Gird thyself, a new Windows approaches. Tomorrow morning in San Francisco, Microsoft will show off some part of its next operating system in a long-awaited event whose existence leaked before it was formally announced. The market is expectant, and the technology and business media will have its eyes trained on what Redmond has on offer.
In the past few days, odd rumors have cropped up: Will the technical preview be ready to go, or released several weeks after the event? Does the code even have a formal name? We’ll find out soon enough.
Given that the market is only expecting a preview, whatever Microsoft shows off will be feature incomplete by definition. I missed it, but apparently there was some sort of recent rumor saying that Windows 9 — provided that that actually is its name — was set to touch down, outside of preview in October. No. That’s not happening.
The Windows community is, unsurprisingly, most excited about the consumer-facing bits that the operating system is likely to contain. Tomorrow isn’t about that. Microsoft didn’t brand the shindig an enterprise event for no reason.
So, if you don’t get to see your favorite, expected goodies, don’t lose it. They are probably still coming. Though, of course, for Microsoft, the more good stuff it can quickly release, the better.
Why do the technical, and not consumer bit first? Windows 7 has a shelf life. Windows XP is dead, and Windows 8 is not something that business customers have welcomed. Microsoft has a massive interest in catering to its enterprise clients as they provide it with mammoth revenues and profits. And since Windows 8 didn’t do the trick, Windows 9 will have to land with a touch more poise. Also larger companies need more time to make choices, so showing off what is being built for them first is a reasonable exercise. This of course sets aside the technical
Also on a technical note, there is no livestream of the event, I’ve confirmed with the company. This is irksome, but here we are. It’s annoying when Apple does it, and it’s annoying Microsoft does. So, I’ll be on the ground, blogging as fast as I can.
If we get a build tomorrow, and I’ve heard two different build numbers floating around that could either be the correct code lockup, TechCrunch will have notes up as fast as possible, along with video and the rest. Hold tight, we’re almost there.