Windows 9 Discussion - Project Threshold

Overheal

http://news.en.softonic.com/rumor-windows-project-threshold-coming-in-2015

The information that appears to be out suggests that Microsoft is working on Windows 9 under what's been called Project Threshold.

From what has been gathered, it seems like Windows 9 has 3 basic core objectives. Just as Windows 8 prioritized

1) Touch,
2) Cross-support for ARM-powered platforms, and
3) Integration into Microsoft Cloud Services

Windows 9 appears to have priorities for

1) Winning back detractors from Windows 8 - eg. Desktop Start Menu return
2) Support for Phone/ARM and potentially Xbox Hardware
3) Cortana Virtual Assistant to compete against Siri and Google Now

On supporting multiple hardware platforms:

All three share a common Windows NT core, but beyond that Microsoft wants a more similar experience overall. This could mean common office apps, a single app store, greater Bing integration and more.

This is the second Microsoft codename taken from the iconic Halo games series. Its version of Apple's Siri is codenamed Cortana, also taken from the game.

Windows 9 will almost certainly also feature DirectX12, revealed in March. And given the project name Threshold and VA Cortana, it's not unreasonable to speculate this will be another situation similar to vista where they couple the launch of the new OS with a 'classic' Microsoft re-commitment to PC Gaming :rolleyes: But the odds of them releasing, say, a Halo title to the platform is unlikely, all it would do the way they see it is cut into their xbox sales and open it up to piracy.

a concept image of the new Start menu for Desktop from the April Build conference:



Consumer preview is slated to be out later this year. I no longer work at Best Buy or have access to Microsoft's Expertzone (and thus a guaranteed copy of all their latest goodies) but I do have an academic Dreamspark account, so same thing really. I might more than likely try this one out when the preview hits.

On the marketing, they may be in for some potential turmoil - rumours suggest they are planning multiple various OS SKUs, as opposed to one universal SKU:

Users running Threshold on a desktop/laptop will get a SKU, or version, that puts the Windows Desktop (for running Win32/legacy apps) front and center. Two-in-one devices, like the Lenovo Yoga or Surface Pro, will support switching between the Metro-Style mode and the Windowed mode, based on whether or not keyboards are connected or disconnected.

The combined Phone/Tablet SKU of Threshold won't have a Desktop environment at all, but still will support apps running side by side, my sources are reconfirming. This "Threshold Mobile" SKU will work on ARM-based Windows Phones (not just Lumias), ARM-based Windows tablets and, I believe, Intel-Atom-based tablets.

Cortana may seem like a gimmick, but VAs (Virtual Assistants) are really taking off, and only a few major companies have them - namely IBM (Watson - currently for the medical field), Google with Google-Now, Apple with Siri and Nuance now has Dragon Assistant. Even Amazon has entered the arena with their Fire Phone which basically has the Shazzam-app on steroids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HJodK56EsU

In order to claim turf Cortana will require solid development and she will unlikely be a polished product in Windows 9. However, Microsoft recently shed a lot of it's under-loved side projects and cut a lot of jobs in the company - 18,000 jobs. Thousand. Mostly from Nokia's hardware operations. So it's paring itself down and lightening the company's amount of priorities. That will hopefully help them focus on making a bigger leap in their strongest fields:

Microsoft will focus intently on improving its mobile and cloud productivity software, including Office 365, Windows Phone, Windows Azure, Skype, OneDrive and Bing.
Nadella said Microsoft was in need of a "culture change." Microsoft's rivals, including Google (GOOGL, Tech30), Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Amazon (AMZN, Tech30), have in many ways beaten Microsoft at the mobile and cloud game in recent years. Mobile and cloud are where most of the tech industry's growth is coming from.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Nokia, but the biggest play for Microsoft in the next 12 months will be Windows 9.

Fysh

I'm not overjoyed at the idea of returning to more SKUs per version, paring it back was one of the best things about Win8.

Idly curious about Cortana and all the other VA projects but I suspect they'll make more sense in a phone/wearable computer context.

Overheal

I feel like it will make calendars and stuff on desktop actually appear useful to home users. Sitting on your desktop, you suddenly get Cortana reminding you "uh hey, you have an appointment at 2PM, and with traffic you need to leave in the next 5 minutes" type of stuff. Obviously "web search Hippopotamus" is actually already a feature in Chrome if you enable it, but I think with KB+M few people need it. VAs will become more relevant when they have access to more complicated prompts, like the ones Cortana displays a capability for.