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Building Windows 8

blogs.msdn.com

41–50 of 53 posts

Re: Building Windows 8

#41
post #20

This headline would have a different meaning if it was an open source project.

Yup, I honestly expected an article about the build environment and stuff like build times. Can you compile Windows from scratch on a regular development machine in a decent time frame? I guess it depends on whether you're thinking of the Windows kernel or Windows the desktop environment.

There was a blog post but its is gone. Here is one describing that blog post:

http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-employee-details-how-wind...

Re: Building Windows 8

#42
post #18

"Building the next release of Microsoft Windows is an industry-wide effort that Microsoft approaches with a strong sense of responsibility and humility" and "we learned some great lessons and renewed our sense of responsibility to the community" Given that this was full of stuff worded like this, I sort of doubt that. You feel like you're being snowed from the first sentence onwards. I realize this is somewhat orthog…

I think what he is referring to by "industry wide effort" is the fact that microsoft works with a lot of partners early through the milestone and incorporates a lot of feedback. That way a lot of partner companies other than Microsoft have a say in what goes in the next release.

Re: Building Windows 8

#43
post #27
post #18

"Building the next release of Microsoft Windows is an industry-wide effort that Microsoft approaches with a strong sense of responsibility and humility" and "we learned some great lessons and renewed our sense of responsibility to the community" Given that this was full of stuff worded like this, I sort of doubt that. You feel like you're being snowed from the first sentence onwards. I realize this is somewhat orthog…

He's not a PR guy. Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Sinofsky MSDN blogs are usually full of stuff MS engineers are doing. I think he is trying to write to a more broader audience than just developers (bloggers, social media people, etc.), hence the crafty wording.

I think he's a president at Microsoft. Nothing but great respect for this guy.

Re: Building Windows 8

#46
post #33
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly are they rethinking? To me it looks like a desperate attempt to catch up with the tablet trend without leaving their massive existing customer base out in the cold.

So what do you suggest they do? Stay with a stagnating UI that's not suitable for anything other than a desktop in fear of looking "desperate"? The UI they pulled off is far from desperate, in my personal opinion it beats everything available right now in the mobile world as far as usability and looks go. For example, I haven't seen any one call the new windows phone UI anything short of amazing and it's the same con…

I grudgingly have to agree with you here. Neither iOS nor Android really radically break from the UI conventions of the desktop. Microsoft's latest UIs are both bolder and more elegant. And with C# they have the best development stack by far of the three.

Re: Building Windows 8

#47
post #5

Although I am not a Windows developer, if I were, I would appreciate some more information as to what to expect when developing applications on W8. So far, I've only heard HTML+JS, which is great, but hopefully more information on developing for W8 will make its way soon.

My impression is that the HTML/JS stuff will mainly be used for "widgets" off the home screen. I guessing its more of an iteration the ActiveDesktop/Dashboard/Sidebar type thing rather than a mainstream approach to AppDev.

Oh, and Windows has allowed you to create "HTML Applications" since IE4 came out, so it's not exactly like a new feature.

Re: Building Windows 8

#48
post #10
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, really? Which parts, exactly? I'm genuinely curious, as someone who's been a Windows user for basically his entire computing life.

Well, as someone who only uses Windows when he has to, I'd say IE10 being the default browser is pretty exciting. Win7 ships with IE8 so people may or may not upgrade. With IE10, it's "HTML5" in full force. http://html5test.com/results.html

I fail to see your point. IE10 looks like a great improvement but only when compared to itself. Even current Tablet/Mobile browsers seem to have far greater support than what IE10 will give!

Google Chrome 14.0.797 Score:329

Google Chrome 13.0.782 Score:329

Firefox 6.0a2 Score:312

Apple Safari 5.1 Score:293

Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 PP 2 Score:231

Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 PP 1 Score:125

Re: Building Windows 8

#49
Oddly enough, Windows' best versions have been ones with simple numbers (3, 7) as opposed to verions with years (95, 98) or names/acronynms (ME/XP). Here's hoping 8 will continue that trend.

Re: Building Windows 8

#50

Why is a PR puff piece receiving so many votes?

(disclaimer: I worked on Win 7 and Win 8. Don't work at MS now.)

The Windows 7 engineering blog led by Sinofsky was really well received. I worked on a few posts and internally there was an extremely high bar for clarity, accuracy, and usefulness of the content. And there was serious attention paid to feedback.

This post doesn't really say anything other than that the engineering blogs are starting up again - that's what people seem to be excited for.

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