Microsoft promised an operating system written in managed code a long time ago, but instead we got Vista – the managed code came with too many compatibility problems. Midori, being based on Singularity, is written entirely in managed code. In addition, it is built for a ‘cloud computing’ world.
According to Ars’ Peter Bright, Microsoft is facing two major problems in its future operating systems strategy. We are all very familiar with the first problem: compatibility. The soft and hardware world is ever changing and evolving, and Microsoft’s commitment to providing as much backwards compatibility as possible is holding the development of its flagship product back. Many have advocated using a virtual machine for backwards compatibility, much like Apple did with Mac OS 9 in Mac OS X, or os/2 with DOS and Windows 3.x. This would allow Microsoft to make a clean API break, without wrecking backwards compatibility.
Midori seems to be doing just that, while allowing for a rather clever migration path. Midori will not only run as a stand-alone operating system, but also under the Hyper-V hypervisor, and even as a process under Windows. Bright explains that the migration path is a three-stage process:
Initially, then, Midori might work as just another Windows program used for cloud applications. As Midori applications become more abundant and can be used for more day-to-day computing tasks, it can run as a complete OS under Hyper-V, so the machine would be shared between a (legacy) Windows virtual machine and a (new and shiny) Midori VM. Further still into the future, as Windows applications become less and less necessary, Midori can be run as the sole OS on a machine, with the occasional Windows app relegated to a virtual machine.
The second problem arises from the cloud computing thing. Being geared for cloud computing means you need to have the ability to run on not 2 or 4 cores, but maybe hundreds, thousands of them. Developing for multiple processors or cores is already a major challenge for developers today dealing with a few cores, so you can imagine how complicated things get when we’re talking hundreds of cores. With Midori, Microsoft is aiming to make it significantly easier to do parallel programming, enabling programers to efficiently utilise the benefits of having a vast amount of cores available.
This is all still speculation at this point, as Microsoft’s official response when inquired about Midori is that it is an incubation project, and one of many, at that. It is far too early to claim that Midori is the next Windows, just as it was far too early to claim that Singularity was the next Windows. Microsoft Research is a big place with lots of interesting projects going on, and Midori seems to “just” be one of them, no more, no less.
I concur with what Peter Bright concludes: developing an operating system to supersede Windows that is “fundamentally designed for cloud computing” seems like a “risky gamble”. As Bright concludes:
Midori could be anything from a complete dead-end, to the OS 95 percent of the world will be running in five to ten years.I suspect that the truth will lie somewhere in between; a future Microsoft OS will use virtualization to provide backwards compatibility, and that future OS will use managed code. Finally, the asynchronous, networked, fault-tolerant parts will materialize within the next year as part of Microsoft’s cloud computing initiative – a software platform, libraries, and tools. Indeed, this cloud computing platform might be Midori.
WINDOWS is a name that has ruled the whole computer world since its first launch in November 1985. Since then it is like a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
With many advanced versions of Windows available today such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, it is the most used operating system in the world. In 2010, Microsoft is going to launch WINDOWS 2007, but now here is time to experience a yet another technology of operating systems.
Yes, MICROSOFT is working on a new generation of operating systems called Cloud-Based Operating System and rumors are there that MIDORI will be their first such operating system, which will replace Windows fully from computer map.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE
MIDORI is an offshoot of Microsoft Research’s Singularity operating system. In this the tools and libraries are completely managed code. MIDORI is designed to run directly on native hardware (x86, x64 and ARM), will be hosted on the Windows Hyper-V hypervisor, or even be hosted by a Windows process.
MIDORI can be also seen as MICROSOFT’S answer those competitors who are applying “Virtualization” as a mean to solving issues within contemporary computing.
The main idea behind MIDORI is to develop a lightweight portable OS which can be mated easily to lots of various applications.
IMPORTANCE OF MIDORI
For knowing the importance of MIDORI you have to think about, how an operating system is loaded on a computer. Actually operating system is loaded onto a hard disk physically located on that machine. In this way, the operating system is tied very tightly to that hardware. As Windows is dependent on hardware, it might face opposition from contemporary ways of working because people are extremely mobile in using different devices in order get diverse information.
Due to this trend installing different applications on a single computer may led to different compatibility issues whenever the machine require updating. The new operating system will solve these problems by the concept of Virtualizing. This will solve problems such as widespread security vulnerabilities, unexpected interactions among different applications, failures caused by errant extensions, plug-ins, and drivers and many more.
ERIC RUDDER, Senior Vice President, Technical Strategy
The importance of this project for MICROSOFT can be understood by the fact that company choose Eric Rudder , former head of Microsoft’s server and tools business and a key member of Chairman Bill Gates’ faction of the company, to handle it.
WHEN WILL IT BE LAUNCHED
Just Wait and See. Microsoft has not declared any such date about launching of MIDORI, but there are rumors that this project is in incubation phase.
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.king 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.
Recent Comments