“Microsoft is incubating a componentized non-Windows operating system known as Midori, which is being architected from the ground up to tackle challenges that Redmond has determined cannot be met by simply evolving its existing technology,” David Worthington reports for Software Development Times.
“SD Times has viewed internal Microsoft documents that outline Midori’s proposed design, which is Internet-centric and predicated on the prevalence of connected systems,” Worthington reports.
“Midori is an offshoot of Microsoft Research’s Singularity operating system, the tools and libraries of which are completely managed code. Midori is designed to run directly on native hardware (x86, x64 and ARM), be hosted on the Windows Hyper-V hypervisor, or even be hosted by a Windows process,” Worthington reports.
“According to published reports, Eric Rudder, senior vice president for technical strategy at Microsoft and an alumnus of Bill Gates’ technical staff, is heading up the effort. Rudder served as senior vice president of Microsoft’s Servers and Tools group until 2005,” Worthington reports. “A Microsoft spokesperson refused comment.”
Worthington reports, “One of Microsoft’s goals is to provide options for Midori applications to co-exist with and interoperate with existing Windows applications, as well as to provide a migration path.”
“No timeframe for development has been set for Midori, which Microsoft technical fellow Burton Smith says is a research project. A spokesperson added that Midori is one of many incubation projects across Microsoft Research,” Worthington reports.
“Scheduling, a process that allows multiple processes to run on the processor at the same time, will be integrated in Midori at the user-mode application level, from both the desktop and across distributed applications in the cloud. Its distributing scheduling may include active task migration, an activity that today is performed by hypervisors,” Worthington reports.
“‘This is the second attempt at re-implementing OS scheduling that I’ve seen announced in as many months,’ Forrester Research senior analyst Jeffrey Hammond remarked,” Worthington reports. “‘[Steve] Jobs talked [at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9] about how Snow Leopard was going to have a new scheduling framework that would make take advantage of multicore easier for OS X developers. This seems to reach similar conclusions, and then take it to the next step in terms of scheduling flexibility,’ he added.”
Tons more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No timeframe for development has been set for Midori because infinity has no end.
Isn’t Midori Japanese for Green?
Yes, Microsoft wants to jump in the “green” label.
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Now it sounds like they’re finally thinking. They’re biting the bullet and realizing that it’s over for Windows. Finally. Apple had to bite that bullet with OS 9. It’s a mess and there’s no where to go with it.
This is what they should have done rather than wasting so much development time on VISTA (which though not as bad as the media would have you believe, is still Windows and we all know what that means.)
A component based OS, that uses virtualization for backward compatibility sounds really exciting.
Still, I can look up the right ingredients to bake a cake but getting something out of the oven people will eat is something entirely different.
“melon ball” is the code word for Ballmer’s head.
Just my $0.02
Typical MS vaporware. What they are really saying is:
Hey Windows users, don’t abandon us for Apple. We are working on something to cure all your problems and it will be ready any day now.
This is probably just a case of ‘too little, too late’…
I really don’t see MS abandoning Windows anytime in the next twenty years (if they’re even still in business then), and this Midori thing is compatible with existing MS tech, so they aren’t really doing anything special.
I’d prefer if MS continued its impassioned drive to convert the world in a Vista paradise – and then, after billions spent, wonder why everyone is on a Mac!
I believe that midori is the name of a bar drink
I wonder if Apple have been working on Mac OS XI(11) as a just in case scenario?
Windows can’t go on forever. It is becoming big & bloated (even more so), and needs to be scrapped & start from the beginning.
I have thought for a while that they need to work on a completely new OS.
mmmm, cake
Cairo….Longhorn….Midori!
Maybe third times the charm?
It’s funny how every time Apple seems to be gaining a bit of ground on Microsoft, a leak occurs from super secret “internal papers” describing some amazing totally new super futuristic robust omnipotent computational solution from Microsoft.
This crap has been going on since the 90′, yet MS has never ever delivered. So why should we believe this now?
Besides Midori is a melon liqueur?!
Ahhaaaa… I was wondering what the next version of Longhorn was going to be!
Microsoft’s New Banner
Midori: Gentlemen…start your copiers.
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Midori is a melon liqueur, the Old Spice girl has melons sticking out of her shirt… hmmmm… coincidence? I think not.
I’ll beleive it when its shrinked wrapped and going out the door.. to sit on the shelves next to the dusty unsold Vista boxes.
Otherwise its vaporware. How long before we can see it, 2015?
@TheloiousMac hit it right on the head.
From what I’ve read it’s closer to Java, than it is to a modern OS. Managed code refers to running the application on a virtual machine. Maybe they see the writing on the wall and wish to embed themselves in the post-Windows non-Microsoft-OS world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_(operating_system)
I guess then consumers have two options:
Wait for Midori and all its promises some five years from now (which is being generous), or buy a Mac today and experience a truly modern operating system built on Unix. Repeat: You can have it TODAY.
Waow! M$ would better stop fumbling with Oses!
Flee population of the Earth! You believed to have known the horror,
but the worst is yet to come! Good Spirits! Please! Do something to stop
these Redmond cretins!
Ya know, you wacky bunch of peanuts, if you look a little closely, they are describing a very OS X like OS. I’m not talking about the “look” which is what most people compare, but the architecture.
OS X used Classic and Carbon to maintain compatibility with old apps. Note the information concerning Hyper-V. This would likely allow multiple OSes, not just Windows to function under the new Midori and provide backward compatibility for legacy apps.
Componentization is why there can be a stripped down OS X that runs on portable devices like the beloved iPhone.
This new OS architecture could theoretically allow them to chuck all the different variants of Windows and have one OS that serves multiple purposes, like OS X.
I believe they would still be playing catch up, but if they get the right people, dump the bald bozo, they could possibly do some leap frogging which would create competition, which is always good because when developers actually innovate instead of patch, you and I are the winners.
Midori is a world renowned violinist. I don’t think she will be flattered by this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_Gotō
And yes Midori is a Japanese melon liqueur that, to the unsophisticated at least, seems promising, almost exotic on first acquaintance but increasing sickly, uninspiring and ultimately bland as hell the more you drink. Equally it is a bad mixer that can make you sick very easily should you moderately overdose. A chav of a product that sounds strangely familiar now I think of it.
I held my breath for Longhorn…should I do the same for Minority? ..er Midol..er Midget..er Menstrual..whatever it’s called.
Windows 7 is MicroSoft’s ploy to take peoples minds off of Vista. Midori is their way of diverting attention away from Windows 7.
Next week: Wndows 8.
@spyinthsky
Finally, someone on here who shares my deeply entrenched disdain but rich knowledge of Japanese alcoholic drinks.
If only I wasn’t already married!
Chris,
“the Old Spice girl has melons sticking out of her shirt…”
Thanks a lot, you just had to remind me of that. Boing!
Did you take the test? It’s pretty funny.