As I have said (oddly though; I have to say I wasn't completely out of the mindset from before) before, Microsoft is working to cut up the products that make up Windows, in order to avoid lawsuit, and to raise customer satisfaction.
Components of Windows are being turned into Live applications, like how Outlook Express was replaced by Live Mail, or how Movie Maker is going to soon be replaced by a Live variant.
Even cooler then that you can remove them is how feature rich these programs are, and yet cooler is that they (and a majority of their features) are available for older versions of Windows! Sure, I (and Microsoft) would love you to upgrade to the latest version of Windows, but there is always a situation or two that prevents that. So (seemingly) as long as the OS is still in the support phase (that's a very long time!) it will even get some updating in terms of Live applications like Windows Live Writer, or Windows Photo Gallery, despite not being the latest code.
They aren't part of Windows, alleviating any antitrust woes, however misplaced they may be. They are also very useful, being some of the most powerful free user programs available. They also perfectly fit and demonstrate Microsoft's Software Plus Services ideal.
This applications are wonderfully executed, all fitting a consistent UX with each other, they work very well together, and without precluding working with other programs. They do things that people want, and do it without a lot of work. For example, with the hit of a button I can make a panorama without hours of stitching. That's a feature that even "professional" users can appreciate. And its not only free, its easy.
They also are easier to write for, and even more so port, using WPF and .NET for the most part, making it so if Microsoft wanted to change their core OS (MS is thinking far ahead here) from NT to, say, a managed code microkernal, they could do it very easily (NT's design makes it very easy to do this too; Win32 was just plopped on, just like DirectX and .NET). Furthermore, they could slowly, and most comfortably start to depreciate Win32 over time just as they have been doing to DOS programs (which technically run in a VM now).
But in the shorter term even, it makes it easier to port these components to newer versions of Windows, makes them easier to update, and even makes it easier to introduce a new ones.
Easier technically, easier legally, and easier for the user. Beat that.
1 comments:
You express the right ideas here, but maybe there's a bit of confusion regarding the role of the kernel. The kernel & userland are largely separate entities.
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