Richi Jennings

Seeking Windows 7 alpha at PDC (and WinHEC)

September 25, 2008 6:29 AM EDT
How d'you do? In Thursday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings looks forward to Windows 7's coming-out parties -- at Microsoft's twin shindigs: the Professional Developers and Windows Hardware Engineering conferences. Not to mention 21 cool USB devices...

We see Gregg Keizer shiver with anticipation:
Vista logoMicrosoft Corp. confirmed [Wednesday] that it will hand out preview copies of Windows 7 to attendees at next month's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) ... [it] said that developers would get a "pre-beta" release of Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, on Oct. 28.
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Steven Sinofsky, who heads Windows development, will deliver a keynote address on Oct. 28, the second day of the conference, which opens the day before and runs through Oct. 30 in Los Angeles.
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Microsoft added more than a dozen Windows 7-specific sessions to the PDC agenda, including ones titled "New APIs to Find, Visualize and Organize," "Integrate with the Windows 7 Desktop Taskbar" and "Best Practices for Developing for Windows Standard User.".more

Let Tom Warren show you around:
Part of Sinofsky's keynote will be a demonstration of the work being done for Windows 7. Advances across the full range of Windows—including the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and user-interface will be demonstrated at PDC.

Attendees of PDC will also be able to attend 21 different sessions based on Windows 7.more

Chris Flores is Microsoft's faithful handyman:
PDC ... is an event designed for leading-edge developers and software architects that are interested in the future of the Microsoft platform. If you're responsible for the technical strategy in your organization, or you're a highly skilled developer who likes to delve deep into the heart of the platform, then PDC is for you!
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The Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) ... focuses on designing PCs, servers, and devices that run and interface with Microsoft Windows with a focus on Windows 7. WinHEC brings together engineers, developers and testers, and product planners giving them a opportunity to stay aligned with Microsoft technology roadmaps and new product opportunities.
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At each event you will hear from lead Windows Engineers including Steven Sinofsky, as well as see firsthand the next Windows OS. Just announced today - at both shows we will handing out a pre-beta build of Windows 7 ... If that's not incentive to head to these events, I don't know what is ;-)more

Andre Da Costa thought you were the candyman:
Well, this should be great news for those attending ... I assume this will be on the 160 GB special edition Western Digital hard disk attendees will be getting.

Regardless of what we know so far about Windows 7, it looks like this will indeed be an enticing upgrade to look forward to as there will be a whole lot more to talk about come October and November. I wonder if Office 14 will be part of the package?.more

Long Zheng invites us to come up to the lab:
With the fast internet access available at the event, I reckon Microsoft might as well just seed a torrent.

The event website has also been updated today with a couple new Windows 7 sessions to the agenda, of which the following caught my privy eyes:
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New Shell User Experience APIs ... New APIs to Find, Visualize, and Organize ... New Text and Graphics APIs ... Design Principles for Windows 7 ... Deep Dive - What’s New with Win32’s user32 and comctl32.
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But hide and seek isn’t over yet. Apparently there’s even some secret Windows 7 sessions only to be revealed after the keynote presentation, which makes scheduling extra fun for attendees I guess). However from at least what’s above, it looks like the user-interface is in for some pretty radical enhancements.more

Microsoft's Larry Osterman sees what's on the slab:
The PDC folks just announced a host of Windows 7 related PDC talks, one of which is mine. The title of the talk is “Windows 7: Building Great Communications Applications”.  You can find it under the Windows 7 track on the Microsoft PDC site.

The primary target for my talk is developers who are building an application that in any way communicates between users (voice mail, instant messaging, voice over ip, etc).  In addition, if you’re a games developer or a media player developer, you should also attend, there’s stuff in the talk for you too.
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See you in LA!more

Wolfgang Gruener removes the cause, but not the symptom:
Windows 7 has largely been expected to become a Windows Vista on steroids, or, if you will, a Vista SE that will bridge the gap between Vista and completely new operating system that may be released in the late 2011 or 2012 timeframe. And the PDC 2008 scheduled appears to support these expectations – there will be some new features, but no surprises.
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The lion’s share of all Windows 7 sessions is dedicated to graphics - the appearance of Windows 7 and applications. Four tracks will provide information on the Windows 7 graphics architecture, new API’s to find, organize and visualize, new text and graphic API’s and Windows 7 taskbar integration.
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Two sessions focus exclusively on performance (of background processes) and energy efficiency of applications under Windows 7, and other major tracks will zero in on communications applications, native web services and how developers can develop applications that will take advantage on Windows 7’s multi-touch support.more

Brad[That's enough Rocky -Ed.]

And finally... Buffer overflow: Other Computerworld bloggers:
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 22 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch: