Rumor: Windows 8 & Windows Phone Code Will Be Combined
Microsoft may be merging Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" by using the MinWin stack.
There's speculation that Microsoft may be merging the code of Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" and Windows 8 next year. This rumor falls into the "One Modular OS To Rule Them All" theory that we've heard for some time, an idea that Microsoft's Windows 8 would ultimately encompass the PC, the tablet, the Xbox and the smartphone.
Recent speculation behind the code merge partially stems from an announcement made by CEO Steve Ballmer on Monday that Windows Phone division president Andy Lees would take the reigns of a "time-critical opportunity focused on driving maximum impact in 2012" with Windows Phone and Windows 8.
"We have tremendous potential with Windows Phone and Windows 8, and this move sets us up to really deliver against that potential," Ballmer said without adding any further details.
Terry Myerson, who worked with Lees on Windows Phone 7 and 7.5, will take over as head of Windows Phone, Ballmer said. Lees himself signed on with Microsoft back in 1990, and before that served as corporate vice-president of Microsoft's server and tools marketing and solutions group. He moved over to mobiles as part of the entertainment and devices group restructuring in 2010.
Hal Berenson, a former Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, believes the company is merely switching out the Windows Embedded Compact code of Windows Phone with parts of "MinWin," which is described as the "detangled core Windows kernel/file system/networking stack code." Microsoft supposedly wouldn't want to actually shove Windows 8 into a phone nor does it want to throw out all of the "Windows Phone OS" customized bits layered on top of the core, so the company is likely taking the MinWin route.
"[MinWin] is not a complete rewrite of the [Windows] kernel, but a reorganization of the APIs, so that components only call down the stack, and not up it," explains Microsoft's Mark Russinovich via the Windows Now blog, clarifying that it's not an actual kernel. "It is isolated in the build tree from the rest of Windows, so it can be innovated on by itself. It is fully bootable, 25-40 MB of disk space, and contains the executive systems, memory management, networking, and optional file system drivers. It’s fully testable, and Microsoft is working on a large suite of test cases to run against it. And it *is* indeed in Windows 7."
Previous reports indicated that Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" would arrive by mid-2012, but Microsoft later dismissed those claims. The software will likely launch alongside the general public release of Windows 8 or sometime thereafter. However it's believed that the use of MinWin will not only help accelerate the mobile OS release, but deliver cross platform coding simplicity and a significant boost in functionality. Software engineering costs would also be reduced because the desktop and mobile teams will be working on a common Windows stack code.
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We expect to hear more about the possible merging of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in just a matter of weeks at CES 2012.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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kalogagatya Hmm my only fear is that such a code albeit being good at it, will not excel in any of the mentioned applications... and that is windows 7 strong point.Reply
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NapoleonDK 25-40MB reminds me of TinyXP. I can't wait to see what Microsoft does with this! An android rom can be between 80-200MB when fully featured. I doubt MinWin in its current state includes any sort of display drivers or interface (outside of command line/telnet), but if it's lean, mean, fast, and compiled for ARM, then I see a lot of developer base and enthusiasts that will love to take it apart and see how it works.Reply -
waethorn GreaseMonkey_62Why is that robot from Lost in Space, going Danger, Danger in my head?Reply
Don't worry: the Sidekick is already dead. -
TeraMedia Now if I could plug a phone line into my old laptop with Windows 8 installed, and use it to dial, answer, and talk on the phone through my headset, that would be nice. No more desktop phone required. Add in caller-id and dialing from address book entries, and who would want to use a desk phone ever again?Reply -
willwayne I thought everyone knew this. In order to accelerate the growth of the Windows Phone (and Windows desktop) App stores, it only makes sense to allow developers to write their code (mostly) once and target phones, tablets, and "PCs". Especially since they are all just personal computers anyway...Reply
Same basic thing as iOS 5 / OSX Lion and Android / Google Chrome. At least, as far as user experience is concerned within the apps. -
Netherscourge So Microsoft is going to make a Windows 8 ecosystem for PC/Phone....and possibly a Tablet?Reply -
endif Why can't Windows 8 perform automatic SSD caching? With all the hype within the SSD market Windows should be nurturing this form of media just as much as it is trying to in the tablet sector.Reply
It seems like everyone and their mother would love to have an SSD but does not want to pay the high premiums in order to get it. 16-32 GB SSD drives are cheap, but can't hold my Windows installation and programs at the same time. Why can't I choose within Windows which drive is my storage and which drive is my boot drive?
Windows already automatically recognizes which files I use the most within the indexing service. Why not take it one step further and automatically manage those files by migrating them to my SSD? Only the files that are needed, and nothing else. It would be nothing more complicated than an address translation at the hard drive level.
This way even my mother could see the substantial performance boost without the complications of having to teach her how to judge which files should be place on certain drives. They could even modify their absolutely retarded idea of ReadyBoost(the initial idea of having a thumb drive store an extra page file). Instead it would be a more substantial feature within Windows that would actually be used. -
jhansonxi Finally, cross-platform malware without the Java overhead. Black hats rejoice!Reply
(In other words, code base commonality and communications integration always has a downside.)