Posts Tagged ‘Windows 8’

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

Some of you may recall the leaking of several Windows 7 SP1 (Service Pack 1) builds prior to the final release of Windows 7. Naturally, those leaks — some as far back as June 2009 — sparked a lot of speculation as to the quality bar Windows 7 would RTM at. I mean, just prior to Windows 7′s final build, you start seeing SP1 builds and you can’t help but wonder if they’re in preparation to fix things they knew would be off-center in the final build, right? Well, sort of.

In light of an entry I recently stumbled upon on LinkedIn, I believe I’ve found the missing link which makes sense of the whole thing. And now that I’ve seen it, I can’t help but think to myself, “duh!” Okay, for starters, look at the build string in the following image:

Long story short, there were no crazy bug fixes starting to happen that Windows 7 RTM wouldn’t see. Those SP1 builds were compiled simply to test Windows 7′s service pack technologies and experience! I and so many others like me really looked waaaay too far ahead into what those builds could have possibly meant — only to miss the simplest (and most likely, I might add) of possibilities: Microsoft preparing and testing service pack technologies and processes.

In addition to the revelation above, there are farther-reaching implications this person on LinkedIn has made us privy to. To quote:

Efforts lead to an unprecedented state of servicing readiness for Windows. Windows 7 Service Pack technologies, processes & builds were ready over a year before release compared to Vista and previous OSes which did not reach that state of servicing readiness and quality for months after release.

Aside from stating the obvious, with the time it took to complete Windows 7, I suppose Windows 7 SP1 will also exceed expectations. And that’s a good thing.

Finally, there is also mention of Windows 8 planning:

Planning servicing quality goals, metrics, processes, and tools & technologies for Windows 8.

Good comedy would be to see a Windows 8 SP1 build leak prior to even a Windows 8 Milestone 1 build! At that point, I would have to say they were getting a bit *too* far ahead of the game, wouldn’t you? Anyway, I just thought I would share my findings and attempt to explain away some of the confusion created by those SP1 builds previously.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Alright, it’s time for another trip down LinkedIn! This time, we’re heading back to the land of Windows 8 to see if there is anything new for us to dig up. Luckily, there appears to be plenty. Now, before I go into all of this, I’d like to remind all of you of the caveat that goes along with these LinkedIn posts: It’s very easy to create a fake LinkedIn profile and make it look genuine, so while most of what’s to follow is probably genuine, the potential is there for all of it to be fabricated. With that said, below are quoted passages from people’s profiles where Windows 8 is a point of mention. Below the quoted passages are links to the source profiles they’re derivative of.

Though some of the mentions below are ridiculously generic (I included them simply for the sake of including them), there are a couple of interesting mentions, such as the Windows 8 Runtime Experience Team and the Windows Desktop Graphics Team. Check ‘em out:

Worked as a Program Manager on the Desktop Graphics Team in the Windows Group. Responsible for documenting and analyzing a vast set of products and their interactions with each other. Also, analyzed these connections and how the products worked in order to determine problem areas and investigated how to correct these problems over a Windows 8 timeframe.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Working in Windows Core Operating System Division. Design, develop and maintain automation for Windows Resource Monitor, Task Manager, System Monitor, MSConfig in Windows 7 and Windows 8 to ensure shipping product with high quality.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Design and develop of several Windows 7 core libraries for the Font Managment System (C++ and C#). Currently participating on the Windows 8 planning process. Investigating, evaluating and proposing new features and prototypes.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Windows 8 Test Sign-off Project Manager

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Windows 8 Planning.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Working in the Deployment group of the Windows Core Operating Systems Division, I lead a team of SDETs working on a key technology used by a number of the deployment platforms (Setup, Windows Update, etc.). I manage the day-to-day assignments, strategic direction, and career development of the individuals on my team. I have 4 developers working here in Redmond and 2 additional at the Microsoft Canada Development Center in Richmond, British Columbia.

I am presently working on the Windows 7 release and expect to be working on Windows 8 as soon as this release is complete.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

I have joined the Windows 8 Runtime Experience team.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Windows 8, Windows User Experience — Live Social and Media Experience

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Sept 2009 – Now: Windows 8 security
Oct 2007-Aug 2009: Driving and conducting Windows 7 Security Pentest for SDL Compliance

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Working with the Managed Services Development (MSD) team in support of the Microsoft Update (MU), Windows Update (WU) and Windows 8.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Product Management and Marketing duties for Windows 7 and Windows Genuine brand. Product planning and market research Windows 8. Also helped launch Microsoft incubation product – SLPS (Software Licensing and Protection Services).

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Worked on possible Windows 8 features.

Source: Windows 8 on LinkedIn

Overall, nothing too terribly exciting, but it’s more than nothing, I suppose…

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Update: Thanks to Arnav for letting us know that the text has been removed from the article on Microsoft China’s website!

First and foremost, this post isn’t what I would call “news-worthy,” but it serves its purpose in my quest to gather every little tidbit of information that I can regarding Windows 8. I want to know what they’re going to focus on, what their overall goals are, how they’re going to meet those goals, and just what their plans are in general. With Microsoft still in the Windows 8 planning phase, all of these little references and casual mentions are like gold to me.

I recently stumbled upon a news entry regarding Windows 8 on Microsoft China’s website. The thing about it is that I have no idea what it’s getting at. I mean, I’ve done the whole Microsoft Translator and Google Translate, but even with comparing the differences, I can’t quite figure out what their 3,000 figure represents. Does it represent 3,000 peripherals that are being focused on? Does it represent 3,000 people who – in the end – provided some type of statistical/marketing data for the Windows team? Their reason for collecting the data for Windows 8 planning that they’ve mentioned is self-evident, but it’s that 3,000 figure that I just can’t quite put my finger on.

If any of you out there happen to speak Chinese fluently, I would love your input on exactly what this is all in reference to. Otherwise, what I’ve done here is provide screen shots of the original article, Microsoft’s translation, and Google’s translation. Discuss amongst yourselves!

Original Windows 8 Mention on Microsoft China

 

Microsoft’s Translation of Windows 8 Mention on Microsoft China

 

Google’s Translation of Windows 8 Mention on Microsoft China

 

Source: Microsoft China

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

PS – Thanks to Long Zheng for initially taking a stab at the original article.

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!

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

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Caveat: I’ve been sitting on the information contained in this post for quite a while now, but it has finally perturbed me enough to put it out there for all of you (and myself, for that matter). If you would be so kind as to help spread the word, that would be great as the lie has spread like wildfire and taken on various forms, such as sites now reporting that Windows 8 will be 128-bit (ridiculous). Not only that, but the perpetrator that started this mess needs to be called out with fair warning given to all. What you choose to believe by the end of this post will be up to you, but my intentions here are to help sift out the garbage in a community full of journalists who – like me – truly bust their butts to bring you solid, unique, and honest content.

Most of you may recall the “exclusive” I posted on this almost 2 months ago now. As most of you may also recall, I’m no stranger to the LinkedIn profile browsing. Well, when I found Mr. Robert Morgan’s profile, I got WAY too excited for my own good. I whipped up that post as soon as I could, then took a step back to see if anyone else had found it. Well, as it had turned out, sometime like a week earlier, it had been, “found” by eightforums (I’ve linked the Google cached page for that link just in case they try to delete it and play none-the-wiser, as you can already compare it to the post on their page today to see that they deleted my comments calling them out on the issue). I say “found” because – as it turns out – it wasn’t really found at all. It was fabricated. Everything on that profile was garbage, and when you read back at what his job description said, it does indeed look like something a “journalist” would write so as to create one hell of a scoop. Check it out again:

Experience
Senior Research & Development Microsoft
Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry

 

January 2002 – Present (7 years 10 months)

 

Working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects. Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM.

Let’s critique this, shall we? First off, “working in a high-security department for research and development” is something that no employee working in those conditions would -in their right mind – write in their profile. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things pop up in people’s job profiles, but nothing so blatant. Second, Research and Development isn’t the Windows team. Each is its own department with its own funding and its own projects. At BEST, Windows 9 MIGHT be accurate here (as in, Research and Development is working on technologies that may make it into Windows much later), but it’s not. If anyone is going to be working on a 128-bit kernel for Windows, it’s going to be the architecture side of the Windows core team (David Cutler’s crew, etc.); not MSR.

I don’t think 128-bit is in the scope of anyone for the next 7-10 years. After all, 64-bit is rarely properly utilized these days – nevermind dropping 128-bit into the laps of devs and consumers! And that brings up another point… at best, 128-bit would exist only for very select industries that could truly use it right now. AMD’s Bulldozer project is real, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 8 or, I would imagine, Windows 9, either.

Alright, so… let’s assume that profile was indeed real. eightforums was certainly enjoying the traffic off of their initial “find.” As a matter of fact, they somehow managed to land an exclusive interview with the guy afterwards! Once again, I’ve linked to the Google cached page for the same reason I did a few paragraphs ago. So… whatever happened with that interview, anyway? What happened with it is that it was one great big old pile of BS, that’s what happened with it! It was a big, fat lie (along with the cake, of course).

Yes, your supposedly down-right and honest Windows 8 market-cornering buddies over at eightforums managed to pull the wool over the eyes of almost every major news site out there. Unfortunately, enough minor details lined up enough for those like me to jump the gun and post what we did, when we did and without ever verifying if this guy was even an employee in the first place. This stuff happens sometimes and, well, I don’t take too kindly to it. Especially considering how much time and effort I know I put into bringing you all the content that I do – nevermind how much time and effort the countless other real journalists around the community put in! Not only that, but stuff like this makes a mockery of the credibility of the sites you know and trust. We’re as human as you are, though, so I’m one who is fully willing to say, “hey, this guy fooled me and I’m sorry he ended up fooling you, too, vicariously through my post.”

Now, a couple of days or so after all of this stuff went global, I noticed a couple of my respected peers make some comments on this story that started to make me take a second look at it all. First, Paul Thurrott said the following:

Windows 8 To Be 128-bit Only? LOL

 

Wow. I have to admit, the most amazing thing about this rumor is that anyone believed it. I won’t single anyone out, but spare me. It’s completely and utterly bogus. Obviously.

The fact that this all got around to him in the form that Windows 8 was going to be *ONLY* was baffling enough for me, never mind seeing the next hit being doled out by one Steven Bink of bink.nu:

Bink says: Sorry but this is BS so to say. We are still in the transition to 64bit, That Morgan guy does not exits at MS

By that time, I immediately thought back to the crap I had already called out the eightforums people on and then… it all just made too much sense that they would be the ones to fabricate garbage like this. At this point, I have now also verified (thanks to two kind Microsoft folks for checking for me) that Robert Morgan is/was nowhere to be found in the employee database. It was all just a load of crap created by a site desperate for traffic and attention. They throw up frivolous posts just to somehow meander Windows 8 into the text to boost their rank in search engines for the keyword. Not only that, but their forum is littered with garbage posts that – once again – only exist so as to skyrocket their keyword density.

So, now we’re at this juncture ONCE AGAIN with eightforums. First, it was stealing content from my site (which, I hope I’ve made clear will not be tolerated any longer) and now, one big lie heard ’round the net. And to top it off, dishonest means obviously get you somewhere since this guy was apparently at PDC 2009 as press! How he got in, I have no idea but at this point, I wouldn’t doubt it if he really wasn’t there and his PDC coverage was also a big, fat lie. Everything he wrote could have been discerned from watching the keynotes streaming online. Not to mention, out of all his blabber about, “I wonder if we will hear about Windows 8,” he produced a whole lot of NOTHING! My favorite line of his from PDC comes from his PDC Day 1 blog entry:

What can we dig up about Windows 8? I see tons of wannabe journalists and some actually talented bloggers, how will we be different then all the others? We’ll bring you the dirt!!, we’ll interview the top minds at the conference in the next few days to get all the best information. Like always, members of the Windows 8 forums will get the stuff we just can’t post here, all that leaked information, we try to get all our members to say things off record and sneak them into the underground circles of Windows 8 Forums, only members can see!

“Wannabe journalists,” huh? LOL! Oh, the irony. Lot of top minds he interviewed there, huh? Lot of Windows 8 information they were able to dig up, huh? And leave it to this guy to not only pull the wool over everyone’s eyes a couple of times, but his loyal followers by creating a paid membership for his website as well! He’s actually going to charge people for his lies. Man, if you’re a glutton for being ripped off, by all means, whip out that Paypal account… but if you’re AT ALL wise – even if you’re a member on that forum and see me as the bad guy because I’m taking shots at your “leader” – you’ll take a good look at the big picture here and see that this guy has provided absolutely NOTHING of substance for his readers or for this community. Nothing. Just a bunch of empty promises and cliffhangers. Where’s the PDC 2009 Windows 8 info you were going to dig up? Where are the interviews with the “top minds” about Windows 8? Where’s that Robert Morgan interview exclusive you supposedly had? I mean, to see just how bad it is, take a look at his latest ENLIGHTENING post:

Seriously? You’re *that* desperate to throw Windows 8 (and italicize it, none-the-less) into a story? lol. Oh, the humanity…

So, at this point, I can’t spell it out much clearer for everyone. For some reason, though, I can’t help but wonder who you’re going to believe: Some nobody site trying to corner the Windows 8 market by littering their site with pointless references to Windows 8, or tried-and-true individuals who have been in this community for countless years reporting the good with the bad and truly busting their butts to bring you content with REAL substance? I certainly hope the latter, as people like me calling out sites like eightforums serves me no purpose other than wasting my time and creating drama that I would rather not have to deal with. In cases like this, though, it’s totally worth it.

Update: Be sure to go to his site to catch him poking fun at the frequency of road maps I post. Even I laughed at it; nothing like a good bit of roasting every once in a while.

Update 2: I’ve decided to remove the antagonizing comment about awaiting negative comments from eightforums and disable comments for this post. End of discussion. If you have something to say, feel free to email me. Thanks to those of you who left supportive comments initially. I really do appreciate it.

-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

Hey, you. Yes, you! Do you have at least $7000*(see bottom of post) to pay as an entry fee to a Microsoft .NET 4.0 conference (and that’s the early bird offer; it’s a cool $8000*(see bottom of post) if you wait)? Are you willing/able to travel to Indiranagar, Bangalore, India to attend said conference? Well, if so, then you will be one of very few to be given the opportunity to attend an incredibly dense cloud-computing course (amongst other courses, but for the intentions of this article, the cloud-computing course is one of particular interest) – of which, Windows 8 Server will be a focus!

Facilitated by Mubarak Abdulla on behalf of Vertical Divers, the aim of the upcoming December 10-11, 2009 .NET 4.0 conference is:

“…to provide participants with concepts, techniques and lessons from experience that will help them be more successful. The training starts by explaining the emerging trends like Cloud, Grid, Mesh and Parallel, and then continues to discuss in depth how to develop applications which harvest the potential of these emerging technologies. You will not only Dotnet 4.0, but also relevant design guidelines, best practices, and pitfalls.”

Check out the following breakdown of all the coverage you can expect from this course (emphasis on Windows 8 Server by yours truly):

Introduction to Cloud computing
Cloud Architecture
Cloud v/s Grid v/s Mesh
Introduction to Windows Azure
Windows Azure v/s Windows Server 8
Azure Services
.Net Services
.Net Service Bus Architecture
Limitations of Service bus
SQL Services
Azure Storage v/s SQL storage
Limitations of SQL Services
Live Services, Live Mesh and Live Framework
Creating Mashup Applications
Design Strategies for developing applications for the Cloud

Currently, all that is mostly known publicly about Windows 8 or Windows 8 Server can be found right here on Microsoft Kitchen. What I find of particular interest, though, is the juxtaposition of Windows Azure and Windows 8 Server. I could understand Windows 7 Server (aka Windows Server 2008 R2), but to compare/contrast the two implies Mr. Abdulla is privy to Windows 8 information the public currently is not. If I had the money to blow and the time off to take, I would attend just for that session alone!

Just in case they remove it, here’s a screen shot of the course list with Windows 8 Server in it:

Source: Vertical Divers by Colossal Technologies

*UPDATE: Thank you for the individual who commented to let me know that the monetary figure is more than likely set to their locale, which would make the cost in USD approx. $150-$200, depending on which price you paid.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com