Windows Live team confirms Win7 to replace applets with services
Summary: A Windows Live official has confirmed that Windows 7's mail, photo-management and movie-maker subsystems are all being replaced by optionally installable Windows Live equivalents
Back in March, I heard Microsoft was going to replace some of the applications it traditionally has bundled with Windows subsystems with Windows Live services in Windows 7.
No one on the Windows team would confirm my tip. But on September 22, the Windows Live team admitted -- not to me, but to News.com's Ina Fried -- that this is, indeed, the plan.
Windows 7's mail, photo-management and movie-maker subsystems applets are all being replaced by optionally installable Windows Live equivalents. This is good news for users, as services are easier to update more frequently than software. It's also good news for Microsoft, a company that has come under increasing attack by antitrust regulators for bundling more and more previously discrete features into its operating system.
Microsoft Windows chief Steven Sinofsky recently poured cold water (in a long and complex post to the "Engineering Windows 7" blog) on the idea that Microsoft was moving to decouple any of the bundled features/functionality from Windows 7. But Windows Live General Manager Brian Hall was more direct and forthcoming. From News.com's latest report:
"In a follow-up interview on Monday, Windows Vista general manager Brian Hall said Microsoft made the decision to remove the tools from Windows for several reasons, including a desire to issue new operating system releases more quickly than it has in the past. The move also removes the confusion of offering and supporting two different programs that perform essentially similar functions."
(Thanks to LiveSide for helping me connect the dots regarding the specifics as to Microsoft planned to do to more tightly integrate Windows 7 and Windows Live.)
Any other Windows features and/or bundled applications you think Microsoft should turn into optionally-installable services?
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Talkback
Details and all that
Does this mean that MAPI is history, for instance? Or that MAPI now only works through Microsoft's mail system and not others?
It's funny how functions that were until recently defended as being essential parts of the operating system are moving out again.
It just means there's no MAPI handler by default
Will there be a standards based service available?
As long as it works with Windows no one really cares.
I dare say that people care
What on gawds earth are
That's a scary thought
..doesn't mean it's any good.
Hopefully whatever core API/implementation they use will be robust.
RE: Windows Live team confirms Win7 to replace subsystems with services
based software. Windows Live Wave 3 is C++ client code. It
will be a way for OEMs to install the old software without the
restrictions of that the government currently places on them.
It is the same is if Apple replaces iLife on Macs with the
same exact software, but labeled MobileMe iLife. Same old
code, different brand. There is very little code difference
today between Windows Live Photo Gallery and the Photo
Gallery in Windows Vista. That is all they are doing.
Correct. Use of the words "subsystem" and "services" is misleading
subsystems
As far as further clarification of which bundled apps get replaced, so far I have none, as the Windows 7 team is not talking about the product -- at least not to me -- beyond what is being said in the "Engineering 7" blog. MJ
RE: Windows Live team confirms Win7 to replace subsystems with services
filed bug reports in windows mail 17 months before vista shipped and they're still not fixed. they exist in wlm, too, even in the latest beta. let's see, that equates to about 40+ months. then the bonehead changes they made in the storage and contacts makes vista mail and wlm totally unusable for me. all they did was cater to the novice user and they're still doing it.
none of the businesses i sell to want vista. i probably sold a hundred copies of xp, i have sold exactly zero copies of vista. they need to give partners something to sell instead of worrying about home users. every version of vista is "vista home edition".
Housewives and Students are major testers?
Re: their way or no way
What is it you dont like about this?
What could also become optional?
'ingrained' into the system that everything uses it,
sometimes even when I have specifically set it to NOT be
the default browser and something like RealArcade's My
Games shortcut automatically uses it.
I don't like the live suite/services.
For what stupid reason the Live suite installs a new service called Windows Live Installer and it doesn't use a normal Windows Installer already present in Windows? Why the Live suite install useless components such as Sign-In assistant and Toolbar? Sing-In assistant is useless because in Vista we already have the Cardspace component does the same thing!
Windows Live Suite is pure bloatware!
Microsoft should update the programs already present in Vista via Windows Update, without forcing the users to install other stupid live products. Has Microsoft improved the Windows Mail program? Then, push it to me via Windows Update.
Ok, you don't get it...
The only distinction is these application specifically work with ONLINE services in addition to local content. (Hence the online connection)
So being provided online makes more sense than them left static and only upgraded with OS upgrades/Service Packs, as new features and versions can be distributed in NON-OS upgrade/application cycles, moving them from the OS and the OS upgrade/release timeframes.
As for the Live applications being 'bloated', this is a little misleading, as the replacement applications are barely any bigger than the original OS versions.
Windows Live Messenger was already split from the OS with Vista, this is just the next step for these types of applications.
Your somewhat off as well
I just wished they would give you the option to uninstall the orginal versions.
Whose computer is this anyway?
The way I understand it.