Microsoft May be Working On New Non-Windows OS

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jadeite

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Typical NIH (not invented here) syndrome at Microsoft. It would have been so much cleaner and better if they used C++0x then and upgrade to C++11 by now. Today's C++ is a very good and capable language for systems level programming that is understood by an enormous amount of software engineers.
 

pbug56

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It's too bad that Microsloth doesn't put the effort into cleaning up the mess known as Windoze, and in particular, fixing the GUI in Windoze Ape (8.x) to offer real computer users a GUI that is actually usable.
 

jimmike

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Great!
A company which can't create an operating system is creating a NEW language.
Just what the world needs, and from Microsoft, no less.
The only conceivable more-laughable scenario is to discover that Mark Shuttleworth, for his next new attention-grabber, is having his ubuntu 'developers' write a new programming language (his brain-worm of "beating" Microsoft is legend).
Perhaps we shouldn't laugh. After all, how many hare-brained schemes can he come up with?
 

Ctobob

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I would love someone from this forum to appear on my podcast to talk about the wonderful windows BOB and how it's still alive internally (or so I hear). Maybe this "new OS" is just Bob coming out if retirement. Lol. ctobob dot com.
 

redeemed

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Nice to see Microsoft finally doing some real innovation (or at least trying) instead of just copying others and hoping their monopoly will keep surviving.
 

vpoko

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Microsoft has developed a few programming languages, and one of them, C#, has become one of the best languages ever created for application-level programming, IMO. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft these days, except when it comes to their development platform (.NET Framework, Visual Studio, and C#), which is second to none.
 

antilycus

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python will get get just as much of the same end result as C++, C# or F# ( whatever the eff that actually is). The compiler will eventually turn your program (written in whatever language) to ASM and everyone will be happy. The problem that MS is running into is their .net developed apps are only good on Windows whereas a Java app or Python app can run on Linux, Unix, Windows, As/400, BeOS or whatever else you can magically find. .NET started as an IDE and morphed into the crapastic clusterbomb just as screwed up as any windows registry. MS's current o/s requirements are a joke and their memeory management is HORRIBLE at BEST. MAC OS X isn't much better either as they skip DMA all together and let ONLY page files do it. Regardless if you like it or hate it Linux has the right idea. Stop pampering programmers w/ easy access to OS requirements and let the programmer develop their system You write something for linux, it most likely works across all 300000000 linux distirbutions, pending you get the right system dirs in order.
 

rwinches

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Win 8 is a windowless OS.
Win 8 and all it's supporters SUX.

UNIX in all of it's forms is dated and needs to be retired.

The hardware is there the OS is not, it's time for the current class of engineers to step up and develop the true next gen OS.

Today's C# programmers remind me of the COBOL programmers of the past still clinging on by a thread.

While I agree that Open is the way to go Linux is not it.

The modern OS will run on an extensible platform that it can configure to fit the program requirements that are currently running. Starting with a starting set of microcode it we create it's own optimised code to maximise the resources on hand and request needed upgrades.

 

davegrave

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After reading the articles headline "...New Non-Windows OS" I imagined how awesome a new OS without startmenu and windows would look like. Oh wait we had this long time ago it was called DOS.
 

martel80

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No programming language is going to be 100% proof against idiot coders. :)

The more a language does for a developer, the less is a developer motivated to learn and know what they're actually doing.

A C++ developer can naturally code in C# or Java. But don't try the reverse...
 

vpoko

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Wow, way to go on a rant against everything with no supporting evidence. Newsflash: Windows 8, Linux, and C# all work very well for lots of people (while all being imperfect in their own ways). It might just be *extensive* user error in your case.
 

mynith

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Yet another programming language... If anything, it'll be the compiler that'll make it interesting. Not so much the language itself.
 

castl3bravo

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Meh...I might be troubled to play with it if I can run it on my Android phone :)
Otherwise it's big fat PASS...

Oh and please don't get delusional about Micorosft and FPGAs. You don't want Microsoft anywhere near that. Microsoft would immediately being "defining" what an acceptable SOC/FPGA platform is. Once you start drinking Microsoft's kool-aid when do you stop? There is a reason Linux works so well in the FPGA market, it's "OPEN".
 

ttocsmij

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Perhaps this is their future web-based computing product. It's just a matter of time before they transition the whole thing over to a web-based solution. They're already renting Office by the month (Office 365) and getting the Millenials used to renting everything else (phones, cars, homes, etc.). Once the hardware interfaces are standardized and content-controlled (ala, HDMI), external devices can be handled via firmware. Hard drives can be done away with to be replaced with cloud storage and a boot-to-web BIOS. That would accomplish long battery life times to boot. Of course, that means "they" would have complete control and access to all your content but that doesn't seem to bother users like it used to. Sigh.
 

ttocsmij

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I don't know ... is vapidware the same as webware? LoL

Someone also mentioned Windows BOB. Another great non-windows OS that would have been great for a cellphone UI. It was mostly pretty [useless] pictures ... but came out long before the Millennials were ready. LoL
 

bassbeast

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NT was phased out? My copy of Windows 7 reports it is NT Version 6.1 :)
He was talking about how DOS based versions of Windows were phased on for NT based XP, although many of us that got burnt with WinME had already switched to NT based Win2K.I don't think it will work for one simple reason...nobody cares about the OS anymore, they care about their applications. The only reason why Windows sells what it does when you can buy an ARM desktop running android for $50? Windows applications. The ONLY way would be if they came up with some VM subsystem that would allow users to run their win32 apps at close to native speed, otherwise like WinRT folks will try to run their Windows programs and when it doesn't? They'll take it back.
 
"NT" in Microsoft jargon formally represented "New Technology" and its use is over 20 years old. Win-NT was a stripped-down 'professional' version of the original Windows that had multiprocessor support. The use of the notation NT essentially has no meaning these days.

The joke in the old days was NT stood for 'Nice Try' :)

 

ttocsmij

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Actually Windows NT was the first true 32-bit Windoze. Prior to that Windoze was a 16-bit/32-bit hybrid. The NT core, with updates and improvements of course, is used in Windows NT, 2000,
XP, 2003, Vista, and 7.

Windows 8 is also listed as being in the NT family but there are major changes; all designed to tie the user to Microsoft's apron strings. Limitations in programming and some interesting hardware caveats promise to make any use of Windows 8 beyond casual Internet surfing and email checking a tedious if not painful process. The user interface is the first obstruction to anyone using a keyboard and mouse. New programs (or apps as Microsoft wants us to call them now) have to be written / compiled on specific platforms and then will be made available only from the Windows Store (ala, iTunes - who says Microsoft marketing wasn't paying attention to this billion dollar market?!). The BIOS has been replaced with a hybrid software/firmware device that can be accessed remotely without your knowledge or consent (which mirrors a similar addition in Intel CPU hardware BTW). The "essentially" default storage is Microsoft's cloud computer. I say essentially because most new users won't have a clue as to how to do anything different. All new Microsoft-branded software is on the rent-forever track (ala, Office 365) which has always been the case for corporate users. A marketing coup which has not gone unnoticed elsewhere. Adobe is hard at work getting their users to rent rather than own ... and it ain't cheap, my friend! Arguably they have bought / innovated their way to the top of the heap in some software areas and they are planning to milk this for all its worth. A friend argued that this was better ... I'm waiting to see if he still likes this arrangement after ten years of paying monthly fees to use Photoshop and Office (I bought Office 2000 and it still works great ... I haven't laid out a nickel since that original $250). He argued about getting all the new features. I laughed. That ribbon interface -- now spreading through parts of the Microsoft OS itself BTW -- has to be the greatest impediment to speed / creativity I've ever seen. Some features I commonly pull off a menu in seconds aren't even accessible from the "ribbon". My son finally determined that some can still be accessed if one uses secret / unpublished / undocumented keystroke combinations. He's a genius that one. Another generation and the poor Millennials won't even know a feature is missing; they've never had access to it and won't even know it existed. It's all part of the plan to simplify the user which will make support that much easier and lower costs overall. Only us old timers will remember when one could do really fun stuff on a computer ... but I digress.
 
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