

Microsoft's Build 2012 developer conference sells out in an hour - marcieoum
http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-build-2012-developer-conference-sells-out-in-an-hour-7000002350/

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randomfool
Crazy prediction- they announce Windows 9 here.

My thinking?

1) In order to compete with iOS, OSX and Android, Windows has to move to a
yearly release schedule.

2) Rather than sell boxed copies of Windows for $119 every 3 years, why not
sell an upgrade from the previous version for $40 every one year?

3) Only supporting upgrades from the previous version would push a steeper
upgrade curve, which allows developers to target the newer features (as it is
now, Windows developers have to wait eons to leverage new features).

4) Windows Phone team was able to do it. Normally I'd say that Microsoft is
too slow to adapt, but the Windows Phone team was able to do it, so I won't
count out the Windows 8 team.

So, why announce Windows 9 at Build?

The current $40 Win8 upgrade (from XP, Vista, Win7) expires January 31st. My
guess is that Microsoft wants to get everyone on board to Windows 8 then do
upgrades only from Win8 to Win9.

To do this, they need to announce Win 9 before the upgrade to Win 8 expires-
tell everyone to upgrade ASAP or they'll have to pay full price for Win9.

It's just a hunch though. If not Build, then CES. But my understanding is that
they're not participating in CES anymore.

~~~
rkwz
_> Rather than sell boxed copies of Windows for $119 every 3 years, why not
sell an upgrade from the previous version for $40 every one year?_

But would people actually upgrade? I think for the general population the
current OS is "good enough", why would they pay $40 to break something that
works perfectly? (Non-techies _hate_ updates)

 _> In order to compete with iOS, OSX and Android, Windows has to move to a
yearly release schedule._

Maybe they'll just update the "metro" portions every year? Just the UI while
keeping everything underneath the same?

~~~
Argorak
I am not sure whether non-techies hate updates. What they hate are _update
pains_. And those are larger when you update your software every few years and
not all 300 days.

The biggest problem for Microsoft is that they serve the business market as
well, where every update has to be checked for compatibility, but that can be
solved by long term service releases.

I am not sure whether the parent is right, but I wouldn't rule it out.

------
hdivider
I bet a lot of people just wanted to come along in case they get a free
Surface or Windows Phone 8 at the end. ;)

As for the success of Windows 8, I think it's simply not possible to estimate
how well it'll be received by the average Win7 user. Microsoft is releasing so
much new stuff this year - most or all of it designed to work together - that
I don't think it's valid to look at just one thing (eg the
'schizophrenic'-style UI of Windows 8/RT) and claim that because it's not
awesome, the whole new direction that Microsoft is taking will invariably set
them on a downhill path.

The data simply aren't in yet. It'll be an interesting 6-ish months before
we'll see how this multi-billion dollar experiment will work out.

------
DigitalSea
So much for lack of interest in Windows 8. I'm starting to think Windows 8 is
going to be a successful operating system once people get use to the Metro
interface.

~~~
cmer
The fact that the conference quickly sold out doesn't mean anything in my
opinion. Developers _might_ have an interest in Metro, but I doubt the public
will (on the desktop). I think Windows 7 will remain relevant much longer than
XP was/is.

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johns
It's a pretty small venue if they hold it on campus where PDC 2010 was held.
I'm guessing 1000 at the most. Not anything like Build in Anaheim last year
which held 5000.

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justanotheratom
I am wondering why is this being discussed on HN today, after 4 days?

~~~
rbanffy
Microsoft technologies seem to be surprisingly popular here. It kind of makes
sense: releasing early and iterating quickly is a strong theme within startups
and the Microsoft stack, while not my favorite one, is familiar to a lot of
developers. If it takes you one month to learn and one month to develop a
first release on a stack like Rails of Django, you'd still release first if it
took you 45 days to develop on a stack your developers are already familiar
with.

You still have the challenges of scaling on Windows, but, by then, you already
know whether you'll need to.

