November 20th, 2009

Will Microsoft's Silverlight dampen the appeal of Google's Chrome OS?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:40 am

Categories: .Net Framework, App Compatibility, Corporate strategy, Development tools, Google, Internet Explorer, OEMs, Silverlight (wpf/e), Web 2.0, Windows client

Tags: Google Inc., Microsoft Silverlight, Operating System, Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation, Microsoft Corp., Google Chrome, Chrome OS, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems

I’m not one of those ready to write Windows an RIP certificate now that Google has finally taken (some of) the wraps off its Chrome OS. In fact, after reading through industry watchers’ questions and Google’s answers about it, I’m thinking that Chrome OS may not look quite so appealing by the time it rolls out in late 2010. Here’s why.

First, as others have noted, Google’s Chrome OS is a new windowing system layered on top of Linux that is being customized to run on netbooks. Chrome OS is an “extension to Chrome,” the company’s browser, in Google execs’ own words. Google officials are billing Chrome OS, among other things, as a way to provide Web applications with the functionality of desktop applications.

Microsoft offers an extension not just to its browser, Internet Explorer, but also to Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Google’s own Chrome. That extension is Silverlight. Among other things, Silverlight is a vehicle for providing increasingly complex consumer and business apps via a browser.

At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week, Microsoft rolled out its strategy and plans for Silverlight 4, the version of its browser plug-in that is slated for final release by mid-2010. Silverlight 4 is adding support for data binding, enterprise networking and printing, and lots of other features that are likely to make the platform more appealing to folks writing not just single-function, lightweight Web apps, but enterprise apps, as well.

Silverlight is a slimmed-down, cross-platform version of Microsoft’s Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) programming model. Each successive iteration of Silverlight includes more and more WPF functionality (and vice versa).

Some day — Microsoft won’t say exactly when — Silverlight and WPF are going to merge into one Web programming and app delivery model that, most likely, will be known as Silverlight, Brad Becker, Director of Product Management for Microsoft’s Rich Client Platforms, told me this week at TechEd. Now that the two share the same compiled assemblies, tools and the like, that idea isn’t really so far-fetched. Until that happens, Microsoft plans to continue to offer both WPF and Silverlight, steering developers of more complex, resource-intensive applications toward WPF and Web-centric app developers toward Silverlight.

When Google execs were asked during this week’s press conference where they shared more information (but no code or systems) about the Chrome OS as to whether Silverlight would be able to work on Chrome OS, they said no comment. Maybe they see Silverlight might be more foe than friend of the Chrome OS.

I understand Silverlight is not an operating system. But some Google watchers are questioning whether the Chrome OS is actually an operating system, either, or just a glorified browser. Unlike Silverlight, which can run on a variety of PCs and soon, phones, Google OS is going to be a dedicated Linux-based netbook OS that will only work with certain predesignated peripherals. Microsoft already offers a netbook OS — Windows — which doesn’t force you to run all apps inside your browser — and which works with lots of different devices.

Would you go so far as to say the Chrome OS is going to be more of a Silverlight competitor than a WIndows one? I’m thinking right now that may seem a bit far-fetched, but as more and more apps are designed to run in Silverlight, maybe not….?

November 18th, 2009

Microsoft shares a few tidbits on IE9 and (lots) more on Silverlight 4

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:20 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Development tools, Internet Explorer, PDC 2009, Silverlight (wpf/e), Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Web Browsers, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft shared some information about what’s coming in Internet Explorer 9 and Silverlight 4 during its November 18 Professional Developers Conference (PDC) keynotes.

If you want to see a real example of the difference in disclosure policies between Microsoft’s Windows unit and its Developer Division, the level of information provided by execs with each division today made that quite clear.

As expected, Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky shared a few tidbits about Internet Explorer (IE) 9. Sinofsky emphasized that Microsoft will continue to play up privacy, user choice and responsible development with the next IE release. But he offered no information on when the team is planning to release a test build or the final version of the browser.

Sinofsky said during the Wednesday morning keynote that the IE team is about three weeks into the IE 9 project. (I’ve been getting tips that there already is a build of the product out there that is being used inside Microsoft, but it’s not available to external testers yet.)

Sinofsky noted that Microsoft is fully aware that it needs to keep pushing on the standards front. He noted that IE 9 is currently passing 32 of 100 Acid3 tests (compared to Firefox at more than 70 and Opera at 100). He also made it clear that Microsoft is aware it needs to continue to do work to improve JavaScript performance with IE.

Sinofsky said IE 9 will support hardware-accelerated rendering and rounded borders, but didn’t say a whole lot more about it. There are a (very) few more specifics about IE 9 on the IE Team blog today.

Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for .Net, had lots more to say about Silverlight 4, the next version of Microsoft’s browser plug-in that competes with Adobe Flash.

Microsoft is making a public beta of Silverlight 4 available for download today, November 18. A single, near-final Release Candidate will follow and then the final version of Silverlight 4 will be out in the first half of 2010, according to Guthrie.

Guthrie said Silverlight 4 will be a major new release of the plug-in. He said the upcoming version will incorporate nine of the ten most requested features by developers.

Guthrie itemized and demonstrated some of the new features of Silverlight 4 — which include everything from its support for webcam and microphone access, to the ability to run Silverlight inside the Google Chrome browser. Silverlight 4 also will include full support for Visual Studio 2010, native multicast support and improved printing, networking and reporting capabilities, company officials said. Silverlight Program Manager Tim Heuer has a full list of those Silverlight 4 features on his blog.

I’m interested in hearing from anyone who manages to download Silverlight 4 (servers are crawling, I hear) about what you think of the new beta of the product. Feel free to chime in in the talkbacks….

November 18th, 2009

Microsoft PDC Live Blog Day Two: IE, Silverlight 4.0 and more

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:17 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Internet Explorer, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, PDC 2009, Silverlight (wpf/e)

Tags: Microsoft Silverlight, Keynote, Blog, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Blogging, Web Browsers, Microsoft Office, Operating Systems

The second day of keynotes at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference is about to begin, and expectations are running high that MIcrosoft might share some details on what’s coming with Internet Explorer 9, Silverlight 4 and Office 2010 Beta 2 today.

A bunch of us Microsoft bloggers will be live blogging this morning’s keynote, which are expected to feature Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President of Office Kurt DelBene, .Net Corporate Vice President Scott Guthrie and more.

Join in with us on CoverItLive and discuss the keynotes live, starting at 8:30 am PT, along with ZDNet’s Ed Bott, LiveSide’s Kip Knicksern, Within Windows’ Rafael Rivera, Windows Supersite’s Paul Thurrott, istartedsomething’s Long Zheng and myself.

November 12th, 2009

PDC 2009: Tune in for our live blogging frenzy next week

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:31 am

Categories: .Net Framework, Azure, Corporate strategy, Development tools, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Big Brains, Multicore/distributed computing, Office 2010/Office 14, PDC 2009, Red Dog, Research, Silverlight (wpf/e), Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization, Visual Studio 10 ("Hawaii"), Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server")

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Professional Developers Conference Keynote, Blogging, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2009 kicks off the week of November 16. Like we did last year, a handful of us Microsoft watchers will be live blogging the keynotes as a group.

The PDC keynotes are slated for Tuesday November 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. PT and Wednesday November 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. We’ll be using CoverItLive to blog, so the more of you who chime in and comment along with us, the merrier. Your group-blogging hosts (besides me) will be Ed Bott, Kip Kniskern, Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren and Long Zheng

Come back here next week and watch along with us as Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie; Server and Tools President Bob Muglia; Kurt DelBene, Senior VP of Microsoft’s Office Business Productivity Group and more talk about what’s coming for developers in the next year. (I’ll post the CoverItLive viewer on my site during keynote viewing hours next week.)

There will be new info on Microsoft’s Azure cloud operating environment, .Net 4.0, Oslo, Office 2010, Silverlight, SQL Server and more. And more than a few of the “Big Brains” — Microsoft’s Technical Fellows — are on tap to present during the four-day confab.  I’ve already posted about some of what’s on tap (and not on tap) for PDC 2009 over the past few weeks. Expect lots more PDC news on my blog throughout the week next week.

Hope to see you (virtually) and/or live in Los Angeles next week!

November 4th, 2009

The long and winding road to MSN's reinvention as a social hub

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:54 am

Categories: Advertising, Corporate strategy, Google, MSN, Search, Silverlight (wpf/e), Yahoo

Tags: MSN, Microsoft Corp., Portals, Web Technology, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

It took a couple of years, but Microsoft is finally making good on some of the ideas officials had for making the company’s MSN home page more viable.

Back in 2007, former Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Online Services Group Steve Berkowitz said Microsoft’s goal was to integrate more social-networking tools and pre-programmed content into the MSN home page. On November 4, Microsoft made public a preview of a new MSN home page that integrates Facebook and Twitter. (And Windows Live, too, the Softies note, usually as an afterthought.)

The revamped MSN home page — which execs say is the most sweeping face-lift the MSN.com site has had in close to a decade — looks less cluttered and easier to navigate. It’s also faster to load and has lost a lot of the “blue links” that dominate the current MSN.com page. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s Bing search technology is deeply integrated into the new design.

See Gallery: The past and future of MSN

The final version of the new MSN.com is slated to go live in early 2010.

“If there’s a hot new search term, we can put that on the page. We can surface Twitter and Facebook feeds to make real-time search available on MSN,” said Bob Visse, General Manager of MSN Product Management.

There’s also a big focus on making “local experiences” easier for MSN.com users to find and surface, Visse said. Microsoft will allow users to “interact with content in a programmable way.” Silverlight isn’t required, but if users have it installed on their PCs, it will “enhance” their video-viewing experience, Visse said. He said Microsoft will offer a list of Silverlight applications — such as gas-price indicator, for example — that users can get if they have Microsoft’s Flash competitor installed.

In 2008, Microsoft made MSN part of the combined Search, Portal and Advertising Group as part of one of the company’s regular reorgs. At that time, officials said Microsoft’s goal was to make MSN.com more of a socially networked platform. In an e-mail to employees, Senior Vice President of R&D for Online Services Satya Nadella said MSN was  Microsoft’s single largest source of ad revenue. He also promised that the next version of MSN would be “a software engine that delivers the most relevant and social online content experience.”

It’s easy to forget that shortly before Microsoft decided to focus on MSN as one of its major vehicles for consumer outreach, advertising and search that the company came close to getting out of the portal business. Berkowitz was one of the main execs who helped convince management that there was value in MSN and that Microsoft should keep the platform around.

These days, Microsoft is claiming that it has the largest worldwide audience of any of the consumer-focused portals on the Web. According to the company, 100 million people in the U.S. visit MSN every single month, and MSN added over 10 million new customers in the past year.

October 19th, 2009

Free Silverlight streaming service to be replaced by paid Azure-hosted service

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:31 am

Categories: Azure, Corporate strategy, Silverlight (wpf/e), Utility/cloud computing, Windows Live

Tags: Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Corp., Silverlight Streaming, Softies, Team Management, Microsoft Windows, Management, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is discontinuing its free Silverlight Streaming service and replacing it with a paid, Azure-hosted service before the end of calendar 2009.

Microsoft is confirming the report I saw on LiveSide.Net from October 18, which is based on a blog post from Microsoft’s Silverlight Streaming team. Silverlight Streaming is a Windows Live beta service that supports hosted audio/video content. Microsoft officials described the offering as a companion service for Silverlight for delivering and scaling rich media.

The Softies are saying Silverlight Streaming will be discontinued at some time in the future, with no specific timeframe offered.

“A new Windows Azure-based hosting and delivery service will be launched by the end of 2009, though this is not a direct replacement for Silverlight Streaming and will have costs associated with its use,” according to the Silverlight Streaming team.

Microsoft officials stressed that Silverlight Streaming is not the same as Smooth Streaming, “which is alive and well” and just released on October 8.

Microsoft is expected to remove officially the beta tag from Azure the first day of the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles on November 16. It’s not clear whether company officials will have more to say about the Silverlight Streaming replacement at that time.

October 19th, 2009

Testers to get Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 this week; final by March 2010

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:44 am

Categories: .Net Framework, Azure, Corporate strategy, Development tools, Multicore/distributed computing, SharePoint Server, Silverlight (wpf/e), Utility/cloud computing, Visual Studio 10 ("Hawaii"), Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server")

Tags: Microsoft Developer Network, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Development Tools, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is making what may be the last beta of Visual Studio 2010 and the accompanying .Net Framework 4 before they launch next March available to testers this week, company officials said.

MSDN testers will be able to download Beta 2 on October 19. Microsoft plans to open the beta to the public on October 21. The company is planning to launch the final version of its latest development suite on March 22, 2010, officials said. Microsoft’s goal is to deliver the actual bits by that date, not just to hold a launch.

Microsoft launched Beta 1 of Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4 in May.This past summer, Microsoft officials told partners to expect the marketing/training/sales push for Visual Studio 2010 to begin in April 2010, so it sounds like the development is running on schedule.

Microsoft is positioning Visual Studio 2010 as its tool platform to support Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Azure, SQL Server, Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Support for SharePoint 2010 is new, as of Beta 2, officials confirmed. SharePoint is the “fastest growing platform, from a developer mindset,” for Microsoft at this point, said Dave Mendlen, Senior Director of Developer Marketing.

Visual Studio 2010 also includes new drag and drop bindings for Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation; interoperability with the ASP.Net model view controller (MVC), better multicore support and UML support.

Microsoft is touting .Net 4 as being 81 percent smaller than its predecessors, making it quicker and easier to download and install. Also unlike its predecessors, .Net 4 can be installed side-by-side with the previously released .Net 3.5. It adds support for the Microsoft Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR), giving programmers more language choices; and is more suited for parallel-programming, workflow-centric and service-oriented application development, according to the company.

“Beta 2 is not about dramatic changes to the features but is more about improvements to the performance and quality,” said Soma Somasegar, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Developer Division.

Microsoft officials also shared on October 19 more details about the planned packaging and pricing for Visual Studio 2010. Microsoft is cutting the number of SKUs of Visual Studio to four main ones, and is doing away with the database, architect and test versions. The four:

• Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN. Includes all of the current Visual Studio Team System functionality. $11,924 for a new license ; $3,841 for a renewal
• Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN. $5,469 new; $2,299 renewal
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN. $1,199 new; $799 renewal
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional without MSDN. $799

MSDN subscribers will be getting unlimited access to Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 (upon release), its team-collaboration server; a set (variable) number of compute hours per month for Windows Azure development; and up to 40 hours per year of e-learning classes per subscriber.

To attempt to get developers to move to MSDN Premium before Visual Studio 2010 launches, Microsoft has created the Ultimate Offer for VS developers. Anyone who is an active subscriber to MSDN Premium by the time Visual Studio 2010 launches next March will be transitioned automatically to the next higher level VS 2010 SKU with an MSDN subscription at launch.

October 5th, 2009

Flash 10.1 beta coming to Windows Mobile 6.5 phones by year-end

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:06 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Google, Linux, Network service providers, OEMs, Silverlight (wpf/e), Telecommunications, Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Windows client

Tags: Phone, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft Windows, Mobile Operating Systems, Operating Systems, Mobile Applications

On October 5, Adobe did what Microsoft’s own Silverlight team still has yet to do: Pin a date on when it will bring its ad/video-display plug-in to Windows Mobile.

Adobe officials said a public developer beta of the browser-based runtime of Flash 10.1 is expected to be available for Windows Mobile — as well as Palm’s WebOs and Windows, Mac OS and Linux — before the end of the year. A developer’s beta for Google’s Android and the Symbian OS are expected to be available in early 2010. The final version of Flash 10.1 should be out for Windows Mobile in the first half of 2010, according to Adobe’s latest time table.

Adobe’s press release didn’t mention which version(s) of Windows Mobile will be getting full-fledged Flash. PCMag.com said it will be Windows Mobile 6.5, which Microsoft is rolling out officially with its phone-maker and carrier partners tomorrow, October 6. “Lower-tier” devices, meaning older Windows Mobile phones, will be Flash-enabled but not run full-fledged Flash, PCMag.com added.

Adobe announced its intentions to bring Flash to ARM-based phones a year ago, in November 2008, with the first devices supporting it available in mid-2009.

I’m betting we’ll get dates and details from Microsoft about exactly when Silverlight will be coming to Windows Mobile (and possibly other non-Windows-Mobile OS phones) in the next day or so, just in time for the Windows Mobile 6.5 launch. Will Microsoft be making the already-shipping Silverlight 3 on these devices, or will developers and users have to wait for Silverlight 4, which so far, doesn’t have a public release date? Guess we’ll find out soon.

MIcrosoft recently released to manufacturing a new version of Windows Embedded CE, which is the core platform upon which Windows Mobile phones are based, that includes Silverlight support. But officials said availability of that release (Windows Embedded CE6.0 R3) has no bearing on when Microsoft will bring Silverlight support to WIndows Mobile.

Microsoft also recently announced it is porting Silverlight to Moblin-Linux-based mobile devices. That port will be available by early 2010, according to Microsoft.

Update (October 6): I was wrong. Microsoft doesn’t have an update, re: Silverlight’s availability on Windows Mobile, to share today. Company officials said that Microsoft isn’t going to support Silverlight on Windows Mobile 6.5, which launches today on new phones. The official line is users will get Silverlight on Windows Mobile 7.  Windows Mobile 7 phones aren’t currently expected to debut before the end of 2010. I asked if Microsoft might make it available on WM phones before WM 7 and was told no comment.

October 1st, 2009

Microsoft adds consumer-friendly face to its HealthVault platform

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:04 am

Categories: Azure, Corporate strategy, Healthcare, MSN, Search, Silverlight (wpf/e), Utility/cloud computing

Tags: Microsoft HealthVault, Health Care, Microsoft Corp., Vertical Industries, Benefits, Healthcare, Human Resources, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft launched on October 1 a beta of a new MSN service aimed at helping consumers manage their own health information.

The new service, known as My Health Info, is based on Microsoft’s HealthVault. HealthVault is a software and services platform that is hosted on Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-computing environment. The service makes use of Silverlight and allows users to search for health-related topics via Bing.

My Health Info is designed to allow consumers to store all kinds of personal health information, like childrens’ vaccination schedules, prescription records, blood sugar levels, etc. It also will allow consumers to monitor “topical areas of interest,” like swine flu. The service can be configured to maintain separate records on multiple people, so that a user could manage information on multiple family members.

At the end of August in 2009, Microsoft removed the two-year-old beta tag from HealthVault. There’s no word on when Microsoft expects to do the same with the new MSN health service.

My Health Info makes use of the same security and privacy mechanisms that HealthVault itself does. All health data is encrypted; every time data is changed or read, a log is generated; and HTTPS is the protocol via which information is passed, according to Microsoft officials.

Microsoft created the new service to serve the 83 percent of people who search for health-related information on the Web, officials said. Serving ads on health content is also a huge opportunity for the company.

September 29th, 2009

Microsoft's Courier tablet: A Franklin Covey planner on steroids?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:32 am

Categories: Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Research, Resellers, Silverlight (wpf/e), Surface, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Gizmodo, Courier, Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Mary Jo Foley

Since the first video and photo leaks went public last week of Microsoft’s alleged second-generation Tablet PC, tipsters have been working overtime.

Since Microsoft isn’t commenting at all on Courier (the official statement is “we don’t comment on rumors or speculation”), it’s tough to separate fact from fiction at this point.

But some tipsters are a little more connected than others. And one of my connected tipsters has shared some new info with me that I’m posting now, given that it seems more verifiable.

I say “verifiable” here, not in an official sense, but based on a new Courier video clip Gizmodo posted on September 29. Gizmodo’s new clip shows more details about the journaling model around which Courier’s user interface seems to revolve. From Gizmodo’s explanation:

“The (Courier) journal can actually be published online, and it’s shown here as able to be downloaded in three formats: a Courier file, Powerpoint or PDF. There’s also a library that looks a lot like Delicious Library, where things like subscriptions, notebooks and apps, are stored.”

That sure makes the Courier sound like it fits in with Microsoft’s uber-”three screens and a cloud” vision — via which devices, TVs and PCs all share common cloud-based services, storage, etc.

The Courier journaling metaphor isn’t so different from Microsoft’s OneNote note-taking app that is currently the showcase app for existing tablet PCs, my “connected” source said. He explained:

“The concept started as a software idea on how one would really build OneNote from scratch if you could for the Tablet form factor. That then morphed into building a tablet. If you look at the most successful pocket computer today - it is still the Franklin Covey Planning Products. So, the idea was how do you create a digital planner.”

My source also claimed that the operating system underneath Courier is — at least currently — Windows 7. (That’s not as crazy as it might seem, given that the OS underlying Microsoft’s Surface is Vista — and Windows 7 is touch-enabled.)

You can’t install Windows 7 apps on Courier, the source said, and that’s intentional.

The original Microsoft Tablets “failed because the applications were not tailored to a tablet form factor - that is, Word still had toolbars and menus and scollbars. So, a tablet needs to be like an iPhone - a UX that is specific for the form factor,” the source said.

My source said that Courier is an incubation project, meaning it’s further along than a Microsoft Research project, but still not in the commercialization pipeline. That said, he heard the  delivery goal is mid-2010. That seems pretty darn ambitious to me, but he also said Microsoft is currently leaning toward using the Xbox model — in other words, making the device itself, and not relying on its current Tablet partners — so that could speed things up a bit.

I can’t verify any of what my source has told me. But I figured I’d put it out there, as it jibes with what Gizmodo has unearthed.

What’s your take? Is the Courier protoype we’re hearing and seeing bits and pieces about something you could see having wider appeal than the current generation of Tablets?