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your Windows® embedded community
Windows For Devices
your Windows® embedded community
Last month, Microsoft hinted the event might be about to make a comeback. In the context of providing information about the ongoing embeddedSPARK 2011 contest, "Steel" (a.k.a. Gitte-Lena Andersen, pictured at right), posted the following on an online forum:
We are looking into the possibility of reviving a big embedded conference and if that happens we will be moving the embeddedSPARK finals event from ESC Silicon Valley. I am not allowed to talk about this in too much detail, but chances are the event will be held here in Redmond, WA at the Microsoft campus.
Now, the event is officially on. Earlier today, Microsoft emailed subscribers to its Windows Embedded InfoBlast newsletter to announce what it's calling the 2011 Windows Embedded DevDive.
The email reads, "You spoke, and we listened -- it's time to bring back a deep dive event specifically for Windows Embedded developers. This summer, hundreds of embedded developers will come to Redmond to hear how to squeeze the most out of the platform and how to take advantage of the latest Windows Embedded innovations."
The message provides no details as to when the event will be held. Interested parties are asked to follow a Windows Embedded DevDive Twitter feed in order to receive updates.
A happy 2011 for Windows Embedded?
In other ways too it seems as though 2011 could be a good year for Microsoft's Windows Embedded operating systems. While it might have behooved WindowsForDevices.com to remain a lone voice crying in the wilderness, in fact we've been glad to see mainstream IT websites and blogs talking about Windows Embedded -- even if, all too often, it's part of their endless fixation with tablets.
In his posting earlier this week on the Windows Embedded Standard blog, Test Manager Andy Allred (pictured at left in a 2010 Halloween costume!) provides "New Year Reflections and Thoughts." He says by far the biggest thing that happened last year was the release of Windows Embedded Standard 7, "tracking to be the most popular release of the Standard platform yet."
Windows Embedded Standard 7's popularity is partly due to the fact that it's based on Windows 7 technologies, Allred writes. But, he adds, another reason is that it's "hitting close to the sweet spot in granularity of components vs. complexity created by too many components: Windows Embedded Standard 7 has about 150 components, vs. Windows Embedded Standard 2009, which has around 10,000 components."
Allred's post reviews other highlights, such as the release of Windows Embedded Developer Update (WEDU), a new consumer media devices version of Windows Embedded Standard 7 (WES7), and the release of a community build of Windows Embedded POSReady 7. But he concedes that "not everything was perfect" -- a new tiered system of SKUs for WES7 apparently led to some conclusion.
Allred concludes, "the overall focus for our group in 2010 was to ship a high quality embedded platform based on Windows 7, and also continue to keep the previous platforms fresh, since we know some of you will continue to develop on Standard 2009.
