9:53 AM: Just got the Five Minute Warning. Looks like things will be starting right on time.
10:02 AM: Lights-dim, video starts- time to get started (a little late because everyone was still trying to find seats). “X Lives Here” is the slogan for this year (such as “Innovation Lives Here,” “Potential Lives Here,” etc.).
10:03 AM: Bill Veghte, Senior VP Windows Business, is taking the stage. Just basic “welcome” speech and some TechEd facts and figures. Claims about 7000 at this year’s TechEd. Rolling another video- interviews that look like they were shot at MIX with developers asking “What keeps you up at night?” “What are your pain points?”
10:08 AM: Tepid response from crowd to video (“courtesy” claps). Bill’s energy is a little low, too. Lots of pausing- not sure if he’s trying to create drama or if it’s just “his style.”
10:10 AM: Bill says Microsoft intends to support the community in these turbulent times by “inventing in you, driving value, and innovating together.” Says MSFT will grow R&D this year, despite other cut backs. “Pedal down” behavior, as he puts it.
10:12 AM: Talking about “Dynamic IT.” Just remarking about how far we’ve come since 2003.
10:14 AM: Wants to call attention to 3 things (or “key themes”) MSFT is doing to watch for this week: 1) Virtualization (and how much MSFT is doing across products and platforms to support virtualization), 2) End-user access, Greater support for end-user mobility, 3)…
10:17 AM: Announcing a SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP will ship in H2 2009. No response from crowd, Also showing on screen a July 2009 tech preview of Office 2010.
10:19 AM: Just added that Office 2010 preview will be private- invite only. First dibs go to TechEd attendees. Again, no crowd excitement for this announcement.
10:21 AM: Running another video, this time talking to Windows 7 engineers. Making the case that Windows 7 is really listening to people and trying to build the best OS possible. Trying to provide some transparency for the Windows development approach.
10:23 AM: Flashed a website at end of video: talkingaboutwindows.com. Encourage you to “join the conversation.”
10:24 AM: Bill is now talking about the “Making of Windows 7.” Key points: Microsoft listened & learned before building Win7, Quality & Fundamentals are key, MSFT wants to “enable you,” and finally MSFT wants to “excite” end-users.
10:27 AM: Now talking Win7 and the Ecosystem. Talking about how MSFT is working hard to ensure ecosystem is better prepared for Win7 than they were for Vista. Slide is saying some “Intel Announcement” is coming.
10:29 AM: Two “announcements” regarding Intel: MSFT and Intel worked together to deliver better power management in Win7 and better OS support for hyper threading. Yeah, no crowd reaction…
10:31 AM: Bill is moving on to talk about new features in Windows7 release wave- specifically, features that help address the balance between “Control” and “Flexibility.” Examples: branch cache, direct connect (i.e. VPN-client-less VPN), etc.
10:33 AM: Bill is encouraging audience to compare Win7 RC performance to Vista to see proof that new release is already better performing than previous releases- even in RC.
10:35 AM: Demo time! I think the audience is relieved- Bill’s part was getting a little long. Bill is doing first demo- made the big “name mistake” and called Win7, “Windows Vista.” Finally got some audience laughter!
10:36 AM: Bill is demoing the “basic” UX improvements in Win7 (jump lists, reordering apps on task bar, etc.)- stuff you’ve probably seen before.
10:38 AM: More interesting than Bill’s Win7 demo is the fact that he’s got Office 2010 running on his demo machine! The UX is changing in office- no more big “Office Button” globe.
10:39 AM: Moving on to show-off Direct Connect. Requires WinServer 2008R2. And now we’re on to look at Branch Caching, and integrated Open Search (in Windows Search), and so on. Lots of quick little demos of Win7 features.
10:44 AM: Bill says he’s doing last demo- showing BitLocker ToGo. Don’t think people really got this last demo.
10:46 AM: Mark Russinovich, Tech Fellow at MSFT, is taking the stage to do Win7 demos for the IT Pros.
10:49 AM: Showing-off AppLocker- essentially a new “whitelist” for apps that an user is allowed to install that also enables you to filter at different levels of specificity (i.e. you can approve a publisher, a specific app, a specific app version, etc.)
10:51 AM: Demo snag. Mark was trying to show AppLocker group policy change in action, but something broke. First time I’ve seen a TechEd keynote demo stall for that long. Fortunately, the “magic behind the curtain” (i.e. the guys in back frantically trying to fix the problem) fixed the issue and Mark recovered.
10:53 AM: Big recovery! Mark just got the biggest crowd reaction so far showing-off the feature in Win7 that enables users to record the steps they took to hit a problem (complete with step-by-step) screen caps. People applauded this feature more than anything else so far.
10:56 AM: Moving-on to talk about PowerShell v2. Talking about using PowerShell to manage group policy settings.
10:57 AM: ASIDE: Mark suggested that one of the cool new features in IE8 is InPrivate Mode- for “personal reasons.” I see…
11:00 AM: Now on to MEDV (pronounced “Med-Vee”)- Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, the set of tools MSFT is shipping that enables admins to easily manage end-user VMs.
11:03 AM: And now “AppV” (pronounced “App-Vee”), Microsoft’s application virtualization solution. Mark says this feature will help support the idea of the “replaceable PC,” or a scenario where all user settings (including apps) can quickly be re-initialized on a new box if their first PC dies.
11:07 AM: Last thing for Mark- demoing the new VHD support in Win7 (ability to managed VHDs from Disk Manager and even boot directly from a VHD).
11:11 AM: Bill’s back. Mark’s gone. No developer love so far in this year’s keynote (last year you may remember that there was a fair amount more for devs).
11:13 AM: Bill wants to talk about “two elephants in the room:” App Compat and Ship Date. Bill also seems to be much more amped-up on his return to the stage. Must have had some caffeine back stage…
11:13 AM: First App Compat. Essentially, MSFT is doing a lot to make sure all apps run: App Compat Kit, Guidance, Virtualization Tech, XP Mode, App Compat Factory, and ISV Engagement.
11:15 AM: Second, Ship Date. Bill is ready to announce something. Announcing that Windows 7 will ship for this holiday season. No reaction from crowd- think that shocked Bill.
11:16 AM: Telling people who don’t have Vista installed yet to start testing with Win7 RC instead.
11:17 AM: Time for another demo. Ian McDonald, General Manager of Windows Server Group, taking stage to do some Windows Server 2008 R2 demos.
11:21 AM: Talking about the focus of the Server Group: Consistent Delivery, Accelerating Technology Adoption, and Commitment to Value.
11:25 AM: Ian is now addressing how Windows Server focuses on four areas: Web, Management, Virtualization, and “Foundation for Business.” After that, he says there’ll be some demos. Looks like the keynote may run long…
11:29 AM: Keynote is definitely dragging. Ian is high energy, but I think people realize that this is going to run in to lunch and we’re not going to get any more interesting announcements as things go along. Just review of the RCs and Betas we’ve already seen. Ian is still talking to his key points slide.
11:30 AM: Take it back. There are some new announcements: 1) HyperV will now support up to 64 virtual processors (no reaction – Ian had to beg for applause), 2) [Something nobody understood], 3) New “Compat Mode” coming to HyperV to enable running on older hardware. Yeah…that did little to get the crowd back in this one…
11:33 AM: Another new thing: File Classification Structure. [OBSERVATION: People are really streaming-out of the keynote now. It started with a trickle and it’s turning in to a stream.]
11:35 AM: Ian is now starting his demos. They better be impressive to save this keynote. But they are “just” server admin demos, so…unless you’re a domain admin…this info isn’t likely to interest you.
11:37 AM: Ian got some demo applause! Apparently Windows Server now has some OCR features built-in. That’s cool, I suppose.
11:40 AM: Ian is now rambling on about Exchange 2010. Stream of people leaving is about to become a river.
11:43 AM: Ian is now demoing Outlook 2010 (another sneak peak of the Office14 UX). Showing some type of integration with something- demo problems. Demo failed. Apparently the demo was to make some joke about Mary Jo’s “MSFT Code Name” list.
11:48 AM: “And finally I’m going to get on to the headline artist of the night: virtualization in Windows Server,” says Ian as people continue their march out of the keynote. Apparently there’ll be one more demo today showing virtualization.
11:53 AM: Ian is still demoing some Windows Server 2008 R2 features. Actually, now he’s wrapping-up his time. [River is no turning in to flood of people leaving.]
11:54 AM: Bill is re-taking stage to wrap-up the keynote. I think people cut him short. Quick thanks for Bill and that’s it!
I know they practiced this keynote, but it’s not clear if any amount of practice have saved it. With the Windows 7 RC already released, the keynote just lacked any good announcements. It’s almost like MSFT forgot to save anything-up for this big keynote. Good thing Bill Gate’s last TechEd keynote is already in the books.
Either way, hope you enjoyed the extended coverage. Stay tuned for more from LA as TechEd continues!
5 comments:
Thanks for blogging since MS screwed up the streaming bigtime. 1500kbit just plays the intro tune ,750 worked for about two minutes 300 never worked... sigh....
hey streams are finally up after 30 mins, wow this is really painfull to watch, think bill is really happy when this trainwreck is over.
@Anon- Happy I could help fill-in the gap until the live streams kicked-in. I agree that the keynote was a bit of a train wreck for TechEd standards.
-Todd
Hi Todd,
Live(s) from Mix was fabulous but it was another story for TechEd stream, they definitely missed something.
Fortunately there is your live keynote coverage with all infos inside :)
I hope next days will be more interesting, I think Win7 RC before TechEd was a mistake from MS, no real news from keynote :/
Hello Todd,
No more news at TechEd ? nothing about Silverlight 3, Silverlight 2 Mobile ?
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