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Looking Ahead To 2008

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Mary Jo posted her predictions on "what's coming" in 2008 yesterday and with all her insight I am sure she will be pretty close on most things.  I wonder does anyone every look back at last years predictions?  Just curious.  Anyway in spirit of the year end quickly approaching I thought I too would put together what I think is coming out next year.

I agree with many of hers like:

  • Fiji (Media Center Update)
  • Office 14 Beta
  • ZunePhone - whatever that really ends up meaning

So here goes mine:

  • Internet Explorer 8 - hopefully it will appease developers and EU commissions alike.
  • Zune Gen 3 will ship and Zune's will get DivX support
  • Windows Vista Team will ship some useful - "Ultimate Extras" (i'm an optimist)
  • The "Live" brand will have a shake up again to further delineate products. My guess is with a focus on what is consumer and what is business oriented.
  • Windows 7 - We will start to learn details of how Microsoft is shaping Win7 and I think a very slight chance of a beta late in the year (say 15%)
  • Microsoft will get sued, again, and have to pay obscene amount of money :P
  • Microsoft Software and Services push will start to show some real value to businesses
  • A format will all but win the HD format war (here's hoping)
  • Home Server v2 - This is probably a long shot to make it by next year, but hey why not go for it....a Windows Home server product based on Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 SP1/ Windows Vista SP2 - We should see these in at least beta forms next year.
Posted Dec 19 2007, 06:50 AM by Josh Phillips
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Comments

Jaxim wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-19-2007 7:10 AM

As a Media Center fanatic, I'm really hoping Fiji comes out soon. But since the beta was suppose to come out this past summer and it didn't, I doubt that the release candidate Fiji will be coming out Fiji. So I'm hoping the beta version of Fiji comes out soon and I'm choses as a beta tester.

"Microsoft will get sued, again, and have to pay obscene amount of money :P"

That's funny. Sad, but funny.

Josh Phillips wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-19-2007 7:50 AM

Yeah, My guess is we will learn more about Fiji at CES...or maybe i shoudl put that is my hope :D

I am big fan of Media Center too, was in teh beta for the longest time and just couldn't get enough of it..

Matthew wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-19-2007 11:05 AM

Given that PDC has been rescheduled for October, I think a Win7 early release is very likely then.

Alan wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-19-2007 3:39 PM

Well i know for a fact that an update to windows home server is comming early in 2008. This is not a server 2008 update however some of the new feature will include x64 support and backup to external media as an option. Apparently there will also be some more tricky stuff going on with the the Single Instance Storage and the file system. I am sure more will be relevaled when the NDA for Home Server v1.1 is lifted on or about 9/1/2008.

Josh Phillips wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-19-2007 3:41 PM

Hey Alan,

I knew that an x64 client was coming.  The rest was new to me.  I think we are supposed to learn more about Windows Home Server at CES...

Thanks for the additional insight though.

Alan wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-19-2007 5:58 PM

I have also heard that the new update will come with a free SSL certificate... provided by an external provider.. (bopo or something like that...)  I can only tell you what i heard so... The other cool feature that is defenitly comming is the ability to automaticly update the connector software on the clinets from the server when the server updates...

Josh Phillips wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-19-2007 6:03 PM

pretty sure people started getting SSL certs from verisign with the last update to home server. I know I no longer get the "cert" warning now.

having home server faciliate a WSUS role would be cool too.

Freddy wrote re: Looking Ahead To 2008
on 12-20-2007 9:24 PM

MS needs to make Zune into a breakthrough product. Stop with catching iPod. This strategy will never work and will be doomed to failure.

I would like to see a Zune: XBox360 edition with wifi & phone capable for game playing on a pulldown game pad. The phone feature is unlocked and can allow any carrier.

6 months later, produce a touchpad Zune phone that includes all the features of the XBox360 edition with full PDA/GPS features.

Announces a Vista update that finally fixes whatever is wrong with UAC (reduced prompts).

In the future, Window gets it with user interface and is finally ahead of Apple.

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