The New York Times and The Guardian both published interesting editorials about Microsoft's latest press blitz in Europe, and its promotion of Windows 7, "Windows Cloud," and its positioning against Google.
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Member since:
2005-07-13
well I hope its done in Silverlight 2 since it would make it nice an esay to write .NET apps into it. but then again for that matter, since there is such a shift to .NET i with the GUI for windows 7 and WinCE 7 are Silverlight gui's with nice and easy .NET programability behind them... a man can dream can't he? a man can dream (professor farnsworth form futurama after inventing the "finglonger").
Member since:2008-07-15
I'll gladly dream... that this buzz word "cloud computing" will die the death it deserves. It's hardly a revolutionary concept, it's a reworking of existing ideas with a new buzz word slapped on them. But I suppose the marketing folks had to come up with it... they have to keep their jobs too after all.
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2005-11-10
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2005-11-15
Perhaps they mean it will be a free floating cloud of interlinked nano-machines drifting like dust in the stratosphere; these solar powered compute and storage nodes will reduce the sunlight reaching the earth thus saving the planet!
From the ground they will look just like clouds yet their capacity will make all the existing power hungry and hard to cool data centers on the ground instantly redundant.
These nodes will run a new efficient and highly reliable version of Window - No that's just science fiction.
Member since:
2006-07-04
Has OSNews decided to follow Slashdot's example of having duplicate stories, even on the front page?
http://osnews.com/story/20349/Microsoft_Unveils_Windows_Cloud_Confi...
:p
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Member since:2005-08-11
MS didn't come up with the idea of cloud computing, and up until recently, they have fought tooth and nail against it. MS makes it's money on fat client computing. Cloud computing threatens that, and so they are looking to keep themselves relevant if the computing environment moves into this "cloud".
Also MS is often caught behind the trend, and it usually hurts them in the short term, like the Internet did in the early 90's, or smart phones. About time they smartened up and got into a market early.
That seems like a good idea, that's not people with heads in the clouds, that's people with shareholders, employees and a business to think about.
Head in the clouds? I doubt that.
Edited 2008-10-03 18:27 UTC
Member since:
2005-07-06
I don't see the point. A Hacker/Terrorist can bring down a single computer and not effect but a few things.
But give him a place where he/she can take down a whole country and it's all bad from there. I honestly think people in this world have all gone mad.
I sure hope alternative Operating Systems are available when this comes; I don't want any part of this madness.
Member since:2006-02-05
Member since:
2006-05-19
Let me get this straight. Microsoft is still trying to get critical mass with their latest and greatest OS, one that is absolutely huge and will not run properly on 98% of the hardware people already own and now they are starting to talk about using the "cloud"? Doesn't that say Vista was the wrong direction?
Member since:
2006-01-28
The guardian article entitled "Slavish reporters join Microsoft in cloud cuckoo land" does a wonderful job of unveiling the silliness, half-truths and outright lies that Microsoft spreads through what it calls marketing.
The article highlights how most journalists have
given up any form of critical thought when confronted with a company of the size of Microsoft.
Microsoft´s marketing budget is so large that many
large news organizations are afraid of asking questions for fear of upsetting their sugar-daddy.
Among other bs, Ballmer stated this past week that "Windows Vista had been 'the most popular operating system that Microsoft had ever introduced'.
Here is a list of Microsoft´s greatest hits:
"The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones reported Ballmer's metaphorical comparison of Microsoft (annual revenues, $60bn; 90,000 staff) as 'David' in comparison to Google's 'Goliath' (annual revenues $20bn; 19,000 staff)."
Yeah, ok. Next thing we know Google is the real convicted monopolist that has used closed protocols for years to force the hands of consumers and businesses.
The guardian article points out how Microsoft first laughed at "cloud computing" only to embrace it later in a series of missetps that suggest a clear lack
of direction and long-term strategy at the top of the company.
"But then it became clear that cloud computing was rather popular with punters, who liked the idea of being able to access their documents from anywhere.
So the Microsoft strategy changed. What was needed - its executives explained - was a blend of Microsoft software running on the user's PC, plus a cloudlike
service run by Microsoft. And so Windows Live was born. All of this was reported deadpan by reporters - apparently hypnotised by the belief that Microsoft is too big to make silly mistakes: the aphrodisiac effect again."
And finally, we get to this week´s announcements:
"'We need a new operating system designed for the cloud,' he said, 'and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we'll even have a name to give you by then. But let's just call it for the purposes of today "Windows Cloud". The last thing we want is for somebody else to obsolete us; if we're gonna get obsoleted, we better do it to ourselves.'
This is not a company that knows what it's doing. Ballmer and Gates were once masters of their universe. But nothing lasts forever. Ask Lehman Brothers."
Member since:
2005-08-18
Uh, I think you may want to look into what virtualization actually does and, while your at it, look at how computer actually work. Most have been able to run many applications on a single system for a long time...