Thursday, November 1, 2007

Whats in a name!

Ever wondered why software companies go for code names of the products they are about to release? Microsoft is famous for its spicy code names. From Whistler for XP to Longhorn for Vista and Vienna for Windows 7, they have a wonderful set of code names they have come up with in all these years. But I wandered through the web just to get an insight about why code names do not last long. And if they are temporary, why not go for a standard name at once, and waste time hanging around with code names!

I have the answer now. The industry is not as simple as it sounds. While design and development of a product is being worked on, software companies keep their marketing department busy with planning sales and advertising. There are license issues, market studies and lot many legal issues to be dealt with meanwhile. So developers come up with a name for their baby; and that is why sometimes the code names have nothing to do with the product itself.

If you are curious to know what the code names Microsoft has used for its products yet, check this list on Wikipedia. And if you are wondering what does the title of this blog has to do with it...well I repeat William Shakespeare's words "what's in a name!".

Friday, October 26, 2007

Microsoft weds Facebook

In just about 3 years time, like many other IT companies reaching appreciable height of success in short span, Facebook has become a popular name in social networking environment. With the news of Facebook being evaluated at $15 billion and Microsoft benefiting from a $240 million stake, things are going to be more challenging for Google.

For IT people around the world, it has always been a fun to watch the catfight between Google and Microsoft. There have been comparatively fewer times Microsoft has gained advantage over Google than the vice versa, but with an elite advertising partnership with Facebook, Microsoft has made an another small victory.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Windows stripped naked

"So that's kind of proof that there is actually a pretty nice little core inside of Windows." This was a pretty cool statement. Have you had a chance to watch Eric Taut's presentation on the concepts of Windows 7 and virtualization strengthening into Windows? If you missed, watch it here.

Eric Traut is the right person to hear about Windows kernel from, not only because he leads the core team of about 200 engineers which is primarily responsible for Windows kernel and core technologies, but also because he knows enough that we would like to know. During the presentation, he does not hesitate to admit the importance of Linux for companies around the world and neither degrades the essence of Photoshop. But as he leads through the concept of virtualization and how Windows is going to embrace it, we realize that lately Microsoft has become aware of sharing its pride of being the best. Surely for the good.

Eric demos a tiny stripped core kernel of Windows NT loading in cute ASCII bootscreen which is just 25 MB in size and 40 MB of RAM, but is enough to run a simple http server. He calls it MinWin. Microsoft is stripping Windows to its tiny neat core and building it again from there, layer by layer, reusing code wherever usable. And they are not in a hurry. The next big release is scheduled for 2010 which is codenamed "Windows 7". Eric explains how Microsoft would like to provide a true VM concept based OS as he runs multiple versions of Windows (it was cool to see Windows 1 and 2 in action). The "hypervisor" is a small kernel (about 75,000 lines of code) that uses software partitions where guest operating systems go. If you find it difficult to watch the approx 1 hour video of Traut's presentation, check out this nine minute video of Minwin.

Letting go of the bulky Vista-size cluttered system and starting it afresh with better concepts from the core than its legendary polishing practice is bound to get Microsoft good competence, the same benefit that open source industry reaped by releasing the kernel to let poeple polish it at the core. Many would say Microsoft is borrowing ideas from open source. But I would say if Microsoft gave the world the concept of user-centric operating system, it has the right to evolve through time. Good news, it is starting now! The revival must not have been delayed further with ruling threats from Linux community.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Operating System Support

Windows XP has not been very friendly with me recently. Well, it is said that software goes parallel with hardware, and I use a PC with normal configuration without a UPS support in an unstable power environment. That makes me a bad operator and thus I would not like to blame the operating system.

There is a brighter side too. I am doing more debugging task with operating systems than I used to. Unfortunately more than half of the cases to solve the OS problems ended up in me reinstalling the operating system. Fortunately, it also encouraged me to look for better solutions. So guys, here is a couple of interesting resources you need. I will keep posting them here if I come across more of them.

Missing hal.dll? You do not need to reinstall. Check the solution here.

Need some information about what a dll is about and is that needed in your PC? Check the mega library. It is extensive, so don’t try to mess with the ocean. Sneak into and just check info about the dll you need to!