Submitted by “Microsoft’s Hilton Locke, who used to work on the Tablet PC team and now works on the Windows Shell team, let us know today that if we are impressed with touch on the iPhone, then we’ll be blown away by the touch features of the upcoming Windows 7.” More here.
Windows 7 To Feature Touch Technology
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Hasn’t MS learned anything from their past mistakes (esp WinFS)? These guys need to STFU about features until this thing hits at least the beta stage.
Why not?, if we can swallow all the fake promises and the hype from KDE4 then I have no problems doing the same with MS.
There was no fake promises in KDE 4.
Oh and BTW, in Linux we can do this “touching thing” with X.Org + MPX *right now* and much more better than MS will ever do.
Edited 2007-12-13 01:27
sure, keep repeating the same if it makes you feel batter.
and same to you.
any particular feature you’re thinking of that was supposed to be in kde4 but isn’t? its pretty much all there now, though not yet finished.
anyway, what I got from the article is that the next windows will be “Windows 7”. yay. ok so this has been common knowledge for a while but I dont follow windows much these days…
That could be the most childish thing I’ve seen in ages.
What fake promises and hype?
Documentation please.
In case you just arrived here from Mars: on Earth it’s common knowledge that this kind of tactic has been used by Microsoft constantly since it’s earliest days. It’s a very effective method of stamping out competition. Whenever something comes up that even remotely challenges your position, all you have to do is release some FUD about the great things that will be in your next product, which is of course right around the corner.
Since Microsoft has a very solid position, most of the challenges it receives are risk plays from their makers. They go out on a limb and have to either make it or go down in a relatively short period of time. Unfortunately, they are very vulnerable like this. Customers will compare the offer from this new relatively unknown entity with promises from Microsoft, an established giant. It doesn’t matter that the small player has something it can actually deliver right now and Microsoft only has words. Many clients will decide to wait until next year, just in case Microsoft is true to its word. But that is enough to destroy the delicate business plan of the challenger and make it go bust. And when the next year comes, Microsoft makes some excuse about not showing anything, or ups the ante with even more promises. And the competition is gone.
Simple and effective.
I wasn’t asking you for evidence of Microsoft using FUD or delivering fake promises.
I was asking Hiev for evidence of KDE-devs giving fake promises.
In that case, sorry for being sarcastic.
In any case, you should quote the relevant bit of the post you reply to in the future, to avoid misunderstandings like this.
I’ll try that, but there is a link in the title to the parent post
– but I’ll try to remember explicitly quoting the relevant part in the future 
A transparent development process is actually something they learned from open source (as we saw in the famously leaked halloween memo http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/halloween1.html)
Rather than promising detailed features and failing to deliver them, Microsoft should do like Apple and just announce vague “super secret features” that never materialize. People seem to go ga-ga for that sort of thing. :p
> Hasn’t MS learned anything from their past mistakes (esp WinFS)? These guys need to STFU about features until this thing hits at least the beta stage.
They learned that spreading FUD works. People think that it has alot of new stuff and improvements. Even technical people close to me. And i can’t persuade them otherwise. Even the latest benchmarks of XP sp3 vs. Vista sp1 where Office is twice as fast on xp has no effect on these people.. They just want to upgrade (and they don’t want to know their money has gone down the drain) so why should they listen to reason, they already cashed out..
How is claiming the next version of Windows will have feature X “FUD”? Do you even know what FUD means?
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Microsoft is good at that. They learned it from their previous Master (IBM). IBM was arguably better at it than MS, just like Sauron was better at being evil than Morgoth.
Every self respecting nerd knows that Sauron was the disciple of Morgoth, not the other way around (I hope that was a typo
)
I’m perfectly aware of that, but none-the-less Sauron became better at being evil (or at least more successful) than his former Master.
Then your analogy makes no sense.
I think you have that backwards. Morgoth was Sauron’s master and Suaron learned everything from him. I think Morgoth was much more of a bad guy than Sauron who for the most part was less of a physical baddie and more of a sweet talker, he could talk a good game but he got his ass handed to him several times. Morgoth was a god, Sauron is his lackey.
I’m such a geek. I think I’ll go shoot myself.
Just messing.
Sure they are good. When they do it. This is not a case of FUD.
Actually it is a part of FUD. It creates uncertainty and doubt. Combined that is enough to create fear in some people, not to mention the ads from Microsoft shown on this (and many other) site(s).
Some product manager on the shell team can create fear by claiming Windows 7 will have touch features?
Wow dude, that’s really f–king stretching it.
Actually, you’re right. Claiming you have stuff that doesn’t actually exist, or that you will have it without actually delivering, is called vaporware. Much better than FUD.
Everything announced in advance is vaporware until its officially released.
It’s not FUD, it may or may not end up being vaporware, it’s just stupid.
Now that they just managed to make copying files in Vista possible without letting the user wait too long, we can expect even more wonders from Microsoft
Without kidding, I think using a touchscreen is quite natural but not very precise without some kind of pencil. I’m not sure if I would like it that much, but many people will benefit from it, without doubt.
blown away is certainly correct, seeing as though the insane processor power requirements of vista+1 will make a nuclear explosion..
Am I the only one who is both confused and disappointed that a front page OSAlert article didn’t actually contain anything more than two or three sentences that weren’t in the summary?
For crying out loud, what’s next?
Front page: “CodeMonkey likes things”
Main article: “CodeMonkey likes things. He also likes stuff!”
In addition to that, some people are also quite annoyed when they have a “news article”, which links to another “news article”, which links to a “news article”, which links to another one, in which one can finally find the link to get into the source of the many “news articles”.
Giving credit to the source of the news is good, making your website visitor click through many sites is definitely not.
Agreed – I like the tradition on many blogs, where articles are accompanied with 2 links:
1 reference to ‘more information’ (directly to the ‘source’ of the matter), and 1 reference giving credit to the other blogger/newssite/whatever that lead the author to this topic.
Windows 7 will have touchscreen functionality in what, a couple years? A few years? Perhaps dropped through butter fingers as they find some big issue that makes it too much hassle? So, comparing something that’s not available outside of developer’s fingers to something that’s already shipping, and saying “It’ll be much better!” well, we know how those sorts of claims work out
I predict that when Microsoft gets this going on a Windows Mobile mutation (which actually doesn’t really share much of the mainline Windows code, so it’s really more of a different critter) that Apple will have perfected the Facial Hair User Interface on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and thus people with only facial hair but no fingers will be maximally productive on iPhones, and be able to work as phone sex operators
Multi-Unary-Fingerless-Function Interface spec allowing for the tactile screen interaction equivalent in today’s iPhone.
There will be several patents on the Pinch functionality alone and require a lot of control.
/endOfBeingAPig.
Since the Tablet APIs are in Vista, I was hoping the multitouch APIs would be included in SP1 or SP2.
Ah well… at least they’re giving us a long enough head’s up for people to actually develop for it.
Who cares about Windows anymore?
“Who cares about Windows anymore?”
95% of the people who use PC’s?
Actually a lot less than that.
Most people only care about the applications and “Ooh shiny!”. They don’t care whether it runs on Windows, *nix, Apples or pears, they just want to do their mail, surfing, games, typing, etc.
If they have trouble with the OS that they can’t fix with a magic repair button, they turn to others to fix their pc anyway.
Thats a good point.
I care about Windows too, since I use it in addition to Linux. You have to know Windows to get into most IT-related fields.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on anything by running *nix. I can access any Windows apps I want from my terminal server, even those that otherwise fail under Wine or VMs. .NET/WPF apps are no problem either–as you can see from the new Yahoo Messenger for Vista.
Heres my example:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/gallery/fullview.php?i=3885&original=1
Of course a terminal server fall flat at 3D gaming but Wine/Cedega usually work satisfactory after some tweaking. In the future we can hopefully look forward to DirectX/OpenGL hardware accelerated VM solutions!
I doubt they actually care about Windows per se. They just use whatever came on their PC and whatever does what they need to do. If it’s called Windows, Apple or Linux is irrelevant for them.
>>”Who cares about Windows anymore?”
>95% of the people who use PC’s?
No, they might have heard they are running Windows, but if you ask them which version they are running.. they might aswell say 97 or linux.. and they don’t give a shit.. and they should’nt.. this is only religion to a few of us.. the ones that know the pathetic nature of Windows.. we have an fanatic interest in seeing Microsoft loose.. I used to think the Amiga would conquer the Pc.. then i thought BeOS would prevail.. know i have to rely on linux for that.. and i think linux has actually reached a stage where it is better than windows on the desktop.. the only problem is.. noone (the usual family computer nerd you call) is familiar with linux, so if you need help.. you’re screwed!
Don’t think it’s 95% anymore.
80 – 85%
More like ~80% these days when looking apart from users on myfavouritedogfoodandseebritneyspearsandlindseylohannudeinthebathtubwi thparishilton.getfreshviruseshereforthe.net
Remember, there’s a world outside where windows is a generic word for something transparent you can see through.
To everyone who has said something like “more like 80%”…you’re forgetting about the business world, where Windows adoption rate on the desktop is 98%, if not even higher. I’m well aware of the world outside. I spend a lot of time there. Facts are facts.
*LOL*
The business world is a helluvalot better at adopting Linux than Average Joe. It is in the business sector you see the largest adoption of linux (and *nix in general). I’m not even sure Windows has the majority there.
I don’t think you read my comment thoroughly: ” Windows adoption rate on the desktop is 98%”. Desktop. End users. And yes, business desktop adoption for Windows is ubiquitous, and much higher than in the consumer space.
Sure as hell it isn’t. Linux on the desktop is a lot more widespread on the business desktop than at home users.
Windows has a bigger percentage of the home users than among business users – including the Desktop.
You’d be surprised to see the numbers of OS X on business Desktops.
Windows is steadily losing marketshare. About 1% loss every year or two. Most of this marketshare is going to Apple but a small slice is going to Linux as well.
Windows is at 92% marketshare now.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=9&qpdt=1&qpct=4&q…
It looks not so steady. At that rate Linux will need several years to make a dent. For me the stuff is how to break the symbiotic relation between OEMS, manufacters and MS. With MONOPOLY there is no fair COMPETITION.
reality check.
Heh, unfortunately those stats are from “Net Applications” renowned for not being particularly accurate. It doesn’t show the marketshare. It shows the ‘possible’ marketshare for the websites belonging to customers (depending on the information returned from browsers). Pretty much useless IMHO.
They do however show that most visitors on those sites (primarily targeting the virus-infected Average Joe’s) uses Windows or at least a browser claiming to run on Windows. And their customers are primarily US-customers, which makes them irrelevant by definition.
Even though I work in the portable PC business, it’s hard to tell whether tablet PCs will become more popular. They certainly have a much smaller place in the market than your regular laptops.
Microsoft promising excellent touch-screen features is really only appealing to a small market.
Personally, I won’t go near tablets. I hate fixing them (but that’s my job). A notebook style laptop is the best type of portable PC, in my opinion. Who knows, maybe they’ll make them touch-screen too?
Fujitsu used to make touchscreen laptops, the old Lifebook B series im sure .. Didn’t really go anywhere it seems, probably would have benefited with some good tech behind it rather than a stylus doing the same as the mouse pointer ..
The problem I have with them is this; I’m petrified that I’m going to break them; if they do come out with a reasonably priced tablet, it needs to be cheap, light and very ruggered. I want to be able to drop the sucker from a height of 2 metres and know that the machine is still going to keep working without a hitch. If something is spilled over it, I want to know that I can wipe if off with a cloth and keep on using it.
Like I said, I’d be happy to use it but given the price is expensive and the fragile nature of these devices, I’d sooner stick to good old pencil and paper; and use a notebook when stationary.
All it takes is windows in the title and you get a comment section insta-flame war
Yeah… it’s pretty funny the way that works. There’s a lot more hatred than understanding when it comes to Microsoft and Windows. Of course they’ll claim that they hate BECAUSE they understand…
Hey, at least nobody has said they’re copying Apple yet.
Yeah, but KDE4 (of all things) was brought up near the top.
I’m sorry, but this is not about Windows. It’s about MS not stopping to talk bullshit all the time.
Look at this “news”, at the _source_! It only consists of:
“I will say that if you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7. Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales.”
You see? It’s just “hey, we will blow you away!!!111 I’m not kidding, now buy our stuff!!!11111”
I’M IN UR WINDUZ BLOWIN’ YA AWAY!
Just skip it and there will be no flame war.
Ok, that was funny
Except you can’t even buy it, because it doesn’t exist yet. And if past claims for previous versions of Windows have shown us anything, we may very well wait 5 years only to finally be told “sorry, that shiny thing we mentioned didn’t make it”.
Look at Vista. It first made an appearance around 2001, in the form of codenames Longhorn and Blackcomb. Over the years, the two merged features (on paper), only to then begin dropping them like crazy. Vista finally arrived in 2006, with a lot of features dropped, most notably WinFS.
So why should anybody believe anything Microsoft says? If we have learned anything from the past it’s that Windows 7 will probably arive in 2012 and will NOT include touch features.
Yup. Write anything that isn’t a complete bow to Microsoft and you get modded down. Write something which isn’t a complete bow to FLOSS and you get modded down as well. Write something about Mac which isn’t a complete bow to Steve Jobs and you get modded down.
Write something trollish and you get modded up.
Go figure…
wait, there gonna actually remove this feature before final,
I don’t understand the news submission policies here.
A few days ago, I submitted a story about Vista SP1 providing up to 3 times the network performance of Vista RTM.
** Vista SP1 will deliver big network speed boost **
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=336
This story provided some counter to the series of “Vista SP1 provides no perf improvements” stories that we were treated to from some website I’d never heard of before. But for some reason my story was rejected, despite being very detailed.
Yet this “Windows 7 To Feature Touch Technology” story is accepted despite being based on a single “oh, by the way” sentence from Hilton Locke’s msdn blog entry talking about the Dell Latitude XT Tablet? This story has zero substance to it at this point. Why is this accepted, but not the story on Vista SP1’s network performance improvements? I really don’t get it.
Edited 2007-12-13 08:43
That’s a really good question. Thom… whose side are you on today? I think OSAlert kills kittens!
(Okay… this is certainly off-topic)
Oh well, since the whole WindowsUpdateIsEvilBecauseitUpdatesItselfWithoutAskingFirst-thingy got accepted as ‘news’ I believe people have been searching for a new and even lower standard
I’m sure Star Trek fans will love this news, they’ll probably working on mock-ups NOW for bootscreen replacements so that it looks like the LCARS consoles, and recording sample of the ‘ships computer’ that they can use to replace the default sound systems.
1) Touch technology is available and works perfectly on iPod touch and iPhone
2) what if they first finished and made available their famous (but other vaporware up to now) filesystem that was supposed to appear with Vista ?
How can people still believe in these declarations ?
Do you want to know where that filesystem went? One part became this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework
There were other parts to it, of course, and those pieces are being applied where appropriate.
“There were other parts to it, of course, and those pieces are being applied where appropriate.”
Of course, one might argue that “where appropriate” would be in a place which “forever changes the way we work with computers”. That was one of the selling points of vista, in its early days.
I think “appropriate” sometimes is fulfilling the expectations people have on you. At least when the expectations comes from what you told them would happen.
I’ll be blown away if this makes it into Windows 8 ..
That’s the first Windows 7 guarantee to come.
I was impressed by the iPhone. Is Windows really going to top that and ‘blow me away?’
We’ll see.
everyone seems to miss the truly embarrassing thing about this comment.
He is claiming that MS will have technology to compete with a shipping product in POSSIBLY 2 years. If they can ship it that quickly.
So ultimately it will take MS at minimum 2 years to catch up with technology for a desktop OS (probably requiring close to top of the line hardware) that is now shipping on a PHONE!
If it were me I would be so proud!
Because I need to have Windows to show me something extremely wrong and stupid so I know I am doing all right things in Linux; otherwise I don’t know that Linux is actually pointing to the right direction all the time.
I don’t know if that is 80%, 85% or 90% or even 99% because I am having Windows on my office desktop with 2 Ubuntu Linux running as test environment for application and database servers to simulate the infrastructure for implementations. I also run one Linux only desktop (C2D E6600, 4GB) at home with 6 Linux on it (Fedora 7, SuSE, Ubuntu 7.10 x 2, DamnSmallLinux and PCLinuxOS), even though two of my sisters and myself run HP with Windows on them, I am running, yet, 4 Ubuntu on my laptop.
Total Windows I am running, it’s 1 desktop + 3 laptops = 4 Windows.
Total Linux I am running, it’s 2 on office desktop + 7 Linux on my desktop + 4 on my laptop = 13 Linux.
Not that much but I guess I am boosting the % of Linux desktop
…those companies who are doing the survey to come up with 98% of the marketing using Windows need to take virtualization into considerations.
through statements like this you can notice how scared Microsoft must be by the iPhone and the technology inside of it. Compared to Windows Mobile, the iPhone seams like a device from outher space – like the AMIGA in 1985 was compared to an MS-DOS PC at that time.
You can see this also in Ballmers doubtful comments about the iPhone when it was introduced in january.
something like MPX (last years’ tech, at best) + asking for hardware support?
And it’ll blow away who exactly?