10 best new features of Windows Server 8

InfoWorld's Doug Dineley and Brian Chee round up the best new features of Windows Server 8. 'If you're a large shop struggling to manage hundreds of Windows servers, Windows Server 8 should ease the job. If you're a small shop trying to squeeze high-end capability from a low-end budget, Windows Server 8 has plenty for you, too. With Windows Server 8, everything from server deployment to high availability becomes smoother and more automated.' From multiserver management, to friction-free server deployment, to flexible live migration, 'whatever grudge you may hold against Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 8 will almost certainly make amends.'

Microsoft Unveils Windows Server 8

The client version of Windows isn't the only one getting overhauled. It's a little less sexy, but Windows Server 8 is every bit as different from its predecessors as the Windows 8 client. Server Core (Windows Server running without the graphical user interface) is the, uh, core now, and everything is done using PowerShell - either directly, or through the new Metro-style Server Manager which is a layer on top of PowerShell. The buzzword here is cloud - not the big one, but those smaller ones on intranets.

Microsoft Abandons Flash, Silverlight in Windows 8

Microsoft announced during the build conference, and Steve Sinofsky reiterated in a blog posting that: "For the web to move forward and for consumers to get the most out of touch-first browsing, the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free. The experience that plug-ins provide today is not a good match with Metro style browsing and the modern HTML5 web." Sinfosky goes on explain why Microsoft will not include Flash and why it's no longer needed. It's as close as we'll get to an obituary for Flash. Update from Thom: Added a note in the 'read more'!

The Theory: 8 Traits of Great Metro Style Apps

This is mandatory listening and watching material for understanding the design methodology and ideas behind the Metro interface in Windows 8 (and thus, Windows Phone 7). All this sounds great in theory, and Jensen Harris, one of the minds behind Metro, is clearly passionate about it - and I love people who are passionate about their work. It's just that to me, the Metro UI doesn't seem to work very well for actual work. I want window management! I'm taking all this into account for an article on Metro in the Developer Preview. Stay tuned.

OpenIndiana Build 151a Released

The OpenIndiana project is pleased to announce the next development release of the open source, enterprise operating system. OpenIndiana build 151a is now available for 32 and 64-bit x86 architecture systems. We hope you're as excited as we are for the first complete platform for servers and desktops that offers the full power of the virtualisation, observability, management, networking, and storage technologies from the illumos project. Please see the release notes for full details of what's new. This milestone also marks the one year anniversary of our first release. Look for our first stable release in the near future!

Crossing the Rubicon: Microsoft Lays Windows 8 Bare

Today, at Microsoft's BUILD conference in Anaheim, California, Microsoft unveiled the biggest overhaul of Windows since Windows 95. The venue was not coincidental; in the same city, in 1993, during the first Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft unveiled Windows 95 for the first time. Steven Sinofsky, supported by an army of Microsoft executives, demonstrated a whole boatload of things for Windows 8, and make no mistake, they had a lot to show. Two important notes: the Windows 8 Developer Preview will be free to download later today (no activation, will be updated regularly, and includes the new interface), and Win32 is the past.

Xbox Live Comes to Windows 8

"We are confirming that we will be bringing Xbox LIVE to the PC with Xbox LIVE on Windows. We are very excited about Xbox LIVE coming to Windows 8. Xbox LIVE brings your games, music, movies, and TV shows to your favorite Microsoft and Windows devices. Bringing Xbox LIVE to Windows 8 is part of our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy." Xbox Live on desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, and the Xbox. Pretty awesome.

Computers on TV and in Movies

I usually write about topics like operating systems and computer refurbishing. Today let's ditch that trivial stuff and tackle something really important like... How have computers and operating systems been portrayed on TV and in films? It's time we seek our inner geek. With this hearty sign of approval we're on our way...

Fusion Garage To Launch Grid10, Grid4, GridOS

Remember Fusion Garage, the company behind the JooJoo? That thing kind of went absolutely nowhere, but the company is back with another product - well, two products to be exact, or three if you want to get pedantic (and I'm nothing if not, you know, that). The Grid10 is a tablet, Grid4 a smartphone, and GridOS the operating system. It all looks pretty awesome, and is supposed to come out October 1. The Grid10 for a mere $299, and JooJoo owners will get one for free.

ReactOS Demonstrated to Russian President Medvedev

"During his visit to the school, President Medvedev spoke with the school's students, including Marat Karatov. Marat made a short presentation of the latest build of ReactOS, including system boot up and running a few Windows-compatible applications. During conversation with the president, Marat said that the OS was ready approximately for 80% of real world usage and that roughly one million euros would be needed to complete its development within a year. 'This is an interesting project indeed', was President Medvedev's response."

Contiki 2.5 Released

The Contiki operating system allows tiny wireless battery-operated devices to communicate using IPv6 - a concept known as the Internet of Things. The Contiki team has just released Contiki 2.5, which brings ContikiRPL, the new default low-power IPv6 routing protocol, and ContikiMAC, which allows nodes to keep their radios off more than 99% of the time yet communicate with each other using wireless multi-hop networking. The Contiki Wiki has more information on Contiki.

German Court Upholds Injunction Against Galaxy Tab 10.1

The German court in Duesseldorf has just ruled that the injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will remain in effect, hereby contradicting the Dutch courts which threw out all of Apple's claims. This limited injunction only covers Germany, and is based on a Community Design; the rest of Europe is not affected.Update IV: We finally have some more information from the courts, as well as a short response from Samsung. Big small reveal? The judge didn't handle the iPad at all - he only handled the community design. Read on for more. Also, older updates are in the 'read more' as well.

Raspberry Pi Playing 1080p Video

Remember the Raspberry Pi ARM board we talked about last week? Well, while running Quake III is all fine and dandy and illustrates the board is capable of something, it didn't really tell me anything since I'd guess few people are going to use such a board for gaming. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Raspberry Pi team posted another demo today - running 1080p video for eight hours straight. The chip was still cool to the touch. And just to reiterate: $25.

SF Police Launch Probe into iPhone Search

A new chapter in the lost iPhone 5 prototype saga. Sergio Calderon, the man who claimed he was intimidated into allowing police officers to search his house (and, as it turns out, these people were Apple employees who didn't identify themselves as such), is talking to an attorney about this case. In addition, the SFPD has launched an investigation into the case to find out if somebody crossed any legal bounds. Update: More details here.