Steve Ballmer has revealed a few details of a forthcoming operating system that will help developers write Internet-based applications.
Within a month, Microsoft will unveil what Ballmer called “Windows Cloud.” The OS, which will likely have a different name, is intended for developers writing cloud-computing applications, said Ballmer, speaking in London to an auditorium of IT managers at a Microsoft-sponsored conference.
Ballmer was short on details, saying more information would spoil the announcement. Windows Cloud is a separate project from Windows 7, the OS Microsoft is developing to succeed Windows Vista.
Ballmer was quick to point out that Microsoft doesn’t envision products such as the Office productivity suite to move entirely off desktop PCs and onto the Internet.
But Microsoft is working on a service that would let people do “light editing” of Office documents at places such as a public Internet kiosk, Ballmer said.
“That’s all I can say on that,” Ballmer said. “Otherwise, we have no drum-roll announcement in a month.”
Now – has it been Microsoft all along planting stories about cloud computing? Has all this been a successful PR stunt?
where’s the bullshit meter?
Why didn’t they tell Dell?
BLUE SKY meets BLUE SCREEN !!! Does Not Compute !!!
Bah! What an idiot!
Windows Cloud? Light editing?
Please… Ballmer’s a flipin’ a-hole who will say and do anything to protect his overinflated stock.
He continues to blow about MS innovation and somehow tries to convince us that the future is NOT really the web or cloud or whatever and it will always be tied to the desktop of course.
If Microsoft then open up the cloud-app to third party developers, and make a store where users can buy the applications, that might be the most original piece of business thinking to come out of Seattle in a long time.
Everything that Microsoft produced is crap. Hear that, MS users? You have crap under your fingertips and apparently you like it.
Apple rules. Using a Mac is scientific proof that you are smarter than that guy using Windows. Much smarter.
Sarah Palin uses an iMac. Obama uses a Vista machine except during Ramadan when he can’t use the computer between sunrise and sunset.
“Sarah Palin uses an iMac.”
HAW, HAW, HAW!!! I guess that says it all.
Ron Paul uses Linux!
Okay, I don’t know if he does or not, but it’d fun to imagine he does.
I imagine MS will think of a way to make “cloud computing” completely and totally unusable. For instance, you have to have a copy of Office 2007 on the machine you’re using to use the web application. It won’t work on anything except IE7.0 (yes, not even working on IE8.0). It’ll lock up your browser. Won’t work on mobile devices. Oh joy!
Sounds like Microsoft AJAX. They will just make a hash out of it as usual.
I wouldn’t call it successful. There’s enough distrust out there over cloud computing to make any product offering flop.
#7 – As it does about you. Owned.
I wonder if his announcement is actually just a precursor to all the Mesh stuff that they’re supposedly talking about at PDC. Supposedly the plan is for Mesh to be a platform for cloud computing apps.
It’s just Mesh he’s talking about.
so what will happen when I have to reinstall everything? Go to web to download but computer can’t connect. What a horrible idea. The “cloud” is ok for some things,but an os?
The only “cloud” is between Baldmer’s ears.
“where’s the bullshit meter?” – Well, the meter was applied to the “Wall Street Bailout/Rescue” and it just DISAPPEARED IN THE PILE OF BULLSH*T COMING OUT OF WASHINGTON !!!
it might be said that microsoft has it head up in the cloud…
but i’m sure they have their heads up elswhere. (hhmm i wonder where that can be?)
just take out the ‘u’ in cloud , that is the kind of computing you will have…….
In general, “cloud computing” seems to be an inherently insecure concept. It doesn’t matter who’s running the cloud…
It still stinks from the last cloud they released.