What will Microsoft share about Windows futures in 2008?
Summary: Microsoft's 2008 conference dance card is starting to fill in. Here's a list of what's on my Microsoft-conference radar screen so far. My question, going into 2008, is how, when and if Microsoft will share more about its Windows futures plans with developers, partners and customers.
Microsoft's 2008 conference dance card is starting to fill in. It's looking like a very busy February and March for the conference-going set. And, as usual with Microsoft, mid-summer will be full of Microsoft industry and insider events.
The biggest questions going into 2008 is how, when and if Microsoft will share more about its Windows futures plans with developers, partners and customers.
Microsoft has postponed its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) to some time in the fall of 2008. Usually, WinHEC is a May event. And there's still no word on when and if the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) will take place in 2008. Microsoft "postponed" the PDC, which was slated for the fall of 2007, and so far has not rescheduled it.
WinHEC and PDC are Microsoft's biggest Windows-roadmap events of the year. But given that Microsoft will be in a ramp-up period in 2008 -- with no new Windows 7 or Windows Server 7 bits ready to share -- it's going to be tough to come up with show content that looks ahead instead of back. (TechEd conferences, which usually are more focused on shipping products, not futures, are the primary venues for that.)
Windows 7 isn't expected to ship until 2010. Windows Server 7, if Microsoft sticks to schedule, could hit around 2010, as well. Both products will be in the early milestone phase, at best, by next year. Given Microsoft's reticence to talk about unannounced Windows products, I'm wondering what the Softies will have to say at WinHEC 2008 and, if it happens, PDC 2008. Stay tuned....
Meanwhile, here is a list of Microsoft events for 2008 that is on my radar screen so far:
* Consumer Electronics Show 2008, January 7-10, Las Vegas (Bill Gates keynote January 6) * Office System Developers Conference, February 10-13, San Jose, Calif.
* Game Developers Conference, February 18-22, San Francisco
* Windows Server 2008/SQL Server 2008/Visual Studio 2008 launch, February 27, Los Angeles
* SharePoint Conference 2008, March 3-6, Seattle, Wash.
* Mix '08, March 5-7, Las Vegas * Convergence 2008, March 11-14, Orlando, Fla. (conference for Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM partners and users)
* MVP Global Summit, April 13-17, Seattle, Wash. (for Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals only)
* TechEd U.S. 2008 Developers - June 3-6, Orlando, Fla.
* TechEd U.S. 2008 IT Professionals - June 10-13, Orlando, Fla.
* Worldwide Partner Conference, July 7-10, Houston, Texas
* Microsoft Global Sales Meeting (MGX), mid-July, location TBD (For Microsoft employees, sales and partners only) * Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2008, Fall 2008, Los Angeles (my guess; local still TBD)
* Professional Developers Conference 2008 -- still no word if/when it is happening.
Any other Microsoft-related events that you're planning on attending in the new year?
(mothers' day calendars at the cdc. Image by Liz Henry. CC 2.0)
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
More Bloat, More Crap, Even More Hardware Requirements
Anything But Vista
RE: Anything But Vista
have been working on all along is nothing but a LINUX kernel . I know for a fact that
the men/women at FOSS will be looking into this minwin very closely to see if
Microsoft is still infringing on others intellectual property . And before any
zealot/shill/loser goes on and on about BS , MS was caught many times infringing on
others IP .
MS Lawyers
It should be an interesting fight, perhaps lawyers should don boxing gloves and "get-it-on."
Oh Wait! What's This???
http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2218/071115vistaskip/
OH NO!! This can't be true can it?!?
Of course Bitty will discount the story as it doesn't come from ZDNet.....
Eat crow bitty boy...people are waking up and learning what a bloated rushed piece of crap Vista is.
Oh wait!
You would think that an "itanalyst" would know that. Perhaps you haven't been around long enough to remember any of this?
Bzzt! Wrong!
Sorry, I guess you don' t go back that far!
If you were an early adopter of XP, then surely you remember the issues with drivers, software compatibility, new (and different) user interface, networking issues, etc. All of these also applied with 95 and 98 as well. If your experience only goes back a few years, then I suppose to you the "issues" with Vista are all new. To those of us who have been around for awhile, we've seen it many times before. While the press is crucifying the new OS (currently Vista and Leopard), those of us in the trenches are quietly solving the problems and helping our users make the transition. In other words, doing our jobs.
Software-licensing costs predicted to fall
won't topple the likes of IBM and Microsoft
Maybe not, but it will be the end
of "life as they know it".
The pressure is on. It's obvious the
frog is in the other pot, and users
are now doing to "the likes" what has
been done unto them, slowly turning
up the heat. Soon the frog will be
boiling again.
A joy to behold. Rejoice, dear
hearts!
Off topic, again!
I am on record, for those who actually have read my posts, as saying that software is way overpriced, considering the volume of sales today. If a program only sells a few thousand copies, then a higher price is justified, in some cases. For a program like Windows, or Office, that sells hundreds of millions of copies, then a high price doesn't make sense, and only encourages piracy. If Office sold for $50, there would be no reason to pirate it, and the increased volume would make up for the lower price. Didn't movies go through this transition in price, dropping from $90 a copy to $15? Don't they make more money selling movies for $15 than they ever did trying to sell them for $90? The same marketing concept would work for software.
By the way, the reverse can also be true. Would Linux be taken more seriously if it was sold for a resonable price, rather than given away? Wouldn't that also generate funds to use to improve the product? Oh, wait, I forgot. To you, profit is evil. Sorry to offend your sensabilities!
Falling into the cracks
there's no in between.
No matter where one goes, it's off topic.
In order to be "on topic", I will
say: "Microsoft is best..... they may not be
perfect, but they are best..... anyone else
is worse than Microsoft, because Microsoft
is best..... we should change everything to
suit Microsoft, because Microsoft is best...
no matter how bad they are, Microsoft is
best.... more suckers use Microsoft than
anything else, so Microsoft is best.....
praise Microsoft, glory to their name....
mmmmmmnnnnn..mmmmnnnnn Gates and Ballmer,
praise Microsoft...... heil hit..er..ahhhh
Microsoft...... (disclaimer): this is not a
quote from this post, so don't get your
drawers in a wad..... this is a summary of
your attitude from many, many of your
posts........
That better? There's your topic!
In 98 he was still in grade school.
Look, he's a cowardly little fellow working a dead end job for wages and needs something, (anything) to rant about. Pay him no attention and he will get bored and go back to hiding in his trunck.
That's All You Have Loser?
This from someone who is too chicken to show up, doesn't reveal what company he works for, has 100 different jobs, makes stupid predictions and is hated by everyone on this board.
Yep, if anyone's the coward, it's YOU.
I post a serious article and you can't even respond to it with a professional answer.
The mark of a fraud.
What, YOU??????
Serious articles don't use the words "crap" "bloatware" or any of your other epithets. Serious articles are appreciated by the reading public. You, sir or madam, have never written a single serious article on these Talkbacks. And I doubt that you ever will.
what do you call "bloatware" if you don't call it bloatware
I wouldn't think an article was not serious because it used this term. There are many pieces of software that in all due consideration, and putting it mildly, are in fact cr*p. And that is a technical term, universally understood in the industry.
(i.e. not worth the money).
OH Really? Then What Is This??
7 GIGABYTES?!?!? To load a service pack?
If that's not bloatware I don't know what is.
ROFLMAO
Please, we can see your envy and that you hate the fact you are a wage slave working in a cubicle somewhere. Don't blame others for your obvious limitations.
And no little one, owning your own plane is not all that hard, well, unless your a wage slave living from pay check to pay check.
Hey loser you were being called out the other day but you in the woodwork .
you made about the ZUNE surpassing the iPod in a year . Well it's been a year and the
ZUNE is still a failure . Pay up and shut up already .
He's A LOSER He Won't Ante Up
Slave Wage?
As a matter of fact, I telecommute, so unlike you, you suit wearing ass kissing loser, I don't drive to work, I surf to it.
Go hide in Missouri, or Misery, or whatever you call it.