10/27/2008, 8:15am, EDT
Monday, October 27thWindows 7 to get device hub, animation API
Microsoft's formal unveiling of Windows 7 at the Professional Developer Conference on Tuesday will show several key infrastructure changes, journalist Mary Jo Foley has revealed ahead of the event. The replacement for Vista aims to solve a common Windows problem of integrating with peripherals through Device Stage, a central repository for external devices; users will have a central location to manage and sync cameras, cellphones, media players and other hardware supported by the platform.
The software should also have multiple architectural changes. In addition to expanding use of the ribbon interface, multi-touch support and a tighter integration of the taskbar with the Windows shell through unknown means, Windows 7 should also receive a new animation framework for customizing animation in the operating system. It's unclear whether this is a parallel to CoreAnimation in Mac OS X or relates to the Avalon presentation layer first shown for Vista.
More features should also be shown on stage that won't be immediately available to developers, Foley adds.
The reporter further supports claims that the operating system will quickly become public. A public beta version of the platform will allegedly be available in mid-December and represents a relatively quick turnaround for the operating system, which has been rumored to be finalized as early as mid-2009 and so could ship slightly ahead of its publicly stated early 2010 goal.
Separately, the platform is also expected to solve issues with performance for netbooks. The company has until now been forced to use Windows XP on most of the low-budget systems due to their reduced hardware and in many cases has lost sales altogether to Linux, which is both free and consumes less resources than Windows.
Filed under: industry, software
Other story tags: Microsoft, Windows 7
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What???
Shouldn't we expect signs like "Apple, get your photocopiers ready!"? Man, they just don't know how to put the humor into Developer's conferences. They used to, I mean, you remember that skit Ballmer did jumping up and down chanting "Developers!". That was hillarious!
What do you mean it wasn't a skit???
developers
I like the part in the skit when they started misting him with water so he looked like a sweaty ape! that was some great special effects in that skit...
wait.. are you sure that wasn't a skit?
So the new math is...
Windows 7 = OS 10 7 years.
a little to consider
Friend 1 had sex with big girls. We laughed at him for it. He stopped and is now with an aspiring model.
Friend 2 had sex with big girls. We laughed at him for it. He stopped and is now with a volleyball player.
Vista was horrible. We laughed at MS for it...
What if this version addresses EVERYTHING anti MS people have identified? Then what?
Then what?
Then I'm going to get an industrial strength umbrella to handle all the falling pig crap that's going to be out there.
What if...
And what if Ballmer offers a blowjob to anyone who buys it? Then what?
And what if people like gitcypher actually had something useful to say? The what?
I love MS -- they trumpet Windows 7 with what? That it fixes all the stuff in Vista! Laughable.
Hell frosting over
@gitcypher
If it ends up being EVERYTHING we identified and they fixed it, I'd say more power to them. But, for some reason, I just don't think they're even capable of coming close. Come on, lets face if, Macrohard has never released ANYTHING that was earth shaking. They don't know how.