It’s been well over a year since Microsoft unveiled it was working on bringing MIDI 2.0 to Windows, and now it’s actually here available for everyone.
We’ve been working on MIDI over the past several years, completely rewriting decades of MIDI 1.0 code on Windows to both support MIDI 2.0 and make MIDI 1.0 amazing. This new combined stack is called “Windows MIDI Services.”
The Windows MIDI Services core components are built into Windows 11, rolling out through a phased enablement process now to in-support retail releases of Windows 11. This includes all the infrastructure needed to bring more features to existing MIDI 1.0 apps, and also support apps using MIDI 2.0 through our new Windows MIDI Services App SDK.
↫ Pete Brown and Gary Daniels at the Windows Blogs
This is the kind of work users of an operating system want to see. Improvements and new features like these actually have a meaningful, positive impact for people using MIDI, and will genuinely give them them benefits they otherwise wouldn’t get. I won’t pretend to know much about the detailed features and improvements listed in Microsoft’s blog post, but I’m sure the musicians in the audience will be quite pleased.
Whomever at Microsoft was responsible for pushing this through, managing this team, and of course the team members themselves should probably be overseeing more than just this. Less “AI” bullshit, more of this.
I think this is one example showing Microsoft is indeed still quite invested in Windows, despite what Thom always claims. Why? Simple, and it’s the same as it always has been: they make money off of every license for every new Windows computer sold, which at the end of the day still makes up the vast majority of the laptop/desktop market. That’s also why they weren’t interested in making Windows 11 run on old devices – there’s no profit in that.
With a bit of course correction, Windows 11 can be great. I’ve been using it for something like 5 years now, and at least for me (admittedly a tinkerer who makes sure to disable as much nonsense as possible) it works. Battery drain while sleeping is still an issue that only seems to be implemented right on Microsoft’s own devices, there are workarounds if you’re willing to sacrifice Secure Boot, but really this should be one of the highest priorities for MS to fix in cooperation with OEMs, since it seriously affects user experience on laptops. On the other hand, I wouldn’t say that I personally needed to tinker more with Windows than I used to with macOS – I tended to install a *lot* of utilities to give me things like good German input on a US keyboard layout, window snapping, and automatic software updating mechanisms. I guess non-technical users still get a slightly less annoying default setup on Mac than on Windows, though the gap seems to be narrowing thanks to Apple’s recent spate of incompetence.
And yes. Linux (Fedora KDE. like Thom) is still what I use when I’m doing basic productivity and I want something lightweight that will prolong my battery life, and it’s what I recommend/ help install for all my friends with old computers for which Windows is unsupported / unperformant. I still get slightly more random glitches and time wasters on Linux than Windows, but they’re mostly minor..
However, Linux lacks support for most DAWs and other commercial music software, and the few companies that attempt to support it (e.g. Presonus) are still doing a half-ass job, with extremely buggy Linux support, officially only for Ubuntu, despite the recent offering of a Flatpak install that should theoretically work everywhere. For most serious musicians, artists and video editors, Linux still doesn’t really have what it takes to even come into consideration.
You seem to be unaware on what has been going on with Windows. Here’s a recap:
Source 1
Source 2
MS even reduced their Windows engineering down to maintenance mode, reallocating their engineering talent to Azure. MS is not invested in what users want. It is invested in maintaining it’s monopoly on OS platforms. If it weren’t for the user backlash and even users migrating to alternatives (Linux, macOS), they’d be still trying to shove AI trash down our throats.
MS typically does not give a crap, unless it affects their monopoly position. The upcoming ‘special’ Windows 11 26h1 release is a case in point:
Source 3
Nothing says like caring about your users that you have abandoned on older ARM hardware by only addressing newer ARM hardware. Is it any surprise that there are yet to be new SD X2 hardware from OEMs for purchase? SD X2 has been announced for how many months now?
Windows is unusable for me, until i have ‘butchered’ it using winutil. Why is this even necessary? You claim Windows can be ‘great’, but it first requires effort on your part to remove cruft shoved down your throat by MS. Unfortunately, there aren’t alternative Windows vendors that you can choose from, so it is back to using the only available option and continue to play cat and mouse with MS. Users need to push back on crap by MS, not tolerate it. The CopePilot (sic) backlash is a good example of what needs to happen with a desktop monopoly like MS. I hope to see more of this in future. Linux may not fit like a glove for every use case and hardware, but it does not try force anything you dislike.
But they will restore vertical taskbar *soon* , yay! And it took only 5 years! /s ( of course I’ll believe it when I see it … )
Cynical me says Microsoft only does something if they can see a “return on investment”.
Microsoft must have decided the benefits of upgrading MIDI support outweigh the costs.
What’s in it for Microsoft?
I guess it makes WindowsPC better than Apple Mac for people making music, so they get more Windows licenses from that market segment.
I am also cynical , will they tie it to M365 subscription ? Wait, they can tie it to Copilot subscription!
I mean, Microsoft is not a charity. They are a for profict company, so they are most definitively driven by ROI.
Why is it an issue?
The way I make sense of this is that MS is making another play for the creative space — or at least trying not to lose the gains they’ve made there. They do this every once in a while with products like the Surface Studio. Just by anecdote, it seems like audio/music production is the space where they’ve made the largest gains.
Without MIDI 2.0 support they risk giving those gains back (if they haven’t started giving them back already). MacOS has had _complete_ MIDI 2.0 support since Ventura. At the kernel level, Linux has had it since 6.5 (or for 2 1/2 years). Microsoft has just announced that they’re going to start to roll MIDI 2.0, which will likely make complete MIDI 2.0 support for Windows about five years late to the party.
I don’t know how long MS would need to wait on MIDI 2 in order to give that entire market back to Apple, but five years seems close to it. We’re not just talking about e.g. computer upgrade and replacement cycles, but all kinds of other equipment besides.