Sam Byford, writing at The Verge:
Let’sLet’s play a quick game of word association: Microsoft — Windows? Excel? Xbox? All solid answers. But for me, for a while in the ’90s at least, I would have immediately answered “Flight Simulator.” Microsoft Flight Simulator is the very first thing I can remember ever doing on a computer, sat on my granddad’s lap as we soared across blocky landscapes together with a Sidewinder joystick. It is one of Microsoft’s all-time iconic brands.
Jean-Louis Gassée, writing about the fallout coming with Apple silicon Macs:
This leaves Microsoft with a choice: Either forget Windows on ARM and concede modern PCs to Apple, or forge ahead, fix app compatibility problems and offer an ARM-based alternative to Apple’s new Macs. It’s a false dilemma, of course. Microsoft will forge ahead…with repercussions for the rest of the Windows PC industry.
Specifically, what are Dell, HP, Asus, and others going to do if Apple offers materially better laptops and desktops and Microsoft continues to improve Windows on ARM Surface devices? In order to compete, PC manufacturers will have to follow suit, they’ll “go ARM” because, all defensive rhetoric aside, Apple and Microsoft will have made the x86 architecture feel like what it actually is: old.
Tom Warren, writing at The Verge:
Apple will start switching its Macs to its own ARM-based processors later this year, but you won’t be able to run Windows in Boot Camp mode on them. Microsoft only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to PC makers to preinstall on new hardware, and the company hasn’t made copies of the operating system available for anyone to license or freely install.
“Microsoft only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to OEMs,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. We asked Microsoft if it plans to change this policy to allow Boot Camp on ARM-based Macs, and the company says “we have nothing further to share at this time.”
Microsoft Corp. today announced that Co-Founder and Technology Advisor Bill Gates stepped down from the company’s Board of Directors to dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities including global health, development, education, and his increasing engagement in tackling climate change. He will continue to serve as Technology Advisor to CEO Satya Nadella and other leaders in the company.
On June 27, 2008, Gates transitioned out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He served as Microsoft’s chairman of the board until February 4, 2014.
Microsoft has introduced its new lineup of hardware, and all of it looks pretty great. MKBHD has posted a great overview of the hardware coming this fall:
There’s also the Surface Neo, coming at the end of next year:
The Neo will run Windows 10X, a new lite version of Windows that retains the ability to run legacy Windows apps, but is designed for new dual-screen devices, complete with a revised Start menu.
Hi, it looks like you want to read an article about Clippy. I can help you with that!
A really cool move on Microsoft’s part.
Zac Bowden at Windows Central:
Microsoft today confirmed plans to rebuild its Edge browser using Chromium, in a move designed to improve web performance and app availability across platforms. Windows Central reported earlier about the shift in strategy and now it is official.
The new version of Edge is expected to start shipping as a beta in the coming months, and will run on Windows 7, 8, 10 as well as macOS. With Chromium under the hood, users should can expect a better and faster browsing experience than Edge or IE before it could ever offer.
Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced it has reached an agreement to acquire GitHub, the world’s leading software development platform where more than 28 million developers learn, share and collaborate to create the future. Together, the two companies will empower developers to achieve more at every stage of the development lifecycle, accelerate enterprise use of GitHub, and bring Microsoft’s developer tools and services to new audiences.
“Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world’s most pressing challenges.”
IBM’s first ThinkPad debuted exactly 25 years ago today, with a bright red TrackPoint nub and a classic design that still exists in a modern form. Lenovo, the company that bought ThinkPad from IBM, is celebrating the laptop’s 25th anniversary today with a special anniversary edition of the ThinkPad. Even if every ThinkPad looks retro, this is a particularly retro version of the ThinkPad design based on the current ThinkPad T470 model.
Last month, we announced that we’re bringing major improvements to how Google Accounts work in Outlook 2016 for Mac—including an improved setup experience and Google Calendar and Contacts support. We’re excited to be delivering on these highly requested features for Mac users—matching Outlook for iOS and Android—by providing Google Accounts with a more powerful way to stay in control of the day ahead.
I’m going to take this for a spin.