Microsoft Is Cleaning Up Windows

[CadCrazy]

Rewriting the core code of its operating system to bring down its hunger for resources.

Do you think Windows Vista is a monster when it comes to eating up space of your hard drive and leaving huge footprint on your RAM? You are absolutely right. Realising this and paying heed to feedbacks from customers, Microsoft has now given a glimpse of how big its next OS could be. Eric Traut, distinguished engineer and director of development (Windows Kernel and Virtualization team), Microsoft, demonstrated through a video something they call 'MinWin'. And compared to the core code of the monster Vista which eats up almost 4GB of disk, MinWin sips only 25MB, without a graphical interface. Microsoft is working on bringing it down further. (Click here to watch the full video and check some of the features of MinWin. Courtesy:University of Illinois)

MinWin will form a part of Microsoft's next operating system, named Windows 7, which would succeed Vista. According to various reports, the product is in its initial stages and is scheduled to be launched in 2010.

Clearing the air about resource-hungry Windows operating system, Traut said in the video, "A lot of people think of Windows as this large, bloated operating system, and that may be a fair characterisation, I have to admit. But at its core, the kernel, and the components that make up the very core of the operating system, is actually pretty streamlined."

Not only with hard drive, MinWin is a miser with memory as well. Reportedly, it needs only 40 MB (let me repeat, only 40MB) of RAM. Microsoft is pushing the envelop further so its kernel gets shrunk to a size which would allow it to be useful on a range of devices including embedded devices.

Traut was speaking at the 13th annual computing conference: Reflections | Projections, hosted by The Association for Computing Machinery at the University of Illinois. The event aimed at bringing together students from across the country to gain a broader perspective on computer science, in the presence of some of the great minds of today and yesterday.

Source

[fun2sh]

ooot
thats amazin but i wonder how many facilities will it provide.

[CadCrazy]

Originally Posted by CadCrazy

Reportedly, it needs only 40 MB (let me repeat, only 40MB) of RAM.

[abhi_10_20]

^^ya....but considering that it's without graphical interface, it obviously will be less resource hungry...

[iMav]

guys this minwin is an internal release and will form the basis of further development and wont be available for commercial use

[CadCrazy]

How do u know

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by CadCrazy

How do u know

Watch the video, the presentor says it himself.

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Hmm... I think that'll be a good step. Personally for me, the overall working experience with Vista is quiet nice, after the memory upgrade to 1.24 GB. Ya, i too am a little concerned about the huge memory footprints of Windows OS (both primary and secondry memory.). Although the advance caching features of Vista provide great performance boost, 1 GB memory for comfortable working is a bit heavy for an OS. Shrinking the core components will help quiet a bit. But the most resource hungry part i think is the UI and various background support services that run in Windows. Lets see what's next.

[aryan333]

presenter will tell u everything if u watch video

[Krazy_About_Technology]

I have a 64K connection, so out of luck. Will try to download it and then watch it, maybe after 1-2 days

[Gigacore]

nice, i'm waiting

[Sukhdeep Singh]

Most users dont bother much about RAM usage since RAM is so so cheap these days.....i think Mircosoft should spend more time and money on more features....although this is good aswell but not too much of a priority IMHO

[gxsaurav]

Slimming down the kernel & making the OS using better & efficient coding is always welcome.

[fun2sh]

at least u cna dwnl. i even cant do that coz me is on airtel grps (airtel online to be precise) which is meant for the mobile but can be use on pc coz of flaw. so i cant dwnl a file more than 3 mb n even for 3 mb it takes 1 hr. also i get xml parsin errors all the time