Microsoft Build Keynote: Windows 10, Microsoft Edge, Continuum, Hololens

[scolaner]

Today in San Francisco, Microsoft launched its Build 2015 dev conference with a lengthy keynote covering a variety of topics. We'll hit the high points here, but stay tuned for more in-depth coverage of these and other topics as the day (and week) progres

Microsoft Build Keynote: Windows 10, Microsoft Edge, Continuum, Hololens : Read more

 

[jimmysmitty]

I have to hand it to Microsoft and Satya. This is one of the best Microsoft Builds yet. Windows 10 is looking solid as is the Hololense.

I was talking with a 20 year IT vet who said that this is what Microsoft is trying to do. A universal platform across all their devices. The ability to easily port apps from Android and iOS to 10 is just the cherry on top of the cake. They are the first to do this as well. It will be fun to watch Android and iOS push to do the same.

It will be interesting to see in the near future how it goes. I am excited to get to play with Windows.

 

[face-plants]

Very interested to see how Apple and Google handle the plans to support iOS and APK apps in Windows 10. The fact it will be capable of running these mobile apps is great. How do they plan on getting these apps installed is another matter. Will they somehow interface with the Apple and Google Play stores? Will you be able to install apps you've already paid for or do they need to be purchased again? Will this also take place in a parallel universe where Apple (and maybe Google) doesn't do everything in it's power to block a Microsoft OS from accessing it's app store?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

This is actually very good stuff. Microsoft is finally getting smart in that they are finding easier ways for developers to actually spread their apps across platforms rather than recoding. Not sure exactly what Continuum will do but I'm hoping Microsoft is making an option for something like Nvidia surround built into Windows.

 

[alextheblue]

Very interested to see how Apple and Google handle the plans to support iOS and APK apps in Windows 10. The fact it will be capable of running these mobile apps is great. How do they plan on getting these apps installed is another matter. Will they somehow interface with the Apple and Google Play stores?

They're not talking about running non-native apps. Blackberry tried that and it was less than optimal. They're talking about making it super easy for devs to port existing code, by supporting it in the new version of Visual Studio. The devs would have to do relatively minimal work to get their iOS or Android code compiled and running on Win10 platforms (including Phone) since it would require few changes.

This is the ideal solution since it means the code is precompiled and it's basically a native app - though a straight port might not be fully optimized. Obviously anything relying on outside code (games using licensed engines) would require a port of that, or a replacement for it. But if there's demand that will happen too.

 

[rokit]

Continuum - looks like idea that Linux people were pushing for many years yet didn't have money/enough interest to pull this off. I guess everything will be changed soon.

 

[scolaner]

Very interested to see how Apple and Google handle the plans to support iOS and APK apps in Windows 10. The fact it will be capable of running these mobile apps is great. How do they plan on getting these apps installed is another matter. Will they somehow interface with the Apple and Google Play stores?

They're not talking about running non-native apps. Blackberry tried that and it was less than optimal. They're talking about making it super easy for devs to port existing code, by supporting it in the new version of Visual Studio. The devs would have to do relatively minimal work to get their iOS or Android code compiled and running on Win10 platforms (including Phone) since it would require few changes.

This is the ideal solution since it means the code is precompiled and it's basically a native app - though a straight port might not be fully optimized. Obviously anything relying on outside code (games using licensed engines) would require a port of that, or a replacement for it. But if there's demand that will happen too.

I'm told we'll get more in this during Day 2--stay tuned!

 

[agnickolov]

The bigger story for developers is that Visual Studio 2015 allows building using Clang and GCC using the actual Android NDK and iOS SDKs. It even supports Objective C now for iOS. There was a special session on that support in Visual C++ in the afternoon. And it's not just cross-compilation -- the complete IDE experience is there, including both IntelliSense and integrated debugging (using gdb and adb behind the scenes). That's a HUGE deal. Visual C++ even supports multi-platform builds from within the same project and highlights for you any non-portable code so you can fix it before it's even sent to the compiler. It needs more features before it can truly replace your Xcode (no OS X support - only iOS, no UI designers), but it's miles ahead of the Android NDK...

 

[red77star]

Windows 10 business model comes with assumptions and those assumptions are wrong. People are not going to drop iPhone or iPads in favor of Windows and people are not going to drop Android powered Phones in favor Windows. Having said that this is going to be the most boring release ever. Honestly, there is nothing here to benefit me as PC user and i really don't need phone UI on my desktop.

 

[game junky]

Running the tech preview hasn't been without it's quirks, but it's been a good experience and I will strongly consider doing a wide push to update at the office since it does a better job of allowing users to install apps without compromising the workstation. Will have to tinker with the finished copy of Edge to know if it will be good enough to keep people from downloading firefox and chrome on their workstations but so far so good - seems to render pretty quickly. It was also fun seeing the developer tools running with Azure - don't need the convenience enough to pull my hosted applications to the cloud but I understand why it's gaining momentum. Will have to try the release candidate once it's available

 

[jimmysmitty]

Windows 10 business model comes with assumptions and those assumptions are wrong. People are not going to drop iPhone or iPads in favor of Windows and people are not going to drop Android powered Phones in favor Windows. Having said that this is going to be the most boring release ever. Honestly, there is nothing here to benefit me as PC user and i really don't need phone UI on my desktop.

Wow I never have seen anyone tl;dr this much. The desktop wont have the phone UI. It will have a standard desktop design with a modernized start menu. The apps will run in windowed mode. Continuum will allow people to dock a phone to a monitor, hook up a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and use it like a normal desktop. Visual Studio 2015 will allow developers to easily port applications fro iOS and Android to Windows, not just the phone but also desktop as apps for Windows will run on either desktop or mobile without the need to port it again.

In essence, if you have a Windows phone and desktop you will get a seamless experience. Neither Apple nor Google have anything close to that yet. iOS is a basic OS, nothing close to OSX. Android is a watered down OS that is not nearly as powerful as OSX or Windows is.

With that information, the Windows 10 business model is spot on. Give people the same experience across all their devices and as well give those who are glued to their phone the ability to use it as a portable desktop.