Building Windows 8

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/15/welcome-to-building-windows-8.aspx

69 50 15 years ago

blogs.msdn.com

twog2• 15 years ago

I have been a mac/ubuntu user for the last ten years, but Windows 8 is the first time Microsoft has really caught my attention since the xbox came out.

joebadmo• 15 years ago

Wow, really? Which parts, exactly?

I'm genuinely curious, as someone who's been a Windows user for basically his entire computing life.

klausa• 15 years ago

I'm guessing Metro UI caught his attention, and I must admit - I also find it quite interesting and for lack of better word - beautiful.

melling2• 15 years ago

Well, as someone who only uses Windows when he has to, I'd say IE10 being the default browser is pretty exciting. Win7 ships with IE8 so people may or may not upgrade. With IE10, it's "HTML5" in full force.

http://html5test.com/results.html

lukifer2• 15 years ago

I feel the same way; what we've seen of Win8 marks the first rethinking of desktop computing since the original WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers). (Not the first, actually, but the first to actually see the light of day from a vendor as big as MS). And the fact that it's HTML5-based doesn't hurt. :)

twog2• 15 years ago

I just like to see them generating buzz through change. The new metro UI and general a-typical microsoft behavior.

tomlin• 15 years ago

Although I am not a Windows developer, if I were, I would appreciate some more information as to what to expect when developing applications on W8. So far, I've only heard HTML+JS, which is great, but hopefully more information on developing for W8 will make its way soon.

Que• 15 years ago

I believe this to be a misunderstanding of the press out for W8. They are simply promoting the fact that you can now have HTML+JS+CSS as first-class apps. They don't seem to be deprecating support for native or .NET based development.

flomo• 15 years ago

My impression is that the HTML/JS stuff will mainly be used for "widgets" off the home screen. I guessing its more of an iteration the ActiveDesktop/Dashboard/Sidebar type thing rather than a mainstream approach to AppDev.

Oh, and Windows has allowed you to create "HTML Applications" since IE4 came out, so it's not exactly like a new feature.

alttag2• 15 years ago

Seems like an awful lot of words to say (a) computing has changed much in the last 15 years [you don't say!], and (b) we're going to start talking about changes early so the market isn't surprised or apprehensive.

Not much meat in there.

mitjak2• 15 years ago

Indeed, a very long-winded way to say "don't forget about us, we are working on something".

DrHankPym• 15 years ago

From what I've mostly seen and read else where, it really looks like Windows 8 is going to a cross between Windows 7 and webOS.

alttag2• 15 years ago

More helpful (to me) was the two-month-old YouTube video preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I

benatkin2• 15 years ago

This headline would have a different meaning if it was an open source project.

morsch• 15 years ago

Yup, I honestly expected an article about the build environment and stuff like build times. Can you compile Windows from scratch on a regular development machine in a decent time frame? I guess it depends on whether you're thinking of the Windows kernel or Windows the desktop environment.

benatkin2• 15 years ago

I posted my own version.

http://batkin.tumblr.com/post/8967355366/building-windows-8

I agree that they could have taken a different angle with the post title, even though it isn't open source. I'm sure many would be interested in hearing about how they build it. I would.

cpeterso• 15 years ago

Though it's a pretty old, this Microsoft presentation from USENIX 2000 describes how Windows NT development evolved from NT 3.1 through Windows 2000, including details about source control and build machines.

Windows: A Software Engineering Odyssey

https://db.usenix.org/events/usenix-win2000/invitedtalks/luc...

justanotheratom• 15 years ago

There was a blog post but its is gone. Here is one describing that blog post:

http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-employee-details-how-wind...

absconditus• 15 years ago

Why is a PR puff piece receiving so many votes?

aerique• 15 years ago

Astroturfers.

cookingrobot• 15 years ago

(disclaimer: I worked on Win 7 and Win 8. Don't work at MS now.)

The Windows 7 engineering blog led by Sinofsky was really well received. I worked on a few posts and internally there was an extremely high bar for clarity, accuracy, and usefulness of the content. And there was serious attention paid to feedback.

This post doesn't really say anything other than that the engineering blogs are starting up again - that's what people seem to be excited for.

merckx• 15 years ago

>"Welcome to 'Building Windows 8,' or as we call it, 'B8.'"

Srsly? Bait? +1 for honesty.

nwatson• 15 years ago

Just wait for the book. "How to Master Building Windows 8".

DonnyV2• 15 years ago

I really like the fact that they mentioned "performance" a bunch of times. Windows has needed some serious streamlining and performance tweaks for a while now.

nopassrecover• 15 years ago

Have you used Win7?

DonnyV2• 15 years ago

yes...still could be faster.

ezy• 15 years ago

"Building the next release of Microsoft Windows is an industry-wide effort that Microsoft approaches with a strong sense of responsibility and humility" and "we learned some great lessons and renewed our sense of responsibility to the community"

Given that this was full of stuff worded like this, I sort of doubt that. You feel like you're being snowed from the first sentence onwards. I realize this is somewhat orthogonal to the technology that might be included. However, this is supposed to be from "inside the engineering team", and it's almost completely tone-deaf. Either they need to hire more intelligent PR people or, I don't know, let actual engineers talk about what they are building.

arihant• 15 years ago

He's not a PR guy. Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Sinofsky

MSDN blogs are usually full of stuff MS engineers are doing. I think he is trying to write to a more broader audience than just developers (bloggers, social media people, etc.), hence the crafty wording.

barista2• 15 years ago

I think he's a president at Microsoft. Nothing but great respect for this guy.

evanlong• 15 years ago

Great blog on history of Windows and why things are the way they are: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/

cooldeal2• 15 years ago

The real reason for the PR like speak is what he says in the blog post. They don't want to end up with the WinFS like fiasco where they over promised but under delivered.

MS is still ridiculed about WinFS.

Wait for the engineering blogs to actually start. They will have the real meat like the Windows 7 engineering blogs did.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/

Is there something like this for OS X or Chrome OS ?

barista2• 15 years ago

I think what he is referring to by "industry wide effort" is the fact that microsoft works with a lot of partners early through the milestone and incorporates a lot of feedback. That way a lot of partner companies other than Microsoft have a say in what goes in the next release.

jasonkester• 15 years ago

Truly unfortunate combination of project abbreviation and font. I read it as B$.

Hopefully it doesn't stick.

akshat• 15 years ago

Given how insightful the previous site for Windows7 was, this is surely one to follow.

thebigshane• 15 years ago

I think some commenters here seem to have missed (or forgotten about) the IE blog[1] and the Windows 7 blog[2] which had great technical articles. This initial post resembles the first Windows 7 blog post posted 3 years ago [3]. If this new blog continues the standard set by these other two, then I have high hopes.

Bottom line: This post does sound fluffy because it is intended as an introduction to an entire series of posts of the development of Windows 8.

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/ [2]: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/ [3]: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2008/08/14/welcome.aspx

Someone• 15 years ago

I agree there was content, but the wording, to me, way too often made it look as if a flock/herd (what's that called? A burial?) of marketeers vetted every stroke of every character in those posts.

dade_• 15 years ago

I've heard rumour that MS has already axed any radical changes to the UX. In other words, the Windows 95 interface will continue. Windows needs a vision, right now it looks like it is being run by a Dilbert comic. If it wasn't for Bill, we would be using Program Manager and File Manager with Aero graphics. Sad. Get rid of the Gorilla.

wmf• 15 years ago

Didn't you see the "radical new WP7-inspired UI"? (Which will presumably have to revert to a normal Windows desktop as soon as you actually launch an app.)

dorian-graph• 15 years ago

Whoa, Digg in 2006.

shriphani• 15 years ago

I had the rare opportunity to speak with Mr. Raymond Chen and Mr. Larry Osterman last week. Both were extremely down-to-earth and full of enthusiasm for windows 8. I mean, this product has 1 billion users across the world and for a lot of people, this will be the first computing experience. I am truly excited about this windows release.

Disclaimer : MSFT Intern but I haven't worked on / don't work on Win 8.

jhuckestein• 15 years ago

They call this process B8 - bait

renegadedev• 15 years ago

Oddly enough, Windows' best versions have been ones with simple numbers (3, 7) as opposed to verions with years (95, 98) or names/acronynms (ME/XP). Here's hoping 8 will continue that trend.

Building Windows 8

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