The Microsoft Build Developer Conference 2015, or Build 2015, runs from April 29th to May 1st. Already, many surprises have been revealed:
We got Android apps running on Windows. A Microsoft IDE running on Linux. .NET ported to Linux, too. Support for Objective C, the language that only Apple and NeXT has ever really used. Support for Google and Apple APIs - in fact, just carry on writing for Google and Apple. Wild, untamed Win32 binaries scaling the ramparts of the Microsoft Store. Phones turning into proper PCs when you plug them into a monitor and keyboard.
Rumors of Android apps running on Windows 10 turned out to be mostly true; Windows 10 will include an "Android subsystem" and many Android APIs to allow app code to be easily reused by developers, but Android apps won't automatically run on the OS. "[Project] Astoria also provides Java developers with hooks to Windows APIs that aren't present on Google's platform." In addition, Microsoft is courting iOS developers:
[More...]
The same goes for iOS developers. Myerson said a new tool being announced on Wednesday – we're told it's called "Project Islandwood" – will make it possible to convert Xcode project files into Visual Studio solutions. There's no code translation involved. All of the original Objective-C files remain intact. Myerson said a future version of Visual Studio will include full support for Apple's pet language, including Microsoft's much-vaunted IntelliSense tech.
It won't be possible to run iOS binaries on Windows devices, but the idea is that they will recompile for Windows with relatively little difficulty. The idea is that Microsoft's conversion tool handles the heavy lifting of converting iOS API calls to the corresponding Windows 10 APIs. During his keynote, Myserson showed off an app that he said used Apple's UIKit framework and Core Animation infrastructure, but which ran smoothly on Windows 10, including support for both mouse and touch.
Microsoft wowed the Build crowd with rehearsed HoloLens augmented reality demonstrations showcasing virtual app overlays in an apartment, an interactive 3D human body for studying anatomy, and a holographic "robot" and Minority Report-style UI elements surrounding a real robot on stage.
Microsoft has released a preview build of Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 as well as Intel's MinnowBoard Max.
Project Spartan, the replacement browser for Internet Explorer, has been given a final name: Microsoft Edge. Microsoft is defensively registering negative domains related to the new browser, although .sucks extortion is absent.
For the "enthusiast" PC gamer, Square Enix, Microsoft, and NVIDIA present "WITCH CHAPTER 0 [cry]" (video), a DirectX 12 demo running on four GeForce TITAN X GPUs.
This Gizmodo article has a nice writeup on all the happenings at the conference.
Related Stories
MS Releases "Visual Studio Code" - a Slim Cross Platform Code Editor
Microsoft appears like they may actually be starting to get serious about cross platform support. Their new slim code editor for developing cloud applications supports both OS X and Linux, as well as Windows.
At its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced the launch of Visual Studio Code, a lightweight cross-platform code editor for writing modern web and cloud applications that will run on OS X, Linux and Windows. The application is still officially in preview, but you can now download it here (if this link isn’t live yet, give it a few more minutes and then try again).
This marks the first time that Microsoft offers developers a true cross-platform code editor. The full Visual Studio is still Windows-only, but today’s announcement shows the company’s commitment to supporting other platforms.
From the Techcrunch article:
Today’s announcement will surely come as a surprise to many. It does, however, fit in well with the direction the company’s developer group has been on for quite a while now, be that the open sourcing of .NET Core (and taking that platform cross-platform) or the launch of the free Visual Studio Community edition.
Another Publicity Stunt from MSFT: "Visual Studio Code"
Roy Schestowitz at TechRights reports "Visual Studio Code": Not News, Not Free, Not Open Source
Another publicity stunt from Microsoft, this time going under the name "Visual Studio Code", which is basically proprietary lock-in
Despite an openwashing campaign and an effort to deceive the public (as chronicled here before), Visual Studio is (and will remain) proprietary. There is currently yet another PR blitz from Microsoft, which at the moment is trying to openwash it and pretend that it's "news" (it's not, it goes back to last year).
Sadly, some FOSS proponents have already fallen for it and Phoronix is doing marketing for Microsoft. This is not really news and it's not even a surprise. It's just some publicity stunt which got Microsoft boosters and Microsoft-friendly sites on board.
On the heels of Microsoft bashing Google's hands-off Android update policy at Ignite 2015, Lucian Armasu at Tom's Hardware has an editorial reaffirming Android's update woes:
Android 5.0 and Android 5.1 (Lollipop) [...] currently represent 9.0 percent and 0.7 percent of the Android market, respectively, for a combined total of 9.7 percent. That's definitely nothing to be proud about, because it could be years by the time the vast majority of users are on the Android 5+ platforms. By then, 10 percent of users could be on Android 8.0.
Because Android is open source and because so many (essentially) OEM-tweaked "forks" of it exist, a "clean" upgrade path is almost impossible. To have a clean standardized update system would mean all the OEMs would have to agree to abide strictly by Google's guidelines for what they can and cannot modify on the platform. However, as soon as Google tries to do something like that, the OEMs usually cry foul that Google is making Android more proprietary and restricting what they can do with it. Google may also not want to upset the OEMs too much by forcing a unified update system on them either, because of the fear that those OEMs could take their business elsewhere, as it were.
When we look at the matter practically, though, we see that some have already tried that (Samsung with Tizen), and it hasn't worked very well. The reality is that Android and iOS are so entrenched in the market right now that it's hard to believe a significant third platform could arise on mobile when it comes to apps. Even Microsoft, after spending billions upon billions trying to make Windows Phone popular, has essentially admitted failure on the app store front, and is now trying to make Android and iOS apps work with Windows instead.
Google also can't and shouldn't leave the responsibility to OEMs and carriers anymore, because so far they've proven themselves to be quite irresponsible from this point of view. At best, we see flagship smartphones being updated for a year and a half, and even that is less than the time most people keep their phones. Even worse, the highest volume phones (lower-end handsets) usually never get an update. If they do it's only one update, and it comes about a year after Google released that update to other phones, giving malicious attackers plenty of time to take advantage of those users.
This update "system," if you can call it that, ends up leaving the vast majority of Android users with security holes in their phones and without the ability to experience new features until they buy new phones (which is sadly a kind of planned obsolescence as well). This can't be an acceptable state of affairs for Google, and it shouldn't be. Google already has a great six-week update system for Chromebooks, and it's time to have Android catch up to that, as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @03:23AM
This is fairly classic PC mentality. Take everything else make it run on a PC.
The trick is to avoid the classic MS extinguish....
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday May 05 2015, @12:50PM
Yeah, but that's gonna be hard to do here when nobody is really buying PCs anymore...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gman003 on Monday May 04 2015, @04:05AM
But it looks like Microsoft is actually starting to do the right things.
Moving away from Metro on the desktop. Actually doing work to make Windows a decent cloud server OS and mobile OS. Compatibility (even if weak) with competing systems. Rewriting IE. DirectX 12 (while still MS-proprietary, it's at least vendor-agnostic, unlike Mantle).
I'm still not going to use any of their stuff, besides Windows as a client OS, but I'm starting to respect them more than I used to.
What's next, ditching NT for a Linux kernel? GPLing Office? Full source compatibility between Xb1 and Windows?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday May 04 2015, @05:04AM
But it looks like Microsoft is actually starting to do the right things.
And it looks like this is the Year of the Linux desktop! You don't need to he hanged. You are already hanging, by a PR thread, which in classical times was called "The Sword of Damocles!" Windows having to emulate Android. Never thought I would see the day. Tears in my eyes make it hard to see, what is that? A dead body in my living room? Micro$oft, what were you thinking? First Windows 8, and now a dead body in my livingroom? Oh, not real? Virtual reality, if you look just right? OK, it only worked because of my tears. Let this be a lesson to every one. Does anyone actually attend these conferences? I mean, real people?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @10:03AM
(more like drones)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @05:13AM
Do the right thing! The right thing is LINUX. Use, Linux, NOOOB. Linux, linux, linux!!! LINUX EVERYWHERE!! Linux in a chair, linux up in the air, linux up your anus!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @09:08AM
linux up your anus!!
I sure hope that's a VPS you're talking about. Because if it's a dedicated server you should consider yourself in a relationship.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 05 2015, @12:57AM
You have been system'd by courtesy of Dead Rats and that Mickeysoft.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday May 04 2015, @07:27AM
That's nothing new. A Posix subsystem in NT. An OS/2 subsystem, too. MS Office on Mac.
It's the first of the infamous three Es: Embrace.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @03:28PM
I think MS is doing it exactly backwards.
Android is just a proprietary API on top of linux. Instead of a weak emulation of android and iOS - they should port the windows application layer to android and iOS.
Make it so that any application developed for winphone can be ported to android and iOS with just a recompile - and not half-assed port, but a full-blown, fully integrated port that performs at full-speed. Give people a developer environment that is better than Google's or Apples and lets the code run on both major platforms - and also transparently runs on winphone as a freebie. Get enough major apps using winphone API and you'll reach a tipping point where there will be enough apps natively available for winphone to make it just as competitive as android and iOS.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday May 04 2015, @05:52PM
Apple is not stupid; they surely would never let programs using that into their walled garden. And while Microsoft would certainly be able to get it onto Android, Google would probably not allow it to be used in its own store.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05 2015, @12:40AM
Amazon is doing OK with their store.
I think that Apple would have anti-trust issues denying such apps simply because they depend on microsoft's libaries. Equal opportunity blocking of apps based on function is one thing, but based on build libraries would be risky. Google might get away with it due to the existence of places like Amazon's store.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday May 05 2015, @12:56PM
They wouldn't block apps for depending on MS libraries; they would block the MS libraries in the first place. Probably would say it duplicated existing functionality, they seem to like that particular excuse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @05:29AM
I don't get this: "the new browser will support Extensions". I.E has always supported extensions. These kids probably don't know, but they are called BHOs: Browser Helper Objects: BHOs [microsoft.com]
I sure hope any browser from MS will always support ActiveX. So I can tell the bitches "my extension is written in VC, yours is written in javascript".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @02:05PM
These kids probably don't know, but they are called BHOs
Indeed. Microsoft had the first API for browser extensions, and nobody but malware authors paid any attention.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 04 2015, @10:01AM
So... what Monsanto and Microsoft have in common? Simple: Roundup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Monday May 04 2015, @12:12PM
From a somewhat outside view, the Microsoft people seem to run around like headless chickens. It's entirely unclear into what basket to put one's eggs (to stay with the chicken metaphor...). It seems everything they present comes with an "...except..." or "...but not..." precisely between plan and product of a developer.
There is the grand OS unification push, but then, again, "Windows 10 Internet of Things" is forked off right away. In 3 flavours: "Window 10 IoT for Industrial Devices", "Window 10 IoT for Mobile Devices", and "Window 10 IoT for Small Devices". If "Window 10 IoT for Small Devices"'s image weighs in at a Gigabyte, it can't be that small, can it? So "Window 10 IoT for Small Devices" is probably useless to precisely that extent that one is forced to use "Window 10 IoT for Industrial Devices" instead.
Then we seem to get Android and iOS porting layers, where it is entirely unclear to what extent they have cloned NextStep. Do iOS developers get full Core Data and Core Audio? All the external framework integration, they're so fond of? (I'd guess, without any further digging for information, that it hardly goes past NSString and NSArray, just enough to lure naive developers into commitment.)
Right now, I'd not go for any of those new-fangled offerings, but stay with straight C#/WinForms (or more likely Qt) to avoid a "We've altered the plan. Pray we don't alter it any further" moment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @02:29PM
If "Window 10 IoT for Small Devices"'s image weighs in at a Gigabyte, it can't be that small, can it? So "Window 10 IoT for Small Devices" is probably useless to precisely that extent that one is forced to use "Window 10 IoT for Industrial Devices" instead.
I have worked on both of these sorts of devices in my past. Windows can be anywhere from ~60 meg to 3gig. Depending on what you bundle in. Less if you use the CE flavor (which is horrid). The 'big' hitters are that SxS system they built in and .NET. You can slim it down if you are extremely knowledgeable in the way windows builder works.
Even at 60 meg for an IoT device is too much. At this point in time 4-16 meg of flash and 256k of RAM on a IoT device is probably a luxury. For an industrial sort of box 3 gig is not bad as it does not have to be 'small' just run perfectly and not cost 250k per unit.
MS's cost to the vendors better be *ellllcheapo* too. Because linux (specifically busybox) pretty much owns this level of the segment of the market. If you are paying you will use one of the rtos's which have 30+ years of building to that segment.
MS will make very little inroad on that market segment. Because when you are building a quarter million dollar box 30 bucks for a windows license is not a showstopper. They would already be in that segment. They are not really in that segment because currently they do not fit (memory and flash). I do not see that changing within the next 2-5 years.
NOW with all of that. Eventually they will be in that segment in a big way. 512meg devices with 1-2 gig of flash are starting to become common and a lot cheaper (the pi is in the 50-60 dollar range for full board and power and case). You can hire some code monkey to learn the MS stack fairly quickly. The tools are fairly robust. Unlike the current SoC stacks which are usually some bastard version of GCC and eclipse if your lucky. Basically as SoC with larger memories/flash becomes more common you will start to see more windows in this segment.
to avoid a "We've altered the plan. Pray we don't alter it any further" moment.
All software is like that. Even Apple likes to pull this trick every ~5 years.
MS has integration down. This is actually pretty exciting. For example what I currently work on we want to move away from windows boxes and their zillion dollar fees for licenses. .NET will let us do that now. The code stack is now 'maybe we can run it on linux'. Where as a year ago that was not even an option.
MS has finally come to the conclusion I did 20 years ago for them. They are a software company. Their software should be on *all* devices. They finally realized it and are now transforming their tools to do it. An OS is something you use to run software.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 05 2015, @01:03AM
Microsoft is the tar baby. You will loose whenever you get involved with them in any way.