Microsoft execs discuss the future at WinHEC

Although Steve Ballmer's blockbuster announcement yesterday of a newconsumer version of Windows due in 2000 set industry observers on theirears, Microsoft executives discussed a lot of other good information thisweek at WinHEC (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference).

First of all, Steve Ballmer's address contained lots of good informationabout the 64-bit version of Windows 2000, which will ship in mid-2000 forCompaq Alpha and Intel IA-64 (Merced). David Cutler, the original architectof Windows NT, is hard at work on making the 64-bit version of Windows 2000as good as it can be and this new high-end version will run off the samecode base as the "normal" 32-bit version. But while Windows 2000 supports 4GB of RAM, the 64-bit version will support 8 terabytes of RAM(!), a quantumleap.

For the more typical Windows Server customer, however, Microsoft is workingwith Intel on something called the "Windows Server Appliance," a "headless"integrated hardware-software appliance that makes it easy for almost anyoneto setup a small network for file, Internet, and print sharing. Thesedevices are expected by the end of the year from a variety of vendors forabout $1000-$1300.

But quite possibly, the most exciting part of Ballmer's talk was the Easy PCinitiative, where PCs of the near future will take on a variety of formfactors and expansion will occur through USB and high-speed FireWire (1394)ports, rather than slots and connectors inside the computer. And the newDevice Bay specification begins an era of easily upgraded drives and RAMthrough cartridge-like plug-ins that never require the user to open the box.Ballmer demonstrated a variety of cool-looking machines, most of which borelittle resemblance to the PCs of today. And forget iMac, these machines arefunctional as well as interesting looking with high resolution flat-panelscreens and architectural-looking boxes.

"How are we all going to deliver the PC of tomorrow?" Ballmer asked. "We'regoing to have to design for simplicity and appeal. We're going to have tobuild devices that are driver-less. That is the driver just appearsmagically, the customer doesn't have to get involved in the configuration ofhardware and devices. These devices will certainly have to be instant on andalways available. It is a pain in the neck today, one of the real downsidesof Windows in the home that it's not instant on like the television. We'regoing to have to provide pervasive connectivity across all of the devices inthe home, wireless connectivity, phone line based connectivity, power-linebased connectivity."

Dell, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, NEC, IBM, Fujitsu, Micron, Gateway and Intel haveall jumped onboard the Easy PC initiative and will have product machinesready by next year. And, of course, Microsoft will deliver its controversialnew consumer edition of Windows next year to go with the new PCs. Yes, itwill be built on the Windows 98 code base and not the NT code base (as usedin Windows 2000) that was previously promised. But as I voiced in aneditorial almost exactly two months ago, "[Microsoftneeds to] get over NT. Microsoft has been talking up Windows NT so much forthe past few years that they're hovering at the point of no return. Here's anews flash, Microsoft: People love Windows 98... And guess what? It nevercrashes. Oh, I can play every game on the planet. I really love that." Itlooks like Microsoft took these sentiments to heart and decided that, whilethe future is NT, the near future has bigger (less technical) concerns. Andwhat the home market needs is simplicity, not complexity.

"The right approach next year is to continue to enhance the Windows 98product," Ballmer noted in his keynote. "And it will be focused on the keyconsumer needs, the simplicity or 'it just works' aspects that I talkedabout, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), home networking, improving the onlineexperience, and the handling of digital media, pictures, music, and video,which is becoming more fundamental to the consumer computing experience. Wewant to extend the functionality of Windows in the consumer environment outof the box."

Ballmer noted that post-2000, the Windows 2000 (NT) code base would be thebasis for the next consumer Windows, however, as Microsoft once again worksto consolidate its various Windows projects. As for Windows CE, the nextgeneration will support DirectX for gaming, a new version of InternetExplorer, and better driver support. Another thing Microsoft hasn't beenvery clear about is the role of CE in the Windows world, as many proponentsof the small footprint OS would like to see it take the place of Windows 98in the home. Ballmer says that CE is a likely scenario for any device thatdoesn't require a hard drive, but that standard PCs would probably remainthe domain of Windows 9x/2000 because of falling component prices. Theargument that a low-cost CE device could undercut a true PC doesn't reallycut it anymore. So CE will likely continue to be targeted at the low-end,both at home and for mobile professionals.

In the second keynote on Wednesday, Microsoft VP David Cole discussedMicrosoft's simplification strategies for Consumer Windows (note that thecapitalization here is Microsoft's; I'm not sure if this is a hint at afuture name for the product or not).

"[PCs are] still too complicated to use," Cole says. "You know, too manyerror messages, to hard to get things installed. You know, applications andhardware just don't work together."

Cole discussed the recent reorganization at Microsoft and the creation of aConsumer Windows Division, which will naturally focus on versions of Windowsthat are aimed at the home market. Microsoft has identified three big trendsat the consumer level: PCs are now mass-market devices, media isincreasingly digital, and the Internet is a pervasive part of the homecomputer experience. The first point is perhaps obvious, but it hints ateven lower prices and a new breed of low-cost devices such as those demoedduring Ballmer's Easy PC talk. In addition to general-purpose PCs, Microsoftsees a booming market for other sorts of devices, including simple homedevices that can connect to the Internet.

For Consumer Windows, Cole says the mission is obvious.

"[Microsoft will] partner with hardware vendors, software vendors, theindustry as a whole to create a more empowering computing experience,connecting to everything, removing all that ugly complexity that there istoday, enabling some new usage scenarios, and try to create many more formfactors that we think consumers will be interested in," Cole said. "Thinkabout where the computer's going to live. It doesn't just live in the denanymore. I've seen people with PCs in their kitchen and certainly in theirliving rooms, up in the bedrooms, in the kid's play room. So those requiremore innovative thinking and different types of form factors that are moreappropriate for those environments."

Microsoft's role in this initiative, naturally, is the software platform(Windows). And it's not just PCs: Cole talked up smart phones, video gamesystems, WebTV Internet set-top boxes, Auto PCs, and other devices inaddition to the devices we now refer to as PCs.

Cole then discussed some particulars about Consumer Windows.

"The user interface has to be way simpler and [more] discoverable than it istoday. We have some work underway to go forward and see what a better userinterface might be like, one that anticipates what users want to do. Itdoesn't make them search across the big hierarchy of menus and commands,across the stream where you're trying to find the little command that letsyou do E-mail, and you've got to hunt all over for it. It's quite insane. Itneeds to be personal and tasked for you, so the computer ought to know whoyou are and what you like to do. It should be tasked for you. You know, ifyou want to manage your pictures, you shouldn't have to go through the UIand find the sixteen different commands you need. You ought to have sort ofa task-oriented way to do that, where everything you need to do that task isright there in front of you, and you can just click and away you go."

Cole then discussed the three scenarios that the Consumer Windows team willbe focusing on:

Cole also revealed that Microsoft would like to start releasing a newversion of Consumer Windows every year and, with Windows 98 in 1998, Windows98 Second Edition in 1999, and Consumer Windows expected in 2000, they'reactually on track for that goal.

Brian Valentine, who is now heading the Windows 2000 project at Microsoft,gave the third Microsoft keynote. Valentine used his time to brief attendeeson the status of Windows 2000, now expected in October.

"We're on track to ship it this year," he said.

Valentine explained the strategy for Windows 2000, stating that theproduct's genesis four years was based around the ideals of scalability,simplicity, and reliability. And since the project began, other goals suchas availability and compatibility have become big issues. Developers aretired of writing different drivers for Windows 9x and NT, for example. It'sbeen a big job.

"I've got literally thousands of people working on [Windows 2000] today thatare Microsoft employees. I've got almost 1,000 vendors at Microsoftdeveloping device drivers that are housed at Microsoft. And then I've got awhole other wave that are housed at their own companies," Valentine said."There is just a huge industry investment, and a huge Microsoft investmentgoing into Windows 2000. And it is a big project. It's not a project that'sout of control. It's not a project that's too hard to get done, like somepeople would like to say. We're on a glide path now to get it done thisyear, and we are going to get it done this year."

But the message on Windows 2000 this year is clear, Valentine says: Getready, it's shipping.

"It's real, it's here, and it's time to start looking at evaluations of theproduct, start looking at how you can get involved in the programs and theproduct, and start building the support we need around it," he said."Starting in about three or four weeks, we're going to actually go out withbeta three of Windows 2000, and have it running in production. So, we willhave a whole set of customers, and I've got 50 of them lined up right now,that will start running Windows 2000 in large enterprise production systems.Microsoft is one of those, but there are 49 other companies that have signedup to start running the production by the end of this month."

[On an interesting side-note, "three or four weeks" places the beta threerelease of Windows 2000 at April 28 to May 5, about a week or two after thepreviously announced April 21 ship date for this release. I wonder if thiswasn't mentioned on purpose but then he later said that "Beta will ship inApril." We'll see. --Paul]

"Everything is feature complete," he added. "We're going to ship it thisyear."

Valentine discussed some esoteric new Windows 2000 features that will be ofinterest primarily to hardware makers, such as digitally signed driversignatures and driver verification tools. But the new plan for slipstreamedservice packs will affect everyone that uses Windows 2000 in a positive way:Service Packs can now be applied to the base OS code so that future newinstallations will include the service packs without a separate install.

"What we've done with Windows 2000 is we've made it such that you can rollin service packs underneath an install tree," Valentine said. "So, if youtake and load up a server based install with Windows 2000, and we come outwith Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2, or whatever, you can roll that rightunderneath the install tree as the single set-up program that will installthe next PC that you want to install with that service pack. So you can doroll-in updates and service packs."

And Service Packs will no longer be used to add new features to Windows (canI hear a "Halleluiah"?). Service Packs, finally, will be for bug fixes only.And system files (such as DLLs you'd typically see in the "system32" folder)are now locked down: If an application attempts to overwrite a system filewith an older copy, Windows 2000 will block that overwrite and keep thesystem intact. And the system will repair itself at boot time if someone hasmessed up the system files some other way.

Valentine says he met with the Windows 2000 team in January and asked themwhat the goals were for Windows 2000 in 1999. Four goals came to light: S,H, I, and P: "SHIP". So only one goal really came out of this meeting, butit's a good one and Valentine says they're on track.

"It's feature complete today," he noted. "We're focusing 100 percent onquality, which is reliability, scalability, application compatibility,hardware compatibility, all of those type of things. So there's a hugeeffort going on in those areas, and it's just in the get it done stage now.