done. It's certainly not evident that such effort was put
into previous Windows Phone releases. Really, though, is anyone
that interested in Windows Phone 7? The big three of iPhone,
Android and Blackberry have so much market share that I just can't
see Microsoft making much of a dent, especially as they're taking
so long to get the product to market.
Windows Azure Private Cloud
Microsoft have recently
announced that they will be making their Windows Azure cloud
platform available to corporations who want to use this technology
but don't want to run their applications on Microsoft's hardware (
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/hanuk/archive/2010/07/12/you-asked-for-private-cloud-we-have-it-for-you-windows-azure-platform-appliance.aspx).
Digging into the details, it turns out that if you want to run
Azure on your own hardware, you're going to need to make a pretty
significant investment in hardware and access to the software will
only be available via an OEM. This isn't something that you can
just download.
In a similar vein, Rackspace open sourced their cloud software
stack (
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/18/openstack-org-rackspace-open-sources-their-cloud-services-platform-and-gets-nasa-on-board/).
This coupled with the availability of software modelled on Amazon's
cloud platform released with the latest version of Ubuntu Server
(http://www.ubuntu.com/server/features/cloud)
means that if you like the idea of running your applications on a
cloud platform with all the scalability and maintenance benefits
that that entails but don't like the idea of storing your data on
someone else's hardware along with everyone else's applications,
your options have increased.
On the subject of Azure, I came across a nice comparison of
Azure to other cloud offerings:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bgroth/archive/2010/07/28/windows_2d00_azure_2d00_for_2d00_a_2d00_marketer.aspx
Google Wave No Longer Being Developed
Sad news from the Google
camp, Google Wave is no longer going to be developing their Wave
product any more:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html
Oh well, it seemed like such a good idea at the time and there
was so much hype surrounding its initial release. I did have a look
at Google Wave when it was released and I felt that it was a
solution looking for a problem, really. I know there are problems
around the use of email that Wave was trying to solve but email is
so entrenched that you'd have to create something really
revolutionary to replace it and Wave just didn't provide that
killer feature set that would draw people in.
Microsoft Aggressively Pursuing the Tablet PC Market
Ah the 'Tablet PC Market'. That's been doing well over the last
few years, hasn't it? Well, no. It was a great idea let down by
overpriced hardware and terrible software. Now of course Apple have
rejuvenated the market with the iPad, except they haven't. The iPad
isn't a Tablet PC, which is why it's doing so well. Anyway,
according to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft are putting a lot of effort
behind tablet computing:
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-ballmer-says-we-are-hardcore-about-tablet-computing-2010-7
I can't wait. Supposedly, Windows 7 'slates' will be available
this year:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsofts-ballmer-windows-7-slates-are-coming-this-year/6791
Oh well, a slate, that's not a tablet PC, oh no, I'm sure
they'll hit the right price point and the software will be well
suited to the platform. I can't wait, let me just hold my
breath…