Windows Server 8 Sneak Preview

We have not really heard a lot about Microsoft’s upcoming server operating system Windows Server 8. Information are hard to come by at this point in time. Microsoft recently published a sneak peak video on their website that gives businesses, system administrators and tech savvy users a sneak peak of things to come.

The presentation “Realizing Your Opportunity in the Cloud” by Robert Wahbe, Corporate Vice President Microsoft Corporation, is not completely about Microsoft’s new server operating system. In fact, the reference to the system may have been overlooked by many viewers of the video, as it appears after the 36-minute mark in the video. Before that, it is more about cloud based computing and Microsoft.

The next version of Hyper-V is revealed at the 36 minute mark.

At 36:50 of this online video we demonstrate how Windows Server 8 virtual machines will help you build private clouds of greater scale by supporting (at least…) 16 virtual processors fully loaded with business critical workloads like SQL Server. Then we show you how you can deliver improved fault tolerance and flexibility, without the added tax or complexity of additional hardware, tools and software licenses, by using the new built-in Hyper-V Replica feature. All it takes is a few clicks, a network connection and Windows Server 8.

You can watch the full Windows Server 8 sneak peak video at the Digital WPC website. Please note that your browser needs to have the Microsoft Silverlight plugin installed to play the video.

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Sneak Peek At Some Windows 8 Tablet Apps

With the Microsoft Build conference only a couple of weeks away now, we are getting plenty of Windows 8 tablet teaser apps to keep us going. Microsoft originally showed us a couple of apps and their new Metro UI back in June, but we haven’t been shown anything else since then. It’s widely expected that Microsoft will reveal a lot more to us at the Build conference in a couple of weeks.

However it seems that some companies are very eager to get cracking with Windows 8 and are already starting to develop their own Windows 8 apps. ZDnet’s Stephen Chapman managed to stumble across a couple of designs for a USA Today app on Robbie Dillons (designer) website. However since this story broke, they’ve been removed from his site.

Before the page was taken down this is what Dillon wrote:

In preparation for the windows 8 release, this app is being built to take advantage of the touch-first, native environment of Windows 8, while retaining the look and feel of the Windows Metro  UI and showcasing the content of USA Today”

After these designs began to circulate through the blogosphere, Dillon wrote a disclaimer “this is simply an early design exploration and doesn’t reflect the final product”

What’s more, it seems like there’s more than just the USA Today’s app here. A couple of screenshots show what look like a travel-oriented app that includes news,media and messaging. This particular design was created by Jetsoft, a company which designs user interfaces for other app developers.

Of course there is every chance that none of these apps ever become a reality, but what it does show is that developers are pretty willing to accept and adapt to the new Windows 8 UI.

The chances are we will see some more official apps unveiled at Microsofts Build conference next month and we may even see a technical preview being released.

Source:

ZDnet

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