PDC2008: Windows 7, Office Web Apps, Azure and More

Some people enjoy the thrill of the crowds, the keynote speeches, meeting partners and vendors, and seeing first hand all the neat new things to come — that's why they go to conferences like Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC2008).

Some are either too cheap to go, or their companies are too cheap to send them. For those of you that fall into this category, you must live vicariously through the media and other bloggers to get your conference thrills.

We didn't get to the PDC2008 Conference either, but here's some highlights we have gleamed by listening to those that did go.

Azure Services Platform

The biggest news at PDC2008 was the announcement of the Azure Services Platform of which Windows Azure is the underlying cloud-based infrastructure.

It offers both an operating system and a set of developer services that you can use individually or together. Developers will be able to build applications for the web, connected devices, PCs, server or hybrid solution — offering a set of services that enable both online and on-premise solutions. This is Microsoft’s vision of “Software Plus Services”.

Windows 7

Windows 7 is Microsoft's newest operating system, expecting to be rolled out sometime in 2010. The successor to the incredibly unpopular Vista OS has been “designed to make everyday tasks faster and easier, and make new things possible for end users”.

Windows 7

Highlights of the new OS include:

• Compatible with the same hardware, applications and device drivers as Windows Vista
• Designed for performance, security and reliability (New features to protect privacy and data)
• Improved User Experience — Improved navigation, a new taskbar and a streamlined user interface

At the conference, Microsoft held the first full public demo of the new operating system. Attendees were given a pre-beta build of the OS and a promise that the full beta would be released early 2009.

Browser-based Office apps

Stand back Google Apps, the mighty Office Suite is entering the cloud. Called Office Web applications, it includes lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. This browser based version of Office will be released as a part of MS Office 14 — which means, of course, the web version will not be free.

Office Web Applications

The good news is you don't need IE to run the web-based version. Office Web applications will also run on Firefox and Safari.

In a Q&A on Microsoft's Press site, Chris Capossela, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Business Division said, “With this development, people can benefit from Office as a service on their browser, as a downloadable application on their phone, and as software on their PCs.”

Software Modeling with Oslo

Oslo is Microsoft's new software modeling initiative. First announced in October of last year, Oslo consists of three things:

• A tool that helps people define and interact with models in a rich and visual manner
• A language that helps people create and use textual domain-specific languages and data models
• A relational repository that makes models available to both tools and platform components

Three components of Oslo were presented at the conference as CTPs (Community Technology Previews):

PDC2008: Windows 7, Office Web Apps, Azure and More

\n\nSome people enjoy the thrill of the crowds, the keynote speeches, meeting partners and vendors, and seeing first hand all the neat new things to come -- that's why they go to conferences like Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC2008).\n\nSome are either too cheap to go, or their companies are too cheap to send them. For those of you that fall into this category, you must live vicariously through the media and other bloggers to get your conference thrills. \n\nWe didn't get to the PDC2008 Conference either, but here's some highlights we have gleamed by listening to those that did go.\n\n

Are you hiring?    Post your job today ($45 for 45 days)!