Microsoft's Midori -- a future without Windows

According to a report, Microsoft isn't just looking at the next version of Windows (no, not Mojave) for future OS possibilities, but is looking beyond the Windows architecture altogether with a project known as Midori. The new OS is still in the "incubation" phase (which puts it slightly closer to market than R&D projects), but Microsoft has admitted to its existence, and the Software Daily Times says at least one team in Redmond is actively working on the new architecture.

The basis for the platform centers around research related to Microsoft's Singularity project, and envisions a distributed environment where applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems. The researchers are working to create a concurrent / parallel distribution of resources, as well as a method of handling applications across separate machines -- religiously-dubbed the Asynchronous Promise Architecture -- which will set the stage for a backwards-compatible operating system built from the ground up, with networks of varying size in mind. Says the SD Times, "The Midori documents foresee applications running across a multitude of topologies, ranging from client-server and multi-tier deployments to peer-to-peer at the edge, and in the cloud data center. Those topologies form a heterogeneous mesh where capabilities can exist at separate places." Like it technical? Hit the read link for an in-depth look at the possible shape of Microsoft's future.

[Via Yahoo!]

[Brian @ Jul 30th 2008 9:21PM]

Windows Midori. Mac OS X rip off.

[Evan @ Jul 30th 2008 9:26PM]

Yeah that made sense... the Midori description sounds exactly like OSX... yep...

[Striker @ Jul 30th 2008 9:28PM]

lf you are an Apple fanboy, please stay away from Engadget and go waste your life away on TUAW.

[Rick White @ Jul 30th 2008 9:34PM]

Try Linux, and you're there.

"applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems", "concurrent / parallel distribution of resources", "a method of handling applications across separate machines"? We have that, thanks, it's called Linux. The only thing I find amazing about this announcement is that they claim it will be backwards compatible.

[nerdtalker @ Jul 30th 2008 9:46PM]

Are you being facetious or just plain stupid?

I honestly hope it's the former, because if it's the latter, you need some serious help.

[d @ Jul 30th 2008 10:00PM]

Evan said Midori sounded like Mac OS X. To me, it sounded like I was on some very hard drugs.

"...envisions a distributed environment where applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems..."

yup, someone's on acid.

[Mobius_1 @ Jul 30th 2008 10:01PM]

Mac OS XI, Microsoft Midori Ripoff

But really, that last paragraph is way to vague

[Intrepid @ Jul 30th 2008 10:40PM]

@ SuperSexyErik (^_^):

They licensed those ideas, and then built on them.

[El Taco @ Jul 30th 2008 10:49PM]

@striker

If you're an apple fanboy, the engadget bloggers gladly welcome you, but the commenters want you to go to TUAW

[Ethyriel @ Jul 30th 2008 11:12PM]

"Try Linux, and you're there."

No, not really, but we're getting there. OpenAFS is a pretty good distributed filesystem, but nobody really uses it. It handles things like grouping shares from many machines into a single share, and concurrent writes of the same data to different machines across the network.

But it sounds like Midori is going to do something like clustering, too. Right now, beyond remote compiling and running daemons on one machine and a front end on another (mpd rocks, and so will deluge in 0.6!), Linux just doesn't have that for home use. But, if MS starts talking this up some more, I'm sure someone will tackle this. I think the infrastructure is there, but we'll probably need some more specialized governors/schedulers, whatever is involved.

[Haikibutsu @ Jul 30th 2008 11:14PM]

Microfot Midori! Nice name! Midori is Japanese for "Green"

[Evan @ Jul 30th 2008 11:20PM]

@d

Did you really miss the sarcasm? Really?

[Bob @ Jul 30th 2008 11:24PM]

Maybe that means it's environmentally friendly... That's a joke, but actually, if it has anything to do with cloud computing, it could be more environmentally friendly...

[John Doe @ Jul 30th 2008 11:25PM]

at last Balmer got to some sense

[Jon Doe. @ Jul 31st 2008 2:05AM]

Or better yet up and put your head through your screen. Doing so would at least rid the internet of one more person who can't do anything other then suck Apple's teet.

[Mustaine @ Jul 31st 2008 7:01AM]

So during the product launch, there won't be a blue screen but a green one?
(not an iSheep, just the first thing I thought of)

[d @ Jul 31st 2008 8:56AM]

@Evan

Guess not... well, Brian thinks it does...

[OneLove @ Jul 31st 2008 12:50PM]

Wait, they botched vista, pitched windows 7 (vista reloaded ultimatum), experimented with mojivey and now they want to start mind fucking us with midori melon liqueur crap? At least get one OS right first.

[Shoney Joy @ Jul 31st 2008 11:40PM]

See Full Story here

[Shoney Joy @ Aug 1st 2008 12:04AM]

Read the full story here

[UltimateSephiroth @ Aug 1st 2008 7:13AM]

I personally cannot understand this. First people say "Windows sucks, use Linux (or Mac OS X)". Then Microsoft tries to do better. Then people say "that is a rip-off". Seriously, if you have so strong negative feelings about Microsoft itself, you shouldn't post your biased comments here. Thanks.

[Junkie XL @ Aug 13th 2008 12:50PM]

At times it make me feel like linux, users don´t bash windows cause linux is technically superior, it´s just cause they can´t stand microsoft getting rich, and Mac users feel there ego´s ripped when Microsoft takes anything they brag about and make it better....

[Charles @ Nov 7th 2008 3:13AM]

Cough* Cough*, they forgot to mention that this project is already about a year old. Its also Open Source, More secure than a Federal Penitentiary and runs on any system known to man, yes it sounds like linux but I promise it is much faster, more secure, and the Architecture is completely f'ing awesome.

http://research.microsoft.com

[AlekZander @ Jul 30th 2008 9:22PM]

The possibilities are intriguing, but I'd like to be sure Microsoft has some of the issues worked out first. What if you're not hooked up to a network connection? Even today it happens sometimes. And this entirely microcode-based kernel... will developers know WTF to do with it to get their apps to run? I'm as eager to move beyond Windows as anyone, but take it slow Microsoft.

[Sam @ Jul 30th 2008 9:38PM]

They are taking it slow... we won't see this for years. The article states that this concept is "predicated on the prevalence of connected systems". And it also says much of this phase is focused on researching the viability of backwards compatibility. In other words, they are fully addressing all those concerns.
I realize it's easier to stay uninformed, so while you are striving for ease, don't put forth the effort to communicate with the general public.

[kccboy2004 @ Jul 30th 2008 10:02PM]

@Alexzander,

I will be sure to mention these points to MS. I am sure that otherwise they would have completely missed them.

Imagine that, they would have gone live with the software, then BAM !!! some one will not have the internet hooked up and WHAM !! the softwre would not work. Everyone will be standing around looking at each other saying, "Who didn't think of that one" !!

Thanks again Alexzander

[AlekZander @ Jul 30th 2008 10:25PM]

@kccboy204

Thanks for your sarcasm, because Microsoft has NEVER screwed up the launch of a new OS. Nope, not once. They've never had a problem.

[fashionista @ Jul 30th 2008 10:30PM]

Adobe AIR (nee Flex) is designed to seamlessly transition from online to offline while persisting user data, this is a fundamental aspect of moving apps to "the cloud". Microsoft is preparing for the future, and rightly so. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

[Jared Harley @ Jul 30th 2008 10:45PM]

You want these two paragraphs from the article:

"The Midori documents indicate that the company has not decided what user interface abstractions are appropriate when applications cut across boundaries, or how to combine the best qualities of rich client applications and Web applications.

“A lot of these problems are being solved, at least partially, by the ideas of store-and-forward and message synchronization,” Hammond noted. “Google Gears, Adobe AIR, even the mobile OSes with things like SMS can handle occasional connectivity. Why shouldn’t this be built into core OS communication protocols, especially if they are asynchronous by default?” he asked."

[Andir3.0 @ Jul 30th 2008 10:47PM]

... Who's footing the bill for the servers? This is likely to be a subscription environment. You'll get all your documents saved on Microsoft servers. You might be able to print them out, but unlikely to download them all to a removable drive because you'll have an awfully long wait to get ALL your docs. On top of that, they will likely be encrypted and authenticated against Microsoft servers "for the protection of your files" making them harder to transfer to another service or machine. Vendor lock to the extreme. I see why Microsoft wants in.

There's just too much control in one company's hands for me.

[Andrew Fong @ Jul 31st 2008 12:49AM]

There's half a chance it won't be meant less for end users and more for web application developers. Scaling web applications for millions of users is a very difficult problem. It requires hooking together multiple servers, and getting all those servers to share files, split up computation tasks, and optimize bandwidth is huge pain. Having someone else that for you would be a huge boon to developers.

Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine, among others, are heading in this direction, but I don't think they've gone so far as to write an operating system optimized for this sort of thing.

[jason @ Jul 30th 2008 9:22PM]

I dont think it is feasible until we have at least 10mbps in every home (AKA no dial up/no slow DSL) and we have super reliable ISP's.

[Rick White @ Jul 30th 2008 9:35PM]

They aren't necessarily talking about running applications from the Internet. I think they are referring to a more centralized processing platform for the local network, like application servers etc.

[LondonConsultant @ Jul 31st 2008 5:24AM]

Connectivity issues aren't the main problem. The real problem is that MS is giving a heads-up that the successor to the successor to Vista will be so inefficient that it'll require cloud computing resources to maintain a Word document...

[azaas @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:06AM]

Given the fact that most european countries have an average of more than 10mb/s i don't think that that's far away....i'd still think that those speeds would not be perfect for it as well,so i suggest we protest in the streets and DEMAND that we all get fiber optics and 100mb/s net speed!!!Who's with me? lol ^^

[jaalin @ Jul 30th 2008 9:23PM]

so is this post-windows 7?
by the way, "midori" is japanese for "green" - rather appropriate in our environmentally-conscious world...

[Steve Gates @ Jul 30th 2008 10:11PM]

www.greendayeveryday.com

[BigD145 @ Jul 30th 2008 10:43PM]

It's too bad computers aren't green... at all. Not a single one of them.

[jason @ Jul 30th 2008 10:53PM]

@bigD

My tinkertoy computer runs using all wood. biodegradable ftw!

[youngcalihottie @ Jul 31st 2008 12:02AM]

BigD,

Here's a green computer for you...
http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2069186/2111771/2129297/051122_giz_100Laptop_tn.jpg

its only $100 too! er... uh... wait a sec...

:P

[Bob @ Jul 30th 2008 11:28PM]

Uh huh, my brother-in-law's motherboard is green, so are his fan lights. And not just any green... neon green.

[ehisforadam @ Jul 31st 2008 10:59AM]

Midori is also a bright green melon flavored liquor.

[Adam @ Jul 31st 2008 11:11AM]

Let's see here...green...clouds....phantasmagoria...absinthe comes to mind.

[Pochi @ Jul 30th 2008 9:30PM]

I feel like this is something NONE OF US should be even bothering to waste our times thinking about until about 10 years from now.

[Rick White @ Jul 30th 2008 9:36PM]

I disagree. This is how most servers function anyway, and for the economical computer user with a family this type of topology creates an easy computing platform for your home.

[Pochi @ Jul 31st 2008 8:13PM]

Hehy Rick White.

Again, in 10 years maybe Microsoft will have this out the door. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Pochi @ Jul 30th 2008 9:30PM]

Is this the same guy with the dirty girlfriend?

[Bleck @ Jul 30th 2008 9:32PM]

Lets be honest here, if Midori presumably loses all backwards compatibility with previous Microsoft operating systems (aka, Windows). What use will it be? Why should anyone bother with this?

If it doesn't lose backwards compatibility, then you might as well call it Windows 8. Though, just in my opinion anyway.

[Doug @ Jul 30th 2008 9:35PM]

its saying it will be backwards compatible.. Re read the article bro..

[Bleck @ Jul 30th 2008 10:57PM]

Except it doesn't say that. It clearly says

"Backwards compatibility with legacy applications and hardware has also been considered;"

Also, I'm not your bro, guy.