As human beings, we generally don't agree on much. And most of us can agree that Microsoft Windows is currently the dominating operating system, for both the client and the server. It would appear that many of us don't think much of Microsoft Vista.
Reminiscent of the old Folgers coffee commercial, the Redmond software giant repackaged Vista and showed it off as a possible upcoming operating system. The test subjects were so surprised. It was really Microsoft Vista, so Microsoft is about to embark on a marketing campaign spending tens of millions to convince us Microsoft Vista is cool.
Elsewhere here at TRCB. I have ripped Microsoft Vista, like so many others. However, my complaint is solely about the poor performance due to the overzealous DRM code welded into the NT code is really built on; circa 1985.
It seems to me Microsoft marketing can't seem to get a clear message, because as they are ready to attempt to sell us the line that Microsoft Vista is really cool, among my fellow geeks, the buzz is all about Windows 7. This is because to me and my fellow IT geeks. It really is just going to be the seventh version of Windows NT. Unless it isn't. Last week SDTimes (Software Development Times) blog site reported the look at Midori. That it would be based on the Singularity research from Microsoft.
Reportedly, Microsoft went nuts looking for the source of the leak. Why is beyond me.
Microsoft's stock price is in the tank. A well respected investment analyist is saying the price to earnings ratio is the best deal on the stock (for shareholders) since it went public 22 years ago. One would think mindshare revealing that Redmond gets it blew it with Vista and is getting back on course would be a good thing. I know some folks wish they would just go away. And I like to deal with reality. Microsoft has the majority of the computers running. Getting performance and security in the majority of computers out there would not be a bad thing.
Let's just suppose Microsoft manages to get version 1 of the Singularity out the door. Anybody over the age of say, 12, would not expect much from version 1 of Singularity. I would expect very little. And Singularity could really save Microsoft from its own popularity meltdown. Since NT was designed for the relative safety of the office environment and not the big bad Internet, it is little wonder we have spent so much time with antivirus software, anti-hijacking and malware defenses.
Singularity or whatever were going to call it is so unlike Windows, it doesn't run like Windows. And that can be its beauty. To break us from the ball and chain that is Windows NT (currently disguised as Vista), Singularity would have to do only two things really well. Connect to the Internet, while keeping its design concept that the Internet can be a bad place. And run virtualization software that would let existing Windows apps run on Singularity.
I'm sure that many of the companies and employees that currently make a living keeping windows walking, if not fully running, will find new projects to work on instead of forever chasing virus definitions or what have you. And it might even keep Apples OSx offering in the low enough market share numbers to keep it in the "not worth category" of the business end of the Internet run by the shady side of the street,
Come on my Redmond friends, this isn't that tough. Lets get some basis of kernel protection out there. MinWin, Singularity, Windows 7, Midori, or whatever concept(s) that have made it from Microsoft Research to some concept called daylight. The basic design of NT is still brillant. Drop the DRM garbage nobody is using, and use those CPU cycles to do a better job protecting the kernel.
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