Replay our live chat at Microsoft's "Liberation Day"
Replay our blog from the show floor at Steve Ballmer's address at "Liberation Day" in Sydney.
Come here from 3:30pm today to check out our live blog at Steve Ballmer's address at "Liberation Day", where Ballmer will be addressing the Sydney event on more of Microsoft's vision for the desktop will hopefully be revealed, including the new Windows Azure cloud OS, and hopefully, Windows 7.
Scroll down the page for the Live Blog.
The Windows 7-fest has already begun in earnest, with recent announcements and info about the OS appearing at PDC overseas, but today Ballmer will hopefully add more pieces to the puzzle.
The man famous dancing across a stage to deliver his immortal "Developers" performance, will grace the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre this afternoon - the event starts at 3:30pm today (AEST), and Ballmer is actually scheduled to take the stage at 3:45pm.
We will be at the event, and any technical hitches aside, blogging live during Ballmer's keynote. The live blog takes place on this page (scroll down), where you can follow the coverage, and post questions and comments.
With anti-Vista sentiment running hot, and announcement like Nvidia's release of graphics drivers for Windows 7 hitting the Web as we write this, today's event should be intruiging to say the least.
The agenda we've seen says Ballmer will speak about Microosft cloud OS plans, but will also recap recent announcements at the PDC event overseas. Hopefully this will include Windows 7.
Things to watch out for:
Azure, what's in it for you? - It's a cloud OS, but apart from that we haven't seen quite the same level of detail from Microsoft on it's new Web Apps platform as with Windows 7. Comparisons with Google, Yahoo, and others will be hard to ignore.
Windows 7 vs Vista - Will it be Visa-tweaked, or another major re-write? Microsoft has played up compatibility with Vista and Windows 7, and is said to be avoiding a major change to the kernel, while early prebeta reviews have noted the two interfaces are (on the surface at least) can be hard to tell apart. On the other hand, there's a slew of new stuff announced, like multitouch, new graphics abilities, and - we're promised - better performance.
Windows Live - On the one hand, with Azure there's the potential for loads of incredibly useful Web apps, and even Office online. On the other, we could all be tied to Windows Live, whether we like it or not.
Office on the cheap? - Potentially the most exciting Office 14 news is the proposed ability for both business and everyone else to run Office online. Whether it will get you out of a hefty upgrade fee remains to be seen.
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