What Microsoft announced about Windows 10 last week is designed to whet our appetite, and as usual, Redmond is talking about what it intends to do without giving all the details. At the event, TechRadar Pro had the chance to ask Terry Myerson to explain a little more.
Project Spartan, he told us, is a new browser, but not a new rendering engine – it even supports ActiveX controls. And Internet Explorer isn't going away, either.
"Every Windows 10 device will include IE 11 also. If for some reason the customer has used the extensibility and needs that, or if the enterprise wants to have Windows 7 devices with IE 11 and Windows 10 devices with IE 11 [it's there]. But probably what we're currently calling Project Spartan will be the go to browser for browsing. The enterprise modes are in Project Spartan and IE 11."
Myerson suggested we think about a browser as two pieces of technology. "A browser has the frame and it has the rendering engine. You've got to separate the frame from the rendering engine – the rendering engine is an evolution and we have a new frame. So Spartan is primarily a change in the frame and enterprise mode is part of the rendering engine."
So is that rendering engine still Trident and the Chakra JavaScript system from IE? "Yes –the evolution of those going forward. But there's all these legacy frame extensions that were possible that used to bog down IE and we've moved away from those. ActiveX is still in the rendering engine too, but there were browser helper objects and a bunch of stuff like that, and that's the stuff that's not in Spartan."
That's a less drastic change than some rumours have suggested but it means that businesses can use Spartan without having to worry about whether Flash works, while getting rid of the worst drag on performance and security. Myerson wouldn't be drawn on whether the changes in Spartan include a new model for browser extensions that's more like the Chrome and Firefox one – he simply told us: "We haven't shared anything yet."
Windows phone and RT
It's time to take the capital 'P' out of Windows Phone – "it's Windows 10," Myerson said. "There's a version of Windows 10 for any given form factor – there's Windows 10 on a phone, there's Windows 10 on a PC, there's Windows 10 on a holographic computer. Windows 10 is architected this way, where you have a different experience on a PC from a phone, through to HoloLens."
Myerson wasn't giving away much about Windows RT. "We are working on an update for RT as well and haven't worked out all the details yet," he said. Windows RT has never had all of the features of Windows 10 – and Windows 10 on a phone doesn't have all the features either (there's no desktop on a phone), so it's too soon to say that this means Microsoft is abandoning RT.
Always up to date
Windows as a Service means you can always have Windows up to date, but it doesn't change how you pay for Windows. "The OEMs that ship windows – there's a licence fee to ship Windows and that covers the customer for the supported lifetime of the device," Myerson explained. But you do only pay once, and not any kind of yearly fee.
"The updates will be free. Updates will be less lumpy than service packs in the past. There are things we're going to update on a monthly basis, some things we'll do on a quarterly basis, some things we'll do on an annual basis. We're going to try and keep it rolling."
That means you might still be using a version of Windows that came with your PC, and today OEMs don't support PCs for as long as Microsoft supports Windows. He freely admits that's something Microsoft is still working on.
"Frankly we've got some stuff to figure out, because the OEM has a device life, we've got the software life and we've got to navigate that [difference]. We're not aligned today; they have like one year and we have 15. We have to find our way there. We're not sure yet how to frame the outer years of this – we need to do that and we'll do that. Our strategic intent hopefully is clear though – to keep devices up to date."
He believes businesses want to keep PCs up to date, rather than sticking with Patch Tuesday and skipping every other version of Windows, the way many do today. "Security is a huge deal. Keeping these devices current is the best way to keep them secure. Today we have synchronised these patches on a patch Tuesday cadence. When you're connected to Windows as a Service you're going to be getting things sooner, and you're going to be more secure."
He also thinks users will demand it. "When you talk to these end users who are using enterprise devices they want to be current, they want the latest features and functionality. Frankly, we're optimistic."
Of course that means updates have to be stable, which hasn't always happened over the last few months. "It does put a burden on us to be reliable. It's actually a simpler model for us to execute on and that simplicity always does create quality in the long run." Part of that simplicity is getting more people using the same version of Windows.
Persuading customers to upgrade
Myerson promises more details soon, but he wants people to get used to the idea first. "We'll be sharing a lot more on the enterprise servicing model and approach in the coming weeks. We just had to get out the notion of Windows as a Service before we could say 'this is how it works with a long-term branch versus an up-to-date branch'."
He's not ready to talk about the release date or the price of Windows 10 yet, though. "We don't want to box ourselves in," he said. "We're trying to get it out this year." On price, he suggests "you can assume it will be like the Windows 7 to Windows 8 or XP to 7 [pricing]. There's plenty of historical precedent – $25, $50 sort of thing."
But Myerson is more interested in talking about the features than the price. "That's not even our focus – our focus is to get our customers to move to Windows 10."
No comments:
Post a Comment