WinHEC: Home Nets and Many Windows
Microsoft previews a 'simpler' future of 3D interfaces and Windows everywhere.
by Peggy Watt, PC World
April 9, 1999, 3:21 p.m. PT
LOS ANGELES --
A Microsoft technical developers' conference is kind of like Thanksgiving: You may encounter many tasty bits, but you sure are stuffed when it's over.
Developers, analysts, and journalists who attended Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here this week will be sifting for weeks through notes, CD-ROMs, and a binder of presentations fatter than the Manhattan phone book. But a few clear themes emerged from the event:
Not surprisingly, these themes dovetail with the structure of Microsoft's recent reorganization. The company subdivided into divisions focusing on business and enterprise, business productivity, consumer and commerce, developers, and consumer versions of Windows.
Nearly half of the primary sessions at WinHEC dealt with consumer and home networking issues, a clue to Microsoft's current priorities. Related to that was a focus on better imaging techniques and easier-to-use, more natural appearing interfaces. The message is that home network management must be 100 percent graphical--no command lines need apply.
Digital Cottages
All the talk of wired homes raised visions of Microsoft Chair Bill Gates's supremely digital mansion in Medina, Washington. A couple of speakers even referenced its technical wizardry in their presentations. But we don't have to have a budget of billions and 50,000 square feet to network our own homes, they suggested.
"Our view of the home isn't a PC in every room; it's a PC in appropriate places," said Carl Stork, general manager of Windows hardware strategy and evangelism. Microsoft isn't urging you to install a PC in the bathroom (yes, representatives did bring that up) but to consider setting up a PC home entertainment center in the family room alongside the TV and VCR. You can then link other semi-intelligent digital devices--the VCR, stereo, or the alarm clock, or digital cameras that let you monitor your yard. Many of those consumer devices will be what Microsoft calls Smart Objects, which include single-purpose appliances with enough "intelligence" to participate in the home network. And of course Microsoft recommends Windows CE as the embedded operating system to run such devices.
Microsoft's goal for consumer commuting is "connecting to everything everywhere," said David Cole, vice president of Microsoft's Web client and consumer experience division. He described enriching the digital media and entertainment capabilities of PCs, and merging technologies. For example, you could use Microsoft's WebTV to read what they're saying in the chat rooms about the game you're watching elsewhere on the screen.
In addition to greatly increasing your bragging rights, a networked home could actually be handy. For example, instead of scurrying around the house resetting clocks for daylight savings time, you could just use your home network, noted Alec Saunders, product manager of Windows marketing and desktop solutions. Eventually, even my travel alarm could have a wireless connection.
Simplify, Simplify
Some of this is putting the tail before the mouse. Most people--as opposed to the admittedly wired techies who attend these gatherings--still have stand-alone computers at home, even if they have more than one. That's likely to change, however: Market research studies have reported a third or more home PC users are interested in networking their systems. And that number will probably increase as the technology becomes more mainstream.
Observed one attendee, "When you ask people if they want home networks, they say no. But when you ask whether they want their computers to be able to share printers and Internet connections, and maybe control their VCR through their computer, they say that would be great."
Microsoft knows the process needs to be simpler. That's the spirit of the Easy PC Initiative, which Microsoft and Intel announced at WinHEC. The companies are promoting the slogan "It just works" to encourage easier installation procedures, self-monitoring and repair operations, and pursuit of the elusive user-friendly PC.
The Easy PC and its importance to home networking prompted some experimental designs for computing devices of new shapes and sizes. Intel and Microsoft representatives displayed brightly colored cylinders, pyramids, and squashed rectangular purselike objects as potential new form factors that may be more attractive to home users and more appropriate for home networks.
Neon pyramid PCs aside, some of this emphasis on usability rings painfully true. As Microsoft's Cole notes, "Everyone has a story about how Windows was hard to use."
Polishing Windows
Windows is still very much part of these scenarios. Ballmer announced Microsoft's plans to develop the Windows Server Appliance, which is intended to be the nerve center of small-business and home networks. This hardware/software system runs on embedded Windows NT and performs automatic backups. It will let PCs share files, printers, and Internet access, but it won't run server applications.
Ballmer said he expects Windows CE will be the embedded operating system in consumer devices and "low-end appliances" that join the home network. Universal Plug and Play (unveiled at Comdex) is the prescribed connection. Microsoft representatives also emphasize the company's commitment to IEEE 1394 and Universal Serial Bus standards.
Of course, other versions of Windows are in the future. Ballmer officially announced Windows 98, Second Edition, an update due in June, and promised another update to the consumer-oriented Windows 98 in 2000. But don't confuse this with Windows 2000, the Windows NT successor that is now scheduled for release in October. And after that, Microsoft is developing a 64-bit version of Windows intended to run on Intel's Merced and Compaq's Alpha systems.
Futurescape in 3D
Yet another user interface is percolating in the labs. Daniel Robbins of Microsoft Research previewed a new 3D environment that's the latest version of an interface Microsoft has been testing for years. It's tempting, but not really fair, to call it "Bob 3D." Like the short-lived cartoonish interface, the 3D environment attempts to create a virtual room. The documents you work on--spreadsheets, word processing files--hang suspended in virtual air, and you click to call them to you. Instead of layering documents on each other, the documents underneath shrink to the background and hover on the digital horizon.
I'm not quite sure what the point is to this approach, except that it looks cool to have documents swoop forward when you drill down through layers of a virtual stack. And you can scan the field, zoom in and out, and change perspective as you move through the environment. Robbins says the interface is scalable even to hand-held devices, but I have trouble seeing that. I'd need a lot better monitor to enter this 3D world. And this design doesn't seem well suited for monitor-weary eyes that occasionally benefit from reading glasses.
The real application for this more realistic, more capable 3D environment is obviously playing games. And Microsoft showed games as well; one particularly dramatic example was a testosterone-drenched demonstration of Monster Truck Madness 2. Microsoft presenters offered the demo to show how the Easy PC of the future will automatically install new versions and choose the appropriate drivers to run best on the system(s) being used. And of course, several gamers could compete on the home network.
As with most Microsoft events, your brain is tired at the end of the two or three days. The company typically offers a great deal of material--including visions of the future, technical information, whiz-bang demos, and espresso. It's easy to either get excited about the potential or to cynically shake your head at some of the promises. The right answer is probably a little of both: There's a lot of exciting technology out there, but there's a lot of work yet to do.
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