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Lots of rumors at this point about what will be announced... Windows Phone 8.1 Windows 8.1 (big update) New Nokia models Surface 3 I would also not be surp

Lots of rumors at this point about what will be announced... Windows Phone 8.1 Windows 8.1 (big update) New Nokia models Surface 3 I would also not be surprised to see an announcement of an acquisition in the dev space, Xamarin comes to mind but I dont think that will happen (yet).

ttrashh 13y ago
They had Windows 8. Then Windows 8.1. Now it's Windows 8.1 Update 1. (Another terrible name in a long line of terrible Microsoft product names)
- freehunter 13y ago
  How is it any different from Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to Android 4.4 KitKat, or Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail to Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamader to Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, or Mac OS X v10.7 Lion to Mac OS X v10.8 Mountain Lion to Mac OS X v10.9 Mavericks? They're all the same OS (and the same OS release) with names tacked on to differentiate between minor releases.
  - acqq 13y ago
    Exactly. "Update 1" is, when spoken, shorter than "Service Pack 1" what would be the older convention for this kind of release of Windows. Moreover, the changes are supposedly bigger than what they'd allow in the old-style service packs, so it's fitting not to name it the service pack and still shorter.
  - jenscow 13y ago
    Those names are consistent with each other.
- gtirloni 13y ago
  In a recent book (Visual C# Step-by-Step) the author keeps making a distinction about Windows 7/8 and Windows 8.1. I suppose it's because it's relevant but I have not really researched what the differences are from 8 to 8.1. MS probably feels they are significant enough to keep calling it "Windows 8.1" as the product name. At the same time, Update 1 might be insignificant enough that it's not worth calling it "Windows 8.2".
  - rbanffy 13y ago
    After all, we must conserve resources as limited as release numbers...
    - gtirloni 13y ago
      While I appreciate the joke, you miss the point. This has more to do with marketing strategy than with release numbers used by developers. But I don't feel like discussing such small matter.
endianswap 13y ago
Is it typical at this sort of event to announce new things? I'm generally unfamiliar with these sorts of conventions/conferences or whatever you call it, but reading through the titles and descriptions of the talks just makes it sound like a super-dry advertisement for a list of Microsoft products. Am I wrong?
- jotato 13y ago
  This is their developer conf. Any announcements will be strictly dev related, and limited to the keynote. So, for example, maybe Azure upgrades/SDK changes. Visual Studio updates, .net framework, etc... All the other sessions are deep dives into the tech and how to use it
- jenscow 13y ago
  From my experience, all of their events are advertisements. You're not missing anything.
higherpurpose 13y ago
Windows 8.1 Update 1 doesn't sound like a very big update to me. It should certainly be a smaller update than 8.1, if they didn't name it 8.2, and there was nothing major about the 8.1 update to begin with, unless you consider the adding of a Start Screen shortcut button a "major upgrade". Windows is a behemoth that needs to support a ton of different hardware configurations, and it can't come out until it works very well on almost all of them. That means a year of development is a very short amount of time for Windows, and they can't add too much to it. Look at Windows 7 vs Vista. It took 3 years just to improve its performance a bit.
- sz4kerto 13y ago
  There's nothing major, and everything is already known (you could even have it already). Threshold (Win9) visions are going to be interesting.
  - amaks 13y ago
    "Threshold" and names like these bring back vivid memories about Longhorn and Blackcomb.
keithwarren 13y ago
windowsondevices.com was live for a bit earlier today, now gone. Speculation is this is a play to get in on the 'internet of things' areas with Windows devs.
- pistle 13y ago
  Someone better go up the quota on that Azure-based plan. That's the same message users get when someone doesn't allow auto-scale on a plan and a quota gets slammed.
rplnt 13y ago
Also the new Embedded Windows.
judah 13y ago
As an avid TypeScript user, I predict with much certainty that TypeScript 1.0 will be released today. TS has been in release candidate for some time now, and it feels ready for stable 1.0. I suspect we'll see that announced today.
andyjohnson0 13y ago
As a Xamarin customer I'm also wondering if Microsoft will announce a purchase or investment today. The risk for Microsoft has to be that if they don't then someone else might buy them first. Xamarin's twitter feed has been kind of quiet today.
- pistle 13y ago
  I'm hoping that MS arranges with Xamarin to be able to provide some form of the VS+Xamarin toolset for at least some SKU's of VS2013 and up for free. Sort of like InstallShield LE. They could delight if it were more.

ttrashh 13y ago

They had Windows 8. Then Windows 8.1. Now it's Windows 8.1 Update 1. (Another terrible name in a long line of terrible Microsoft product names)

freehunter 13y ago
How is it any different from Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to Android 4.4 KitKat, or Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail to Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamader to Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, or Mac OS X v10.7 Lion to Mac OS X v10.8 Mountain Lion to Mac OS X v10.9 Mavericks? They're all the same OS (and the same OS release) with names tacked on to differentiate between minor releases.
- acqq 13y ago
  Exactly. "Update 1" is, when spoken, shorter than "Service Pack 1" what would be the older convention for this kind of release of Windows. Moreover, the changes are supposedly bigger than what they'd allow in the old-style service packs, so it's fitting not to name it the service pack and still shorter.
- jenscow 13y ago
  Those names are consistent with each other.
gtirloni 13y ago
In a recent book (Visual C# Step-by-Step) the author keeps making a distinction about Windows 7/8 and Windows 8.1. I suppose it's because it's relevant but I have not really researched what the differences are from 8 to 8.1. MS probably feels they are significant enough to keep calling it "Windows 8.1" as the product name. At the same time, Update 1 might be insignificant enough that it's not worth calling it "Windows 8.2".
- rbanffy 13y ago
  After all, we must conserve resources as limited as release numbers...
  - gtirloni 13y ago
    While I appreciate the joke, you miss the point. This has more to do with marketing strategy than with release numbers used by developers. But I don't feel like discussing such small matter.

endianswap 13y ago

Is it typical at this sort of event to announce new things? I'm generally unfamiliar with these sorts of conventions/conferences or whatever you call it, but reading through the titles and descriptions of the talks just makes it sound like a super-dry advertisement for a list of Microsoft products. Am I wrong?

jotato 13y ago
This is their developer conf. Any announcements will be strictly dev related, and limited to the keynote. So, for example, maybe Azure upgrades/SDK changes. Visual Studio updates, .net framework, etc... All the other sessions are deep dives into the tech and how to use it
jenscow 13y ago
From my experience, all of their events are advertisements. You're not missing anything.

higherpurpose 13y ago

Windows 8.1 Update 1 doesn't sound like a very big update to me. It should certainly be a smaller update than 8.1, if they didn't name it 8.2, and there was nothing major about the 8.1 update to begin with, unless you consider the adding of a Start Screen shortcut button a "major upgrade". Windows is a behemoth that needs to support a ton of different hardware configurations, and it can't come out until it works very well on almost all of them. That means a year of development is a very short amount of time for Windows, and they can't add too much to it. Look at Windows 7 vs Vista. It took 3 years just to improve its performance a bit.

sz4kerto 13y ago
There's nothing major, and everything is already known (you could even have it already). Threshold (Win9) visions are going to be interesting.
- amaks 13y ago
  "Threshold" and names like these bring back vivid memories about Longhorn and Blackcomb.

keithwarren 13y ago

windowsondevices.com was live for a bit earlier today, now gone. Speculation is this is a play to get in on the 'internet of things' areas with Windows devs.

pistle 13y ago
Someone better go up the quota on that Azure-based plan. That's the same message users get when someone doesn't allow auto-scale on a plan and a quota gets slammed.

rplnt 13y ago

Also the new Embedded Windows.

judah 13y ago

As an avid TypeScript user, I predict with much certainty that TypeScript 1.0 will be released today. TS has been in release candidate for some time now, and it feels ready for stable 1.0. I suspect we'll see that announced today.

andyjohnson0 13y ago

As a Xamarin customer I'm also wondering if Microsoft will announce a purchase or investment today. The risk for Microsoft has to be that if they don't then someone else might buy them first. Xamarin's twitter feed has been kind of quiet today.

pistle 13y ago
I'm hoping that MS arranges with Xamarin to be able to provide some form of the VS+Xamarin toolset for at least some SKU's of VS2013 and up for free. Sort of like InstallShield LE. They could delight if it were more.