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Honest question: When was the last time MS actually did something interesting in regards to OS features/architecture? I read genuinely neat little tidbits about

Honest question: When was the last time MS actually did something interesting in regards to OS features/architecture? I read genuinely neat little tidbits about new features in OS X, Linux, and the BSDs on a fairly regular basis, but I can't remember the last time I read about something like that in Windows. The impression that it leaves is that releases of Windows newer than, say, Vista or 7 bring little outside of general cleanup and tweaks to the user-facing parts.

pjmlp 11y ago
The research OS: Singularity, Midori and Drawbridge The attempts to follow OS/400 footsteps with a managed userspace in Windows Phone 7. The OS architecture of Windows Phone 8. The way they are transitioning Windows into a App Container model with the WinRT execution model.
tomku 11y ago
If you want to see internal changes in Windows, look at the server versions, not the desktop ones. Over that time frame where you said nothing happened, Hyper-V has gone from a research project to a central part of the Windows server space. Powershell has gone from a tech preview to the recommended way to manage servers. Windows Server 2012 introduced ReFS and Storage Spaces. I'm sure Server 2016 will have a bunch of cool stuff too. The server-side Windows experience is radically different than it was when Windows 7 came out. Why aren't you hearing about these features? Lots of reasons. Windows is closed-source, so the internal changes you hear about are the ones Microsoft wants you to hear about. Most of the shiny new toys are to support server features that you won't notice unless you're a Windows sysadmin. Most desktop users don't care about internal changes unless they break things, and Windows hasn't broken much on the internal side since Vista. Microsoft's own messaging about major changes has been targeted almost exclusively at Windows server admins. Edit: That's not even getting into the new app development platform that shipped with 8/10, DirectX 12 adding Mantle-like APIs, first-class support for touch input, hybrid boot, booting from VHDs, etc. Microsoft has been busy over the past few years.

pjmlp 11y ago

The research OS: Singularity, Midori and Drawbridge The attempts to follow OS/400 footsteps with a managed userspace in Windows Phone 7. The OS architecture of Windows Phone 8. The way they are transitioning Windows into a App Container model with the WinRT execution model.

tomku 11y ago

If you want to see internal changes in Windows, look at the server versions, not the desktop ones. Over that time frame where you said nothing happened, Hyper-V has gone from a research project to a central part of the Windows server space. Powershell has gone from a tech preview to the recommended way to manage servers. Windows Server 2012 introduced ReFS and Storage Spaces. I'm sure Server 2016 will have a bunch of cool stuff too. The server-side Windows experience is radically different than it was when Windows 7 came out. Why aren't you hearing about these features? Lots of reasons. Windows is closed-source, so the internal changes you hear about are the ones Microsoft wants you to hear about. Most of the shiny new toys are to support server features that you won't notice unless you're a Windows sysadmin. Most desktop users don't care about internal changes unless they break things, and Windows hasn't broken much on the internal side since Vista. Microsoft's own messaging about major changes has been targeted almost exclusively at Windows server admins. Edit: That's not even getting into the new app development platform that shipped with 8/10, DirectX 12 adding Mantle-like APIs, first-class support for touch input, hybrid boot, booting from VHDs, etc. Microsoft has been busy over the past few years.