The world as frankps sees it!
Posts tagged HomeGroup
Introduction to Windows 7
2It’s two months since I got the first introduction to Windows 7 (code named Vienna) at Microsoft Tech-Ed 2008 in Barcelona, and this week Microsoft released a public beta of their next client operating system. I have installed it on my MacBook Pro, and plan to install it on an office machine in AD and on my home machine.
I have been using Windows Vista for about 3 years now, through some of the betas and later with the released product. At the department where I am the sysadmin, more of then half of our computers are running Windows Vista (three of them x64) and Office 2007. All in all, I can say that we are very satisfied. This is not the situation many other places, as I often hear of companies that have decided to continue with Windows XP and not implement Vista in their organization. At our department we have only ran in to a few problems, most of them have been software not following Microsoft’s coding guidelines.
Watch the video on NRKbeta video – Direct link to this video
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Windows 7: At Home with HomeGroup
1Are you, as me, one of the many waiting for the public beta of Windows 7 finally to be released. I have been waiting since Tech-Ed in Barcelona, back in November last year, where I got Windows 7 introduced by developers and project leaders at Microsoft. It’s just a few days left to this year’s CES and Balmer’s keynote. It is expected that Microsoft then will release the first and only public beta of Windows 7. Technet members might get their hands on the beta a few days before the public. But any how, Windows 7 is just about here!
Over at OSNEWS they today picked up a blog entry called At Home with HomeGroup in Windows 7. With HomeGroup, you can share files in the home, stream music to your XBOX 360 or other devices, and print to the home printer without worrying about technical setup or even understanding how it all works. And all in a secure way!
In the introduction, Jerry Koh a lead program manager in the Core User Experience team, writes that the blog entry tries to give the readers a behind-the-scenes on how Microsoft designed HomeGroup, and then more or less continues with how they learned about social and behavioral norms:
- People don’t allow strangers into their homes and usually lock their exterior doors. People within the confines of the home are typically considered to be trusted.
- Within the home, doors to rooms are usually not locked, allowing members of the household to have free access. Books, photographs, magazines, CDs, and DVDs are often freely shared.
- Social norms prevent most people from snooping into areas where they shouldn’t and, if needed, adding locks to rooms or drawers is relatively easy.
I guess this comes as a shock for many developers, but I guess most of your readers have found out this years ago. Sorry, but this is just typical me!
Back to the article, it is an enjoyable read. It shows in a great way how Microsoft have continued developing the new features on top of Vista. Yes, you read correctly, Windows 7 is just more Vista. For instance HomeGroup is built on top of network location awareness (NLA), a network technology introduced in Vista. And on top of this, is Liberary, another new Micorosft technology. Should I go on?
The more disturbing thing is how HomeGroup and Library are similar to Apple’s Bonjour, but not the same. What do users in homes with a mixed computer environment do? Sorry, but for now I don’t have any answers. I see that other readers were raising the same concerns.
Two other interesting reads regarding Windows 7 released the last couple of days, are If you love Windows XP, you’ll hate Windows 7 (I love the title) and Surprises in the Windows 7 license agreement.