Microsoft Midori

[kennylang74]

Any comments on this:

Developing Stories - - Midori Unleashed: The Goods on the Future of Windows

[cookie_monster]

Yeh been keeping an eye on this for a while now i've suspected for a while now that MS would be planning on a windows replacement that they can use for their cloud vision. It looks like interesting technology but i can't see it enabling them to control the cloud in the same way that they have dominated the desktop but it will be a more suitable platform for it then NT.

Singularity

[dhicks]

Any comments on this

Managed code... asynchronous programming model... decoupling of processing and GUI... sounds exactly like what you get right now programming web-based applications based on multiple virtual servers. The OS should be split into two parts - a full-screen web browser and a bunch of VMs running applications, with whatever libraries you like in each self-contained VM. Each VM gets its own localhost port number(s) to use.

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David Hicks

[kennylang74]

Thanks for the comments guys.

What impact do you think this will have on techies and how will it change the way that we work. I have read a myriad of different views ranging from those who think the entire IT world is doomed through to those that see this as an opportunity for the IT dept to deliver more robust and flexible services.

Most of what I have read (and agree with thus far) is that some kind of hybrid (internal/external cloud) approach might be the way forward and this seems to fit the Midori model.

It's difficult to tell exactly where MS are heading with Midori, but I assume they are suggesting we procure the end user hardware and then either provide (or subscribe to) a virtualised OS platform? However, I have read stuff about Midori that mentions local and remote synchronisation (as per Live Mesh) which doesn't seem to fit the Hypervisor platform!

I guess I am reading to much into this at present, and the baseline is that this stuff is several years away during which time many a change of direction could be made!

[cookie_monster]

I can see a system develpoing where all of the grunt is remote but i feel users will want to keep 'their' data where they can see it, maybe with an online backup of some sort. I can't see people being happy having all of their data in the hands of MS or even worse Google.

As for the future of the biz i don't see it as doom but i do see future IT requiring less tech staff to equipment ratio.

[dhicks]

What impact do you think this will have on techies and how will it change the way that we work.

Give it a decade or so and we won't order individual servers, just more units to slot into our cloud machine. System administration will concentrate more (hopefully, completely) on software configuration, hardware won't be our problem any more.

Most of what I have read (and agree with thus far) is that some kind of hybrid (internal/external cloud) approach might be the way forward and this seems to fit the Midori model.

Heck, check out Eucalyptus, that's avaulable right now.

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David Hicks

[kennylang74]

Thanks for the link Dave, I will have a read over the system documentation with interest.

I have to admit I am growing to like the principle and ease of being able to purchase and deploy a "cloud server" that I can be working and configuring within minutes (rather than wait for 2 weeks on Dell). I guess I am less comfortable (and suspect our clients will also be less comfortable) with having our data floating around in the external ether....

From my own perspective, I have concluded that "Cloud Computing" is no more than vendor's marketing hype to cover a range of technologies including virtualisation, webapps, live mesh, google apps etc.

We are due to start a VMWare, Server 2008 Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer/Desktop/Apps trial here which I suppose represents a move towards a cloud computing style of service. The ratio of techies to end device stuff doen't concern me that much at present as we are so understaffed here it would be a welcome relief!

Many thanks for the comments, feel better for getting this off my chest!

[gshaw]

Tbh I don't like the whole "cloud computing" model at all, don't like the idea of the processing and hardware stuff done by some faceless organisation you have no control over meself...

MS should redesign Windows from the ground up BeOs style, make it run leaner quicker and 64-bit only then run legacy stuff via VM or similar... gotta make it lighter and cleaner than Vista that's for sure

[dhicks]

don't like the idea of the processing and hardware stuff done by some faceless organisation you have no control over meself...

Goodness, no, of course not - that's why we should move towards having our own "clouds" of computing power in our offices / schools / homes. You can imagine, in a few years time, the average "home PC" is going to be an always-on server, probably a small box connected to the ADSL line and acting as a gateway, filter, file store and application server. Users will just use web browsers, no other desktop will be needed. Sure, your server-based applications might sync or communicate in some way to up-stream servers, but it would also be perfectly possible to have "web based" applications that were based entirely in your house.

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David Hicks

[cookie_monster]

MS should redesign Windows from the ground up BeOs style

I think that's the general idea with Midori only it won't be windows or Beos like it's a new approach for where MS see IT heading over the coming decade/s. Windows will be around for ages yet but it has it's limits for future applications and MS can see that, it took about 5 years to get the original NT out the door so they need to start now on it's replacement.

[torledo]

Goodness, no, of course not - that's why we should move towards having our own "clouds" of computing power in our offices / schools / homes. You can imagine, in a few years time, the average "home PC" is going to be an always-on server, probably a small box connected to the ADSL line and acting as a gateway, filter, file store and application server. Users will just use web browsers, no other desktop will be needed. Sure, your server-based applications might sync or communicate in some way to up-stream servers, but it would also be perfectly possible to have "web based" applications that were based entirely in your house.

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David Hicks

larry elison as far back as 2000 was talking about cloud computing, server centric computing and a paradigm shift away from the PC as the centre of gravity....at the moment the PC is stil the centre of gravity and microsoft owns the PC market. But in the internet model Microsoft are not the dominant player, midori sounds like an attempt to take microsoft in the brave new world of SaaS...

Elison said something interesting - he said ibm dominated the mainframe business for years and even when the PC era came, ibm were still the leading mainframe company - after all mainframes are still selling....when the internet/cloud model is embraced fully. microsoft will still be the leading pc and server os company but computing will have moved on beyond that....just as IBM reinvented themselves to become much more than a mainframe business, so microsoft will have to reinvent to become more than an OS company. Or more specifically more than a company that generates the bulk of it's revenue from windows and office for pc's.

The web browser is going to be the way into the web portal, and the power will be in delivering applications to the web browser as a transparent experience for the user. That's why the whole linux vs apple vs windows on the desktop debate is a red herring....the battle won't be one which OS is running on the most end-user devices it'll be about who's delivering that content to users from afar. This is why googles datacenters are so important, and why they were looking into purchasing spectrum for wimax....so that they could be ready to deliver SaaS when it really kicks off.

We already see it today in business, a product like sharepoint has all this great functionality that lets you open documents, view mail, view reports all form this single pane of glass....SAP enteprise portal presents all the important information from all the disparate corporate apps in one browser windows - customizable, expandable....

Cloud computing is an extension of thin clients and portals.....going beyond that to create something better than merely the current web browser portal experience.