It seems that Microsoft may have unintentionally leaked certain details about its upcoming Windows 7 feature set in a privacy supplement that was posted on its homepage. Driver protection, dynamic update, Homegroup, People Near Me, and Trusted Platform Model are all features mentioned (and described) in this document that will be new to Windows 7 that hadn’t previously been publicized.
There are a ton of windows 7 sessions at the PDC this year (which is currently at day 2), and there is a rumor that they will be giving out a CTP (Community Technology Preview, MSSpeak for pre-beta) version of it to anyone who goes to the Sinofsky keynote. Expect to hear alot more about in in the following days
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/28/windows_seven_review/
Says it is even more polished then Vista.
Perhaps these were the rose tinted glasses that all Microsoft Afficianadoes are wearing these days.
I’m imagining this is Linux:
-GNOME gets API library for multitouch using MPX
-compiz adds API library so that apps could stuff custom images into the compositing engine (for customized window previews)
-PolicyKit gets option to allow certain predefined set of options to be tweaked without entering password
-gnome pop-up dialog for new devices looks up at internet database for vendor definitions and downloads predefined actions, offers to install vendor supplied packages.
-gimp gets new GUI (badly needed..)
-distros include gui to select third party packages for restricted codecs
-OSS OpenGL 3.0 driver gets shipped for i810, radeons and nouveau, possibly with extensions for DX 10.1 class features.
-ipsec properly configured to be used by samba and nfs
-shipped configuration tool to set up encrypted partitions on removable devices
Only first two, and OpenGL point seem as a decent work to do. Yes, MS is innovative, but somehow too rarely, (in 3-5 year periods). In the meantime Linux had a lot of time to catch up and they did.
I wonder if Trusted Platform Model has anything to do with their “Treacherous Computing” initiative “Paladium”. Big Brother in the making and as if Vista wasn’t enough reason to dump them, TC certainly is because they would have even MORE control. Very scary.
It has the potential to be scary, we are probably all right to be wary of it and Microsoft would love to take advantage of some of the things that it might offer, but I don’t believe it can possibly work.