Posts Tagged ‘Sapphire’

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Mary Jo Foley is really getting a great scoop from people within Microsoft who are slowly but surely letting the cat out of the bag in regards to their new experimental OS, “Midori”. In her latest write-up, she gives us a couple of new codenames regarding technology to ultimately be found within Midori:

RedHawk: The codename for new managed code work being done by the Developer division.

MinSafe: The codename for the complementary managed code initiative on the Windows division.

I could be completely wrong here but it sounds to me as though Microsoft is gearing up for a wave potentially as grand as the Longhorn wave was once planned to be. Not only are we talking about an experimental OS being created in managed code, but now we’re getting into elements of the .NET Framework in relation to developers in general. What does that imply? Hello, Visual Studio!

Is Microsoft looking to phase-in completely new elements piece by piece until the base of their future technologies eventually turns into one whole completely new can of worms? (i.e. A new kernel, completely new codebase for all OS/Development technology, etc.) At that, are we going to be able to set our sights on these efforts a little closer than initially perceived?

Getting back to her article, Mary Jo goes on to mention a good number of specifics which I recommend you check out (a link to the story is at the bottom of this post) but something I find particularly interesting is that she’s heard some of the eventualities of the RedHawk/MinSafe teams could be incorporated into Windows 8. Yes, Windows 8 – the same Windows 8 Microsoft has already started posting job links for on their site. Of course an OS is to come after Windows 7 (which will be Windows 8, as we now know) but Midori already feels to be building a huge realm of mysticism around it much like the once-fabled “Blackcomb” (now Windows 7) did back when Longhorn was first being developed.

And so the cycle goes on. What are your thoughts?

Reference: On the road to Midori: RedHawk, MinSafe and Sapphire

-Stephen