Engineering Windows 7

At the start of the week a new blog called "Engineering Windows 7" was started. Don't expect it to be the place where new features and a release schedule for Windows 7 are announced. Rather, it will be an opportunity to discuss how Microsoft realises the challenge behind a very large and complex software project (picking features, designing them, developing them, delivering them).

For details about the Windows 7 ecosystem keep your eyes open for announcements from PDC and WinHEC.

Service Packs

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and .NET framework 3.5 SP1 have been released and are available from the download centre:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1
  
• Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 SP1
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
  

The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 includes lots of improvements, particularly performance improvements for WPF applications.

The .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit is also available which includes presentations, hands on labs and other material covering .NET 3.5 Enhancement features, including:

• ASP.NET MVC
  
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data
  
• ASP.NET AJAX History
  
• ASP.NET Routing
  
• ADO.NET Data Services
  
• ADO.NET Entity Framework
  
• WCF 3.5 SP1
  
• .NET Framework Client Profile
  

You can download the kit here.

Microsoft Windows Mojave

Take a look at http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/. A number of people who were sceptical about the value of Windows Vista, but had never used it, were told that they were getting a sneak peek at a brand new operating system from Microsoft called "Mojave". They loved it and gave it a big thumbs up. They were then told that Windows "Mojave" was in fact Windows Vista. Their reactions are great, remembering that these are people who hate Vista but have never actually used it.

This is an interesting experiment in perception versus reality, and a lesson in just how powerful advertising and the Press can be in setting people's expectations and perceptions.

Online Storage

Microsoft provide different online storage mechanisms:

1. Windows Live SkyDrive - 5Gb free storage.
2. Office Live Workspace - 500Mb free storage.
3. Live Mesh - 5Gb free storage.
4. Hotmail - 5Gb free storage.

Why so many different storage mechanisms? Well, they all have different purposes:

1. SkyDrive is for meant for storing finished documents, or documents that are used for reference. It can be used to share documents, but it isn't about collaborating. SkyDrive can be thought of as a USB drive on the Internet.
   
2. Office Live Workspace is for collaboration rather than storage. It's where you can build a document with input from others, allowing them to comment and suggest changes. Once the document is finished it could be moved to SkyDrive for sharing.
   
3. Live Mesh is focused on having your files available everywhere you need them, on the web or any other device.
   
4. Hotmail is all about email in terms of storage.
   

Microsoft Open Source

Sam Ramji, Senior Directory of Platform Strategy at Microsoft, has announced that Microsoft are stepping up their participation and contribution to Open Source:

1. Firstly, they are providing monetary sponsorship to the Apache Software Foundation.
2. Secondly, they are supporting the ADOdb effort by contributing a patch for it. This is Microsoft's first code contribution to PHP community projects.
3. Thirdly, they are putting an increased number of protocols under Open Specification Promise.

This desire to expand interoperability between Open Source and Microsoft technologies will hopefully provide enormous benefits for businesses and users.

More Free Microsoft Software

Some time ago Microsoft acquired Caligari. Microsoft have now announced that Caligari trueSpace 7.6 is available as a free download. trueSpace is a serious 3D tool that has previously retailed at hundreds of pounds (a quick search online found v6 retailing a £569.88). Furthermore, it's now fully integrated with Virtual Earth, which means that models you create can be uploaded and hosted by Microsoft, for free. You'll need to register, then you'll get some download links for the full product (130Mb), the pdf manual (51Mb) and a collection of videos (132Mb).

For details about integration, read this.

Imagine Cup 2009

Next year the Imagine Cup final will be in Egypt, and the theme will be anything that addresses one or more of the UN Millenium Development Goals. The aim is to give participants more creative freedom than in the past.

For some inspiration see what Y Combinator thinks the future of software will be.