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1. Comment - Microsoft launches a pre-emptive strike against cloud competition

   (Mar 26, 2009 - 12:57 PM)

   This certainly does sound like an IBM initiative. I guess we'll all find out shortly.
   
   It does sound eerily like a similar initiative from IBM last summer and fall. IBM announced a new set of "open standards" principles. They were developed in secret, by a group of IBM-invited people behind closed doors. Needless to say, no IBM competitors (e.g., Microsoft) or people who held beliefs on standards that strongly clashed with IBMs were among the invitees.

2. Comment - Google: Windows 7 users should be able to choose any browser, any time

   (Mar 11, 2009 - 12:55 PM)

   Clearly, the Google spokesperson never used Windows.
   
   If they did, they would know that the capability to add or remove Windows features is accessible via the Control Panel AT ANY TIME (and has been, since at least Windows 95). IE in Windows 7 will use this mechanism, so it will be capable of being removed (or re-instated) at any time, not just after initial installation of Windows 7.
   
   (It won't be offered as a choice DURING initial installation, because users don't want setup being made more complex. And for the Google suggestion that every time you boot your machine, you have to choose to keep or remove IE is even worse!)
   
   Ridiculous.

3. Comment - By 'Windows Cloud,' did Ballmer mean an operating system?

   (Oct 3, 2008 - 8:54 AM)

   You clearly didn't read what I wrote. This is not about YOUR PC operating system running on a datacenter server. All you have on your PC is a small piece of software (like a browser!!) that knows how to communicate and interwork with the Windows Cloud.

4. Comment - By 'Windows Cloud,' did Ballmer mean an operating system?

   (Oct 2, 2008 - 7:23 PM)

   Two more bits of information I forgot to add.
   
   One of the reasons that "Windows Cloud" may be confusing to people is that it is highly distributed. By that, I'm not just talking about different servers within a given Microsoft datacenter, but across datacenters. It is also distributed in that a part needs to run on tier 1 and 2 computers. That part could just be a browser, or it could be live mesh, or whatever. The article above gets this part wrong by thinking that Windows Live runs on your PC because you see it in a browser. No, that's just you access mechanism into the Live applications that run on Windows Cloud.
   
   A second reason it may be confusing is that you will never be able to buy the operating system, unlike Windows on tiers 1 and 2. So how does Microsoft make any money off this? The common answer is advertising, but that is only one way. Other ways are: a) Selling versions of its server applications that will also run partly on Windows Cloud; b) Selling tools that make such compound applications; c) Renting applications that run on Windows Cloud; d) Renting "transformation services" (specialized Windows Cloud applications) that will transform your enetrprise data in useful ways.

5. Comment - By 'Windows Cloud,' did Ballmer mean an operating system?

   (Oct 2, 2008 - 6:43 PM)

   Yes, he is talking about a real operating system.
   
   Right now, Microsoft has two tiers:
   1, the client (e.g., Vista), is used for consumers and individuals in enterprises,
   2, the server (e.g., Windows Server 2008), runs on servers in enterprises.
   Both tiers 1 and 2 are actually based on the same code.
   
   The cloud operating system will be tier 3, and it will run on servers in Microsoft datacenters. There will also be add-on software at tiers 1 and 2 that enable them to talk to tier 3. You already have a beta of Live Mesh, which is really a small add-on to Vista to enable it to talk to tier 3 datacenters which take on the task of synchronization.
   
   Like tiers 1 and 2, the tier 3 Windows Cloud OS will be based on Vista at the bottom.
   
   But, it will have various pieces of new software, including live mesh (for synchronization), identity, authorization, management, etc. These extend to the cloud the services currently offered in the enterprise via active directory, etc. Other stuff will be a version of SQL server for data storage.
   
   The applications that run on tier 3 (Windows Cloud) will come in two forms: those for consumers and those for enterprises. The first will be marketed under the "Live" brand; the latter will be marketed under the "Online" brand. For example, there will be "Exchange online", "Office Online", etc.
   
   There will be separate software adaptation layers, one for consumers, and one for enterprises, that adapt the Live and Online applications to the common underlying code for Windows Cloud. These layers also provide services for each uniquely.
   
   The meaning of "client" will be expanded to include mobile devices running Windows Mobile. That is how your phone or PDA will synchronize, authenticate, etc. into the Windows Cloud OS.
   
   The next version of Microsoft's tools like Visual Studio will be upgraded so that the developer can develop an application as a composite one, in which they don't know or care for each part whether it will be running inside the enterprise or in the cloud. That will all be done post-compile.
   
   All of what I have said follows from what Microsoft has already leaked.