MinWin Core: 25MB on Disk and 100 Files

if you count each released version of the same codebase, minwin is just going to increase the number of kernels ;-)

While this is certainly interesting, it's interesting in an academic way. Hard to say if this is just the next 'WinFS', fun to talk about, but ultimately unrelated to what gets released.

(Besides, we've see Microsoft try the single codebase thing before; they keep oscillating)

It sounds like that's the idea... the beyond vista windows.

My question is: does this mean that Vista is ultimately destined for the same trash heap as WindowsME and MS-Bob? Or is it more of a Windows95 to Windows98 analogy? (i.e. run out vista to get the new thingy out there, make it stable and performant in the followup).

The other REALLY interesting bit is the code name. Since when do you "Code name" as product name/version? And there's the oxymoron... no UI, but lets call it windows?

What I want to know is why does James mixup versions and codebase in his article? Single code base would apply to a generation across server and desktop (such as a single code base for XP and Server 2k3), not across generations (i.e. Server 2000 and Server 2k8).

Jim

is that a signal of massive deployment of windows in micro devices ? take care java

Jim -

I don't think Vista is headed in that direction. I don't have much insight and am providing my own prognostication here. I think the teams are looking to consolidate engineering efforts at the OS level, but I haven't been able to verify as the teams are not speaking to the public yet. Eric's demo is their first communication.

I was concentrating on the recent common theme to reduce competition among internal development teams in similiar solution sets. Recent MSFT examples would be WCF, Workflow Foundation, MS CRM, and Phoenix.

-james

Silverlight is an example of micro .NET. It's multi-platform and small compared to today's standards....

I don't see .NET as being ready as an OS at the micro device level at this time...

Well, then you should check out the .NET Mircro Framework (msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/embedded/bb267253.aspx). It has no need for an OS, and can just launch your .NET (C#) code. It can be as small as 250K (with minimal CLR libraries).

I no longer have a handle on how Java/Linux/etc. scales from chip to server farms, but Microsoft giving us developers the opportunity of writing in the same language, using the same tools, heck given some proper factoring of code, even running the same code on either a chip or a multi-core, multi-cpu, multi-server environment, is pretty cool. (hmmm, write once, run everywhere, where did I hear that slogan again?)

On the other topic, I know Microsoft attempted to get back to a single codebase during the Longhorn development, and they failed, having to move back to the Windows XP SP2 codebase. So a good number of core changes were cut. One of which was the rework to be done on the I/O subsystem, Windows is just to dependant on the disk, and it's the disk that ultimately makes Windows slow over time.