Microsoft executives on Wednesday highlighted a bevy of new features and applications that will be available in Windows 10, a release that will provide universal apps and bridge everything from mobile devices to PCs to Xbox. In other words, Windows 10 could be a game changer.
More Windows 10
Windows 10 for IoT: What to expect
Say goodbye to passwords forever
Windows 10: Will your PC run it?
Using the new Office apps on a Windows 10 tablet
Microsoft to add 'enterprise grade' biometric security
CNET Windows 10 coverage
Or maybe not.
One thing is clear. Windows 10 is going to be interesting to watch because it'll define what Windows is about from cloud services to devices to the company's economic model.
"This is one of the most collaborative releases for Windows. We want to make Windows 10 the most loved release of Windows," said CEO Satya Nadella. "Each day we're reminded of the enormity of the responsibility we have to move the innovation of Windows forward...We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows."
Microsoft to make Windows 10 free to Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 users | ZDNet Windows 10 coverage | CNET Windows 10 coverage | First Windows 10 mobile preview, due in February, key to Microsoft's OneCore vision
Joe Belfiore, chief of the operating systems group at Microsoft, walked through a bevy of features in Windows 10. The Cortana assistant will land in Windows 10. There will be free upgrades for Windows 7 users up (at least for a year). And an Office that's touch based is coming (for real this time). Toss in a new browser and there's a lot to chew on when it comes to Windows 10.
However, I'm left with more questions than answers. Here's a look at the looming questions for Windows 10 as the platform is rolled out to developers and the testing community.
Will Windows 10 reposition Microsoft as an innovator? The company outlined its holographic work and said it would have demonstrations in Redmond for those attending the Windows 10 event. Microsoft said holographic capabilities will be enabled inside Windows 10 devices with APIs. "Want to create a holographic app? Easy. developers: Windows 10 is yours. All universal apps can be made to work with Windows Holographic, said Alex Kipman, technical fellow and engineer credited with creating Kinect. For good measure there's a Microsoft HoloLens headset. See: Microsoft goes hologram happy with Windows 10, HoloLens, HoloStudio
Will developers flock to holograms? The message from Microsoft is that developing holographic apps won't be any different than your universal Windows 10 fare. Clearly, Microsoft's HoloStudio effort will land developers. It remains to be seen what skills are required to make Microsoft more like Holosoft.
What happens from here is that Microsoft becomes a subscription based company. Will consumers buy a Windows 10 subscription? Perhaps. But Microsoft will need to throw in Office, storage and other goodies. On the enterprise front, companies will pay for support. It'll be interesting to see Microsoft's churn in the future.
Does the universal app vision hold up? Of course, Microsoft's one code line strategy and plan to bridge multiple screens makes sense. The big question is how will Microsoft execute. "It's the same code running on both devices, but formatted to fit the screen," said Belfiore. Nice strategy, but the devil is in the details.
Is Cortana much of a differentiator? Much of Belfiore's talk revolved around showing off Cortana, Microsoft's personal assistant. The idea is that Cortana is more PC friendly and helpful. "We didn't want to take only the phone experience and put it no the PC. We wanted to educate Cortana about PC kind of things so that she would be uniquely helpful," said Belfiore.
But in a desktop environment Cortana may be a pain in the butt. We'll find out, but it's unclear whether Cortana will get consumers or prosumers wound up about Windows 10. Remember there are a lot of Windows 7 customers who have little reason to upgrade.
Can Microsoft's Project Spartan browser change the game? Microsoft's new browser looks interesting and provides a nice do-over to what Internet Explorer provides. Watch how the share statistics shape up over time. The browser is notable, but lacks the pizzazz to break any inertia that goes with Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or even Firefox.
Will the bridge between Xbox and Windows 10 be solid? Bridging the worlds of Xbox and Windows 10 makes a lot of sense. It also looks potentially complicated. Microsoft's ambition makes sense. Again, the execution is key. I find the Xbox already too complicated on many fronts.
Surface Hub: Friend or foe to Cisco and Polycom? CNET
Can Microsoft's hardware strategy revolve around Windows 10? One of the more interesting moves was what Microsoft called the Surface Hub, a large screen that would bring work groups and data together. The Microsoft Surface Hub is an 84-inch 4K display with built-in cameras, speakers, microphones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC. The display is integrated with OneNote, video conferencing and collaboration tools. The Surface Hub could be a Cisco and Polycom video conferencing killer.
Topics: CXO, Cloud, Enterprise Software, Microsoft, Windows 10
About Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CN... Full Bio
zdnet_core.socialButton.googleLabel
Contact
Disclosure
This author is trash.. look how hard he tries to downplay good hard work amd effort and even plain inovation . Bias and one sided and lots of missinformation to. He must have watched the reveal online with the mute button on. No wonder i stopped coming to zdnet. Feels like fox news in here.
People Windows 10 is free for a year to all Windows 7 and 8 users. It not free for a year then a subscription. It will cost If you wait a year after release.
So that means EVEN if you don't think you are going to use it GET IT IT"S free.
The Win7 has two panels one on the left most side is the search programs panel the one to the right is the control shut down panel, which you cannot replicate in the WIN10 start/menu
Have a look here and tell me what the Windows 7 start menu can do that this can't do:
Windows has done search quite well for many years now. Which is fine if you know what you're looking for. So has OS X. That's not really an issue between them. They work a bit differently but they both work well if you know how to use them.
The difference is that in OS X I can use any number of Finder windows to navigate around my system, find stuff manually or via search, and move and copy things from one place to another. I can do the same thing, to a limited extent, in Windows using My Computer. I'm still running Windows 7, by the way. I don't mean to say that the Mac way is any better - or any worse. I know it depends for most people on what they are used to and their level of proficiency with the OS. I will say, though, that I find the Mac UI easier to use. However, I don't make the mistake of thinking that everyone should like what I like. At the same time, I was able to use Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows XP, even Vista, and Windows 7 without too much difficulty moving from one to the next (I never had to endure Windows ME). Windows 8, on the other hand, for me, on a desktop computer, is a brick wall - or perhaps I should say a tile wall. And even when i get behind that wall, the Windows I know how to use just isn't there. If I actually had to depend on using Windows 8 to make a living, I would expect my employer to pay for my retraining. And if I were an employer, those retraining costs would give me pause. Migrating to a new version of Windows is a challenge for most businesses, especially the large ones, in the best of times. Having to retrain all your employees for what is, essentially, an entirely new operating system only makes the challenge more daunting. Clearly Microsoft didn't take this into account when they developed Windows 8. And they are paying the price for that oversight. No wonder they're hyping Windows 10 for all it's worth.
People are saying, here, that Windows 10 will be a brave new world (Windows 8 was supposed to be a brave new world, too, for whatever that's worth). But no one appears to have actually used the beta yet, so we're left to speculate and hope that Microsoft will get it right this time. Needless to say, whether we're optimistic or cynical, time will tell.
A successful Windows Server 2003 migration takes time to plan and execute, so start today. Check out this infographic to see if your strategy is missing pieces.
Can Microsoft's hardware strategy revolve around Windows 10? One of the more interesting moves was what Microsoft called the Surface Hub, a large screen that would bring work groups and data together. The Microsoft Surface Hub is an 84-inch 4K display with built-in cameras, speakers, microphones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC. The display is integrated with OneNote, video conferencing and collaboration tools. The Surface Hub could be a Cisco and Polycom video conferencing killer.
No comments:
Post a Comment