Posts Tagged ‘Windows 8 Server’

With the latest news of estimated Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Office 2012 RTM dates, I was reminded of something I ran across a while back but never posted about. The Microsoft Windows 7 blog, Engineering 7, gained quite the following during its tenure. It was a way for Microsoft to be transparent about some of their thinking for Windows 7 and to gain valuable feedback from customers the world around. Well, thanks to an apparent placeholder page on MSDN, it appears Microsoft is going to do it again with Windows 8!

 

Engineering 8

 

Personally, I’m excited that Microsoft is choosing to go this route again with the development of Windows and for those of you who are also excited about it, be sure to add their blog feed so that if/when they start posting, you’ll be the first to know:

 

RSS 2.0: Click Here
Atom 1.0: Click Here

 

And I don’t know if the following form is connected to a live email address, but why not go ahead and show your interest for Windows 8 and the Engineering 8 blog by sending them a message? Who knows, maybe one of us will actually hear back from someone (doubtful, but you never know).

 

Engineering 8 Placeholder: TBD…

 

*It appears blog.prabir.me made this same observation back in October of 2009, so kudos to him for the initial find!

 

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

*Thanks to Charon, a friend of mine from the Ma-Config.com blog, for sending me a note of this interesting find of his.

 

Chris Green, a Microsoft employee who appears to use his MSDN blog here-and-there, posted a rather telling product support lifecycle update on December 2, 2009. In it, he details not only the public information found on Microsoft’s product support lifecycle site, but he boldly goes where no one has gone before by mentioning not only Windows 8, but Windows Server “2012″ (Windows 8 Server) and Office “2012″ (Office 15)… with dates. Now, before I post these dates, it’s important to note two caveats that this information comes with. First, from Chris’ blog, found in his sidebar:

 

The content of this site are my own personal opinions and are not intended to represent my employer’s view. These postings are provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confer no rights.

 

Likewise, at the bottom of every page of the PDF, it says the following:

 

This information is provided as a guide only and is likely to contain errors.

 

So, as is typically the case with information like this, treat with a grain of salt. With that said, here are the dates:

 

Windows 8:

 

RTM: Friday, July 1, 2011
Mainstream Support: Friday, July 1, 2011 – Thursday, July 1, 2016
Extended Support: Friday, July 1, 2016 – Thursday, July 1, 2021

 

Windows Server 2012 (Windows 8 Server):

 

RTM: Monday, July 2, 2012
Mainstream Support: Monday, July 2, 2012 – Friday, June 30, 2017
Extended Support: Monday, July 3, 2017 – Friday, July 1, 2022

 

Office 2012 (Office 15):

 

RTM: Monday, July 2, 2012
Mainstream Support: Monday, July 2, 2012 – Friday, June 30, 2017
Extended Support: Monday, July 3, 2017 – Tuesday, July 5, 2022

 

He also lists dates for some additional products, such as Exchange 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SQL Server 2011, and more.

 

Random Screen Shot of the PDF

One thing to note is that he doesn’t specifically note RTM dates for those above, just an “estimated” full product support lifecycle. That said, much of what is publicly contained on that list has a mainstream support date that coincides exactly with the RTM date. An assumption, yes, but rather interesting to see these dates, none-the-less.

 

Now, rather odd is how he has the Office 2012 and Windows Server 2012 dates corresponding almost exactly — both contain the same RTM/Mainstream Support beginning date — while Windows 8‘s dates are off by a full year. This observation lends to the notion that he didn’t simply jump ahead 2-3 years to the day of each current products’ RTM dates, i.e. Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 hit RTM status on the same date, yet Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 are out-of-sync by a year per Chris’ “estimates.”

 

Personally, I’m not going to invest too much into this but I will certainly keep my eyes opened to the possibility of these dates being a current goal internally. Realistically, I can see them hitting the Windows 8 RTM date (the earliest of the 3 I detailed above)… especially given the time frame of Windows 7′s development. Of course, the tell-all sign will be if the document and/or MSDN post are mysteriously removed or altered within the next few days or so. If that happens, there there may just be more to these dates than simply estimation after all!

 

Source: Ma-Config.com Blog
Chris Green’s MSDN Blog: Click Here
Product Support Lifecycle Document: Click Here
Microsoft’s Product Support Lifecycle Site: Click Here

 

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

It’s been a minute or two since any Windows 8 news hit the wire, but I just stumbled upon a rather old-yet-casual mention of a feature considered for Windows 8: System Restore. Now, before you say, “but System Restore has been around forever,” not a single Server version of Windows has come with System Restore implemented! XP’s System Restore could be ported to Windows Server 2003 (and presumably higher, perhaps), but aside from that, though it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Anyway, the mention comes from a TAP Summit event that took place back in May of 2009 (like I said, a rather old mention). It seems the mention slipped through the cracks of the news media, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

 

Customer: Thanks to Microsoft for driver isolation. System restore on a print server would have been great because print servers put drivers everywhere and there’s no uninstall.

 

Microsoft: System restore dates back to Windows ME but has never been in server. However, it’s under consideration for Windows 8.

 

We all know what “it’s under consideration” means, so don’t get your hopes up too high as of yet. Last I’ve heard, Windows 8 is still in its planning phase with no builds having been compiled yet, but that status may have changed. Thanks to Rafael’s crafty haxory, we now know Microsoft is about to go external with its Windows 7 SP1 testing, so things appear to be moving along rather smoothly.

 

To any of you system administrators who run Windows on your servers, would you find the inclusion of System Restore to be a much-needed addition or are you indifferent about it? Your opinions are the ones that really count where this is concerned, so I’d be interested in the feedback any of you would be willing to share.

 

Source: platformvision.com

 

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

NOTE: Although I’ve been putting this post together for the past couple of weeks, I noticed (today, via thevista.ru) that ArsTechnica posted a few of these already, so credit where credit’s due; I don’t want anyone to feel that I’ve ripped their content/idea.

 

True to form, I’ve been whittling my time away scanning through resumes and job listings to find any interesting bits of information I can on Windows 8. Interestingly enough, the Windows 8 jobs on Microsoft’s career site are fruitful! If you want to be a part of the next version of Windows, you may just want to have a look at some of these job listings to see if you qualify. But if you’re like me, all you’re really interested in is any and every little piece of information that can be extracted from things like this. I’ll just post the whole job description and you can then visit the links below them should you be interested in viewing the qualifications. A few of these aren’t listed on the Microsoft Careers site any longer, so I’ve linked to their Google cache pages. Let’s dig in!

 

Windows 8 Ecosystem Fundamentals

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Program Management
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 706807 9435
Product: Windows
Division: Windows Division

Are you ready to get closer to Microsoft’s best customers and biggest partners while staying in a highly technical role? The new Ecosystem Fundamentals team in Windows is hiring a Senior PM to work closely with OEMs driving continued increases in performance and reliability while providing tools, testing, training and telemetry. The successful candidate for this critical role will ride the Windows 7 wave of success to enabling continued improvements into the ecosystem. This work includes Windows 8 planning, OEM tool and kit ownership, performance testing and analysis focused on improving the hardware/software ecosystem while working closely with OEMs, ODMs, ISVs, and IHVs in order to strengthen Windows partnerships. Now is the time to move into a great role centered in the Windows group and focused on customer satisfaction improvements based on solid engineering.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Business Division

 

Job Category: Operations
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 707521 9522
Division: Microsoft Business Division
Job Title: Sr. Manager, Partner Skills Development – Launch Lead
Group: Worldwide Partner Group (WPG)
Division: Small Medium Solutions and Partners (SMS&P)
Location(s): Redmond, WA

Do you want to work in a group that you know is strategic to Microsoft’s growth plans? Do you want to have impact on a global scale? Come join the Worldwide Partner Group. Partners generate more than 90% of Microsoft’s $40 billion in annual revenue, and at more than 650,000 partners strong, Microsoft has the largest, and best, channel in the industry. Be a part of the team that is driving significant business impact by evolving the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) to maximize the leverage of this strategic asset.

Job Purpose/Overview: Do you want to help ready the entire partner ecosystem on all the new Microsoft products and solutions? The Partner Skills Development Team is looking for a senior thought leader and skilled project/product manager to ensure the health of the partner ecosystem through the strategic evolution skills development framework (and its execution) for upcoming Microsoft product launches. For example, in Fy10, the focus will be on Windows Server R2, SQL Server R2, and Wave 14 (Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, and Exchange 2010) and, as we head into Fy11, the focus will quickly switch to Windows 8. In this role you will lead the execution of partner skills development BOMs – by partner type for the entire partner ecosystem – on a WW basis. This role with interact with and influence individuals from across Microsoft, including individuals within the Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Learning, SMSGR, the product groups (BGs), Operations, and partner segment teams with SMSG.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 ReSP and DCM Teams

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 708266 9676
Product: Windows
Division: Windows Division

Do you want to be on the cutting edge of detecting the latest security threats in the wild? Are you passionate about improving customers’ perception of Windows reliability and performance? Do you want to help our ISVs better understand how they can make their software more secure and reliable? If so, the Detection, Control, and Measurement (DCM) team is for you! The DCM team is dedicated to improving the reliability, security, performance and privacy of Windows by helping to “Detect” inbox issues, “Control” failures, and “Measure” issues and relaying that information back to Microsoft so action can be taken. Some of the core technologies in this team include Windows Error Reporting clients (WER aka Watson/Kernel Crash), Reliability Analysis Component (RAC), Perftrack, and SQM.

The Windows Fundamentals Reliability, Security and Privacy (ReSP) team will improve the quality of Windows 8 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

The following job is no longer on the Microsoft Careers site as you will read it below, but then below it, I’ve linked to a revised version of the job where they removed the reference to Windows 8. What it has to offer via its description fits the bill for the other references I’ve noted regarding Windows 8 containing a new UI/UX framework. Check it out:

 

Windows 8 Server UX Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Development
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 705541 9266
Product: (Not Product Specific)
Division: Server & Tools Business

Windows Server is the top-selling server operating system and is growing share in a growing market. Central to the success of Windows Server is the experience of IT Professionals managing Windows Server. For our next release, we are taking that experience to the next level by helping to make IT Professionals more effective and more productive by shipping a product they will love to use.

We work closely with UX and a passionate PM & Test team to deliver world-beating user experiences for managing Windows Servers. For Windows 8 Server, we are planning, architecting and building a new UX framework around themes that are key to the success of the entire Server product line.

We are looking for a Software Development Engineer experienced in UI Design to help lead, architect, write code, and deliver the next generation of Server Management experiences. In this role, you will report directly to the Development Manager, oversee and help architect the new design, and work closely with many other teams delivering in Windows Server. You will take on the challenge of bridging the existing with the new and have an understanding and appreciation of both user interaction design and systems software. You will also have a record of technical leadership, good planning, and shipping world-class software.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Same job, revised description:

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Development
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 705541 9266
Product: (Not Product Specific)
Division: Server & Tools Business
Windows Server is the top-selling server operating system and is growing share in a growing market. Central to the success of Windows Server is the experience of IT Professionals managing Windows Server. For our next release, we are taking that experience to the next level by helping to make IT Professionals more effective and more productive by shipping a product they will love to use.

We work closely with UX and a passionate PM & Test team to deliver world-beating user experiences for managing Windows Servers. We are looking for a Software Development Engineer experienced in UI Design to help lead, architect, write code, and deliver the next generation of Windows Server Management experiences. In this role, you will oversee and help architect the design, and work closely with many other teams delivering in Windows Server. You will take on the challenge of bridging the existing with the new and have an understanding and appreciation of both user interaction design and systems software. You will also have a record of technical leadership, good planning, and shipping world-class software.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 AEBit Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 705576 8240
Product: Windows
Division: Windows Division

The Application Experience Bug Investigation Team, AEBit, is looking for passionate SDETs that want to make an impact on Windows 8. On the AEBit team you will get the unique opportunity to challenge and grow your debugging skills on issues that span the entire OS. You will have the opportunity to engage with software vendors, OEMs, as well as internal component teams. You will also be applying and enhancing your knowledge of system internals. As part of the AEBit team you will be responsible for driving and ensuring compatibility in Windows by engaging with component teams, root causing application bugs, and authoring mitigations. If you are a strong SDET looking for a challenge we would like to hear from you.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 IIS Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Program Management
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 704634 7887
Division: Server & Tools Business

The Internet Information Services (IIS) team is redefining how the web technology stack is delivered to the customers. We are simplifying how developers, IT pros, and hosters consume our technology by managing the end-to-end experience from development to deployment. We build both technologies and solutions – whatever it takes to do the right thing for customers and Win The Web. Customer empathy is a deep core value at IIS. We are also an extremely agile team that frequently ships projects out-of-band to adapt to ever changing Internet environment.

IIS team is looking for an experienced PM to join our core platform team. Your role will span across driving key features into Windows 8 as well as owning several out-of-band modules, including web analytics that will bring business intelligence for the customers that host applications and contents on IIS. Your work will help differentiate IIS and Smooth Streaming from Apache and Flash. You should also be ready to work in a fast-paced environment and have a strong desire for quality, security, and performance. Your feature will be used by millions of customers.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 Update Client Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Development
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 701629 7857
Division: Server & Tools Business

This is a great time to join us. Our team owns the Windows Update Client and our code delivers software and updates to over 600 million computers. We just finished up work on Windows 7, and are pushing forth on Windows 8 planning and preparation. There are opportunities to work on a number of hard problems, including third-party application updating, updating virtual machines while they’re turned off (turns out this is pretty hard!), and delivering full applications, among others. To help us charge full steam on these fronts, we are looking for skilled and passionate software engineers.

As part of this team, you will help shape Windows 8. Components of our code include a core agent that runs as an NT service, an API layer and a UI application. We talk to the update servers using web services and we have special protocols in place to deal with the massive scale of the system.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows Live Mail Team, Windows 8 Planning

 

Categoría de puesto: Ingeniería de software: Administración de programas
Ubicación: Estados Unidos, WA, Redmond
Identificador de puesto: 704658 7918
Producto: Windows Live
División: Windows Division

The Windows Live Mail team is looking for a seasoned Lead Program Manager to drive our next generation Mail client, and manage five stellar PMs. Our client has over 40M users world-wide, and serves as a key component of our Windows Live “light up Windows” strategy. Our current release is centered on hot new consumer features & better synergies with Hotmail & Windows 7, and our future releases will likely be tightly designed to work best with new Windows 8 platform technologies. We will also work closely with the Outlook team on ways to bring Windows Live to Outlook. Mail is part of the WL Desktop Communications team, which also includes Messenger. Our team values user-centered design, technical and engineering excellence, and attention to detail.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 International Test OOB Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 706152 8921
Division: Windows Division

The Windows International Test OOB (Out of Band) team is handling a variety of International test projects including Windows Small Business Server (SBS), Home Server, stand-alone out of band releases for Windows 7/Windows 8, and down-level support packages requested by different business divisions by utilizing a state-of-the art vendor outsourcing model.

As a team member in this position, you will write test plans for World-Readiness- (Globalization & Localizability) as well as Localization Testing, and develop and manage test tools and guidelines. You will also perform globalization code reviews as part of the OOB process using tools and globalization guidelines. In addition, you will have to engage with Program Managers, Developers, International Project Managers and partner SDETs to collaborate on specification reviews, scheduling as well as budgeting and planning.

Test execution will be done by vendor test resources in Beijing, China, so management of remote vendor resource will also be required.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 TAG Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 705477 8195
Division: Windows Division

The TAG team provides the foundation services and infrastructure to support a unified test and dev workflow. This team’s charter includes – developing and running a unified test submission and execution system for Windows 8, Automating Test pass scheduling & execution, results analysis & automated triage, Windows code coverage services, Developing and running the eBVT quality gate, supporting WinSE’s Windows 7 sustained engineering test needs.

This is an exciting time to join the Test Automation and Gates team and lead the next wave of foundation services and infrastructure to ensure delivery of a high quality product. With openings across the team, there’s sure to be the perfect opportunity suited to your specific passion and enthusiasm.

You’ll lead a team of highly talented SDETs and partner closely with members of both the development and program management teams to design and test new features, develop tools & automation, and enhance the overall test infrastructure. Your team will be responsible for writing test plans & test cases, performing ad hoc, manual, and automated testing, filing bug reports, and interacting with internal partners.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 Serviceability UX Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 706479 8820
Division: Windows Division

Have you seen just how many people wrote, talked, chatted, or blogged about the User Interface of Windows 7 when it was released? Did you realize how exciting this new UX was for millions of Microsoft’s customers? Did you notice that most articles about Windows 7 covered mainly the User Interface features and performance, because they provide tremendous value, and are right in front of your eyes as soon as you boot your machine the very first time? Do you have ideas how to make this experience even more powerful, slick and cool? Now this is your opportunity to be part of the action! Join the Windows Serviceability UX test team to ensure that the growing customer base of Windows 7 will enjoy the highest possible quality and performance for all the Shell features and continues to have a robust UX.

The WinSE UX test team needs an strong SDET to develop new test automation, write robust test plans, designing test cases, debug reported issues across Windows Shell and related UX, help establish sound test engineering processes, and influence and contribute to the serviceability of Windows 8. As an SDET on this team, you’ll design, implement, and execute various types of test automation, including functional, integration and release tests. You will also have several opportunities to write test tools, and work on security bugs, and will be interacting with PM and Dev counterparts in a dev/test/pm trio, and various partner teams. In this team, you will have an opportunity to ship important updates for Windows to solve critical reliability, performance and security issues via the Windows Update mechanism. This position requires strong communication and collaboration skills, and a drive for results. Overall, this position is best suited for a strong SDET looking for an opportunity to showcase your skills and innovate.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

Windows 8 Engineering System Test Execution Services (TEX) Team

 

Job Category: Software Engineering: Test
Location: United States, WA, Redmond
Job ID: 706151 8640
Division: Windows Division

The Windows Engineering System Test Execution Services (TEX) team is looking for a passionate Software Operations Engineer who will help drive our charter of providing test execution services to the Windows organization. Our team is currently organized in a tiered structure. We need a dedicated professional who will manage the tier 1 vendor pool consisting of about 12 vendors evenly split between Redmond and China. The challenges are big (drive test execution to ship Windows 8) and so are the responsibilities.

 

Source: Windows 8 Jobs on Microsoft Careers Site

 

As you can see, there is no shortage of jobs regarding Windows 8 planning. If the past, in conjunction with this new post, are of any indication, the job posts are only just beginning. From everything I’ve read thus far, it sounds like Windows 8 is going to be a fairly large undertaking. I’m excited by the thought of what they may produce in this next major revision of Windows! With that said, that pretty much does it for this post. I have much more to post in the near future, so stay tuned!

 

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Another day, ano……. oh, wait. I keep saying that every time I find one of these things. lol. Basically, I’ve run across YET ANOTHER road map (the second one in Korean) that further solidifies the ~2012 release of Windows 8 Server. Let me clarify, all of these road maps I’ve found – ALL of them – resided in Windows Server 2008 R2 slide decks. None of these are in relation to client, but since Microsoft has made the decision to align Server and Client release dates, it may be fairly safe to assume that these cadences apply to Windows 8 client as well. Either way, here’s the latest of the onslaught:

 

 

Since I’ve found so many of these things now, I’m going to go ahead and recap the others below. Click each of the following road maps to be taken to their respective posts, if you’re interested:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s it! Stay tuned for more road maps. Even though it’s pretty damn obvious that Microsoft is shooting for a 2012 release date, I’m going to post every single one of these I find. =)

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

This weekend was quite fruitful in my quest to find relevant Windows 8-related content! I’m soon going to have a Windows 8 section over in my sidebar to keep track of all the Windows 8 content I post. As I’ve stated previously, my aim is to remain on the bleeding edge of Windows 8 (and Office 15/2013) news, rumors, speculation et al. With that said, onward to the content!

 

Windows 8: Bear-Friendly

 

Are you a, “hibernate” kind of person? Maybe only in the winter (get it?), but if so, it appears that Windows 8 is going to contain a new Hibernate/Resume Integration API and a new TLZ file compression engine (I don’t think TLZ is an acronym for the name of the engine, but rather an acronym related to TLA, or, “Temporal Logic of Actions” which you can read about here) that will replace Windows Vistas Xpress compression engine. One would assume the benefits of such a change will spell better performance via quicker hibernate/resume times due to the improved compression engine and however the new Integration API interfaces with it.

More specifically, the former Microsoft SDE intern whose online resume I acquired this information from, says the following:

“Researched new algorithms and programming methods to build Hibernate/Resume Integration API that can integrate and utilize the new TLZ file compression engine for the Hibernate/Resume component of new Windows 8 Operating System.”

“Using C and C++ programming languages in SourceInsight, developed a 100% functional C wrapper for C++ functions and the Hibernate/Resume Integration API, which will be used in Windows 8 replacing Windows Vista’s Xpress compression engine.”

Personally, I always disable hibernation and I don’t think I’ve ever intentionally used it in all my years as a computer user. I’m not sure how large of a demographic I represent where that’s concerned, but I will be interested to see if anyone sings the praises of improved hibernation/resume if such an enhancement does indeed make its way into Windows 8.

 

Windows 8: Can’t Touch This

 

If you’re one of those hacker-types who enjoys making Windows’ innards your playground, then you’re probably familiar with PatchGuard (aka Kernel Patch Protection). If not, PatchGuard is a feature on x64 versions of Windows that prevents you from patching the kernel. Though not impenetrable, PatchGuard has enjoyed its fair share of scolding from anti-virus companies. They have had to rewrite their software for x64 so that it does not leverage the kernel patching techniques they typically used for 32-bit.

Well, guess what?

PatchGuard is apparently going to make life even a little more difficult for hackers (and anti-virus companies as well, perhaps). Contained in the resume of a Senior Program Manager of the Windows Hyper-V Service and Platform Management division is the following:

“Led working group to make a recommendation on a PatchGuard follow-on. Wrote a summary white paper and presented the results of the working group to the executive team. Recommendation of tabling the function until Windows 8 was accepted and it is now a Windows 8 feature candidate.”

So, whatever this PatchGuard follow-on is, it must be pretty awesome to have been tabled until Windows 8. And speaking of awesome, it looks like Windows 8 is shaping up to become quite the major release. Follow my nose!

 

Windows 8: Software Vendor Partners, Take a Ticket

 

Before I speculate, this one speaks for itself:

“Mapped 120 top software vendor partners into business taxonomy for Windows 8 planning. Developed and refined taxonomy guidelines through several iterative mappings.”

Perhaps that’s a typical number of software vendor partners Microsoft takes into consideration while planning for future revisions of Windows, but that seems like a rather high (but good) number to me. That said, there’s no telling when Microsoft plans to reach out to said partners, so that number stretched out over a period of time seems quite reasonable. I’m curious to see which partners made the top of the list and which are on the bottom, though. Regardless, it’s interesting to see a number put on the heads of the companies Microsoft plans on reaching out to for the planning stages of Windows 8.

 

Windows 8 Server: Making Datacenters feel as Safe as Hiding Under a Blanket

 

In his LinkedIn summary, former Senior SAN Engineer, Chris Lionetti, states the following:

“Hold multiple patents related to SAN infrastructure, hard drive technology, and security aspects within the datacenter space one which one of which is already generating royalties and another is slated for inclusion in Windows8. Integrate well into standards organizations such as the FCIA, T10, T10, SNIA, and T13.”

That’s not much to go off of, but seeing it as security is typically on the forefront of Microsoft’s focuses, it’s really no suprise to see this mention. The question is, of course, what this particular security feature – slated for inclusion in Windows 8 – will be.

 

Windows 8: DirectAccess (DA), Here to Stay

 

Or so it appears, as one might glean from the following experience of a particular Microsoft Software Test Engineer:

“Authored DA setup guide, a complete guide for setting up DA that was used by several customers and other teams internal to Microsoft for configuring their DA environments. This guide was also the foundation for the DA test automation that will be created for Windows 8, and provided the foundation for the publicly available DA setup guide.”

If you’re unfamiliar with exactly what DA is, as defined by Microsoft’s website, it, “[g]ive(s) mobile users seamless access to corporate networks without a need to VPN.”

 

Windows 8: UI, UC (User Interface, Under Construction)

 

In conjunction with my post exposing Windows 8 containing a new, “next-generation graphical user interface framework,” here is another employee working on the Windows 8 UI:

“Windows 7 Find and Organize, Windows 8 User Interface”

Naturally, UI development is equally as perpetual as the other key components of the OS, but seeing direct references to it by employees themselves always serves as a reminder and gets my noodle churning on wondering exactly what they could be cooking up.

 

Windows 8: Let’s Get Mental

 

Here is an interesting reference to Windows 8′s download experience research:

“Working Group – For Win 8 download experience, researched security user mental models to inform design.”

I’m not quite sure what that entails, exactly, but I thought it was worth throwing in as it sure does sound cool! =)

 

Windows 8 Server: “Dublin” is Comin’ for YOU

 

On this Microsoft employee’s LinkedIn profile, we see a short-but-sweet mention in his, “specialties” section:

“Win8 Server (Windows Application Server)”

If you’re interested, I’ll cut to the chase and just link you to a video that sums up Windows Application Server (code name, “Dublin”) quite well: Channel 9

 

Windows 8: RDP Moving Right Along

 

Windows 7 saw some great RDP enhancements – and if Windows 8 is going to be as big of a release as it appears it is going to be so far, one can’t help but wonder what Microsoft will try to do next. Here is the mention I found for it on an employee’s online resume:

“Dev. work for Win7 & Win8 as part of the RDP (Remote Desktop Client and Protocol) team in Terminal Services group.”

And a rewording on his resume found here:

“Working on feature development, enhancements and bug fixing activities for Win7 and Win8’s Remote Desktop client. Involved in bug fixes and improvements for Remote Application and Server Tools as well.”

 

Conclusion

 

Well, that about wraps it up for the latest Windows 8 excursion of mine! It looks like Windows 8 is shaping up to be a pretty ambitious release thus far. Hopefully, Windows 7 will be the standard for past indicators from here on out in regards to the development of Windows. I think Windows 7 is a very solid release and quite simply, Microsoft just got it done and out of the door, delay-free.

A bit of revelation and speculation all wrapped up in a neat ‘n tidy blog post. Thanks for reading!

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

Doing a bit of digging around today, there’s another job post residing on Microsoft’s career-oriented site regarding Windows 8. This one is advertised as having to do with data center automation solutions that customers can develop over the technologies that the Windows Management Core Platform is comprised of: PowerShell, WS-Man, WMI and BITS. Naturally, those technologies will be expanded upon – and perhaps new ones added to – in Windows 8. From the job posting:

For Windows 8, [the Windows Management Core Platform] team is chartered to build the data center automation platform that would enable internal/external partners to build their data center solutions on top of the platform. This is a position for a Software Design Engineer in the Core Platform team who would be primarily working on the data center automation platform features for Windows 8.

For those of you wondering why people like me even bother posting things like this, it’s due to the fact that we’re able to slowly-but-surely piece together just what Windows 8 is to going to be comprised of… or what Microsoft has in store for it for the time being, at least. Up to this point (including this very post), we know the following:

Windows 8 to Contain New Networking Features
Windows 8: Next-Generation GUI Confirmed
Windows 8 Server: Due ~2012 (More evidence here)

And to top it all off, Windows 8 development is going to be tracked via a completely new internal technology: Windows 8: Tracking Work Internally with WorkTrack

Anyway, you can count on more as I find it/get a hold of it! Personally, I’m the most excited by the fact that they’re developing a new GUI framework for Windows 8. Being a guy who is personally into the UX/UI aspect of things, I think there are some exciting days coming down the path for Windows, graphically-speaking.

Source: Microsoft Careers Website

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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To add to the Windows Server 2008 R2 roadmap I posted the other day which included Windows 8 on the time line, here’s essentially the exact same roadmap, only in an internal presentation from within the walls of Redmond (and in English instead of Italian). Now, with two different internal presentations in two different languages stating the same thing, I think it’s safe to say the ~2012 time frame for Windows 8 Server is a well-observed company-wide goal at this point:

Also of note for those of you who may not be aware, since Microsoft has finally aligned their client and server releases, this roadmap could very well stand to serve as the roadmap for the client end of things as well. Oh, and sorry for the ridiculous tagging in this screenshot. I’m not on a machine with my watermarking program, so I had to MS Paint it up. If you’re wondering why I even bothered watermarking it in the first place, read here.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

Yes, another roadmap for you. This one comes from a recent Italian Windows Server presentation. If nothing else, this just verifies the obvious: The codename for the next revision of Windows is indeed, “Windows 8,” and there’s a 3-year gap between the current server release (minor) and the upcoming server release (major). The kicker here, though, is the ever-so-slight, non-committal tilda you see before the 2012, thus leaving them breathing room to maybe spill into 2013 if necessary. That tilda keeps things nice ‘n loose for Microsoft’s public deadline, but if Windows 7′s development is exemplary of how future versions of Windows are to be developed, (2nd half of) 2012 could be considered a worst-case scenario for the delivery of Windows 8 Server.

Also, another observation I’ve made is a comparison with a Windows Server roadmap from November 2007 that I posted last year (5th image down). It shows, “Windows Server ’8′” with a release year of 2013. We’re all familiar with Microsoft extending deadlines, but with the timely delivery of Windows 7 and this latest roadmap implying a 2012 release, it looks like they may have very well learned from the Longhorn/Vista development SNAFU.

UPDATE: MJ Foley made a much more obvious observation regarding the older roadmap: “I read your map differently. I think it said 2013 originally cause they still were pretending WS2008R2 was 2010 a year ago…”

Touche, MJ… Touche.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Being a firm believer of following through and in an effort to once and for all clear the air with the whole “Windows 7 Server was always planned to be Windows Server 2008 R2,” I’ve decided to cook up a timeline of screenshots in chronological order from presentations found right on Microsoft’s servers. This basically shows the shift in timing where Windows 7 Server went from being planned as a major release to an update release (or R2, if you will). A few of these shots are new and a couple of them are already being used in a couple of previous Windows 7 Server posts of mine. If you’re a fairly new reader and haven’t seen those previous posts, then get up out of your chair, stand in it, and (very carefully) proceed to jump up ‘n down for joy while saying, “sinOFsky!” as if you’ve sneezed until someone says “gesundheit!” and asks you why you’re jumping up ‘n down. Show them my site and tell them to spread the word using the exact same method above. hehehe. Anyway, check it out:

What Was: Windows Server 2008 (Codename Longhorn Server) -> Windows Server 2008 R2 (Codename Longhorn Server R2) -> Codename Windows Blackcomb Server (Blackcomb became Vienna and Vienna became 7, so it was thought Windows 7 Server would indeed be what was to be Windows Blackcomb Server)

What Is: Windows Server 2008 (Codename Longhorn Server) -> Windows Server 2008 R2 (Codename: Windows 7 Server) -> Codename Windows 8 Server

2004 – 2005 (Windows Blackcomb Server): In presentations related to Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2, these roadmaps had Blackcomb Server coming after Longhorn R2. (Codename Longhorn Server became Windows Server 2008, so, Longhorn R2 would have been Windows Server 2008 R2 by these roadmaps).

2006 – Part of 2007 (Windows Vienna Server): In this release cycle/roadmap, Windows Server 2008 R2 is no longer defined as its codename (Longhorn Server) and is absolutely differentiated from Vienna Server (which was previously codenamed Blackcomb).

Part of 2007 – Present (Windows 8 Server): As we see here, the shift was made back in 2007 where the codename for Windows Server 2008 R2 becomes Windows Server 7 and officially breaks off from the traditional codename relationship between client and server and aligns both the major and minor server releases with the client release cycle.

If you think about it, this shift makes sense. With major client releases scheduled to happen alongside both major and minor server releases, the codenames for both server and client will constantly be one in the same. So, basically, instead of them working on Windows 7 Client and Windows Longhorn Server R2 (with the next server codename being Windows 7 Server), they’re now working on Windows 7 Client and Server. When they release both, if Sinofsky (aka Anti-Codename Guy) is still running the Windows show, then we’ll have Windows 8 Client and Server and so on and so forth.

While the stereotypical apologetic view of “well, things change internally” certainly applies, as was the case in my previous related posts, my main point is to show even furthermore why many people around the community were quite confused when it was announced that “Windows 7 Server” was in fact scheduled to be an updated server release as opposed to a major release (which, as you can see by the timeline above, we all weren’t crazy for thinking as such).

To all who cared, there ya go. To everyone who thinks this is pointless, I probably would, too, if I were you, so… lol. Until next time…

-Stephen