Microsoft has announced that a version of Windows 10 will not only run on the Raspberry Pi 2, but that the OS will be available free of charge to members of its IoT (Internet of Things) developer program.
Microsoft made this announcement on their Dev Center website:
We’re excited to announce that we are expanding our Windows Developer Program for IoT by delivering a version of Windows 10 that supports Raspberry Pi 2. This release of Windows 10 will be free for the Maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT.
Windows 10 is the first step to an era of more personal computing. This vision framed our work on Windows 10, where we are moving Windows to a world that is more mobile, natural and grounded in trust. With the Windows for IoT developer program we're bringing our leading development tools, services and ecosystem to the Raspberry Pi community!
We see the Maker community as an amazing source of innovation for smart, connected devices that represent the very foundation for the next wave of computing, and we’re excited to be a part of this community.
We are excited about our partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and delivering a version of Windows 10 that supports Raspberry Pi 2, and we will be sharing more details about our Windows 10 plans for IoT in the coming months.
The Raspberry Pi 2 is currently selling for $35, and runs a 900MHz quad-core ARMv7 processor with 1GB of RAM. They offer their own statement on the linked page as well:
For the last six months we've been working closely with Microsoft to bring the forthcoming Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi 2. Microsoft will have much more to share over the coming months. The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers.
Though Microsoft has effectively killed WinRT after revealing that it would not be upgraded to Windows 10, the support for the ARM-powered Pi demonstrates that the upcoming version of Windows still has more than just potential to run on ARM devices. This only makes sense considering the strategy of unifying Windows with a single version, and it is possible that the fork available for the Pi is more akin to mobile than to the desktop variant. Either way it sounds like it's worth the $35 to find out!
Here is video about speed
Here is video about speed difference between RPi1 and RPi2 (Linux):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VAlLUd_GnQ
Performance gets even better once they switch from X11 to Wayland. Collabora has been already working on Wayland support for old RPi1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux-WCpNvRFM
I talked with my business
I talked with my business partner and we are getting a few of these for our simulators. thanks to windows, optimising the code for new platform won’t be too hard. Eagerly waiting for this one to be delivered.
I talked with my business
I talked with my business partner and we are getting a few of these for our simulators. thanks to windows, optimising the code for new platform won’t be too hard. Eagerly waiting for this one to be delivered.
And this new windows “10” can
And this new windows “10” can it be reduced to only the most essential footprint by the user, will the UI, be installed and be able to be changed by the user, should the user prefer a different compositing/UI/other interface, or for that matter develop a solution of the user’s own design. Just look for the OS that U-Sam uses on his ships, and others, as well as many other worldwide webs(inter, and intra).
Will all the “10” components/assemblies/DLLs/EXEs that phone home to the mother-ship, be removable, or will there be a way do properly keep M$ out of ones business. There is an OS, for some decades now, that has been happily doing the job for users, and it is completely customizable, and the source code is available for the OS proper, and the vast Majority of the software that comprises the user interface, both OS kernel, and system software, with a minimal amount of those binary blobs. Win 10 comes as mostly a blob, and some API information, but essentially it’s a BLOB, a black box, with no real transparency. The Pi users, are a resourceful bunch, and do not take to others doing things for them, that the Pi’s user can not do for themselves. No to M$ BLOB, I’ll stick with the source code bird.
[ Cue Peter Griffin doing Surfin’ Bird ]
If I have
If I have to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHNnxFzXIis
Will Microsoft make Windows
Will Microsoft make Windows 10 also available for other ARM-based developer boards/mini-PCs?
I am very skeptical of the
I am very skeptical of the whole Windows 10 buzz, not just for the Pi2. It smells to me of more fluff and marketing and an attempt to gain a vendor lockin for ARM boards.
It’s likely that the version of Windows 10 will be similar to the one released for the Intel Galileo board. I have not used it but I would estimate from a Makezine blog post (see below) it will have no / very little GUI support (DirectX, etc.). Afterall the board has only 1GB, which is plenty for Linux…but we are talking Windows.
One comment on Makezine article suggests the EULA will be very restrictive:
“…they only allow one install of a pre-release version that is only good for 60 days and may not be used ‘in production'”. Although a Microsoft employee (Pete Brown) claims that is not the case, he fails to clarify what version will be available.
Another point to make is that since it is ARMv7 architecture non of the x86 / x86_64 software will work on it, like Windows RT, unless Microsoft writes a wrapper / translator which I highly doubt. So why bother coding for it when one could easily write software using a cross-platform toolkit (Qt, GTK, wxWidgets, etc) and compile for almost any platform?(Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, HTML5, etc)
Stick to a linux distro on the the SBCs.
Sources:
Crippled Windows Screenshot for Intel Galileo
Windows for RPi2
Windows 10 IoT / Intel Galileo
Microsoft Employee mentioned
Dan: Galileo only has 256 Mb
Dan: Galileo only has 256 Mb of RAM which probably makes a big difference on what Window 10 could do.
I will wait to see what W10 + Pi 2 can do. For me W10+WMC+My Movies add on could be the perfect HTPC, I know Kodi+Linux is good, I have tried it, but WMC+Mymovies is a lot slicker
Another point to make is that
Another point to make is that since it is ARMv7 architecture non of the x86 / x86_64 software will work on it, like Windows RT, unless Microsoft writes a wrapper / translator which I highly doubt. So why bother coding for it when one could easily write software using a cross-platform toolkit (Qt, GTK, wxWidgets, etc) and compile for almost any platform?(Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, HTML5, etc)
Microsoft is drumming IoT hard to get lots of attention. Tech news are giving them free advertising. For example there is no single news about Raspberry Pi 2 here in PcPer that mentions Linux. Pretty much no Linux news at all.
Linux is an excellent platform for writing multiplatform software. As you mentioned there are many toolkits that are highly portable. Building your own set of toolchains is very easy too. I have x86 cross-compiler for RasPi1 to build projects for SteamOS.
Between this and the noise
Between this and the noise about free for Win 7 and 8, I have to wonder why they want to dominate the market at any cost. I think it’s more about control and privacy invasion that they can’t achieve with the current system. Windows XP, though it is still viable in the pro industry, is being marginalized rapidly by industry IT everywhere. Screw engineers and using what works- this is about MS shackling the business.
One has to wonder what win10.
One has to wonder what win10. On pi would look like. Will it be a full modern OS, will it be a VGA GUI that doesn’t have the power to do anything, will it be (I’m kinda hopeing for this one) the full windows kernel without the GUI, so like a dos prompt, or will it be a updated windows 95, windows phone, something completely diffrent, or full OS that brings the system to a hault. Time will tell
Ps “first step to an era of more personal computing,”……… Isn’t that a direct bill gates quote from the. Win95 launch? Hard to believe that was 20 years ago.
This version of Windows 10
This version of Windows 10 for ARM most probably will be cut down version of the full x86 version of Windows 10. Just like Windows RT, this new Windows 10 may not support most common APIs (especially those Win32 and x86 specific stuff), instead all (“universal”) applications will have to call a new (simpler and reduced) common API that will be supported on both x86 and ARM versions. This could be why there is no Windows 10 upgrade path for Windows RT either, as legacy/current Windows RT applications do not use these new APIs (thus unable to run under Windows 10). They (Microsoft) could add such functionality for backwards compatibility but that would increase the memory and storage footprint on these ARM devices (which usually has smaller memory and limited storage capacity).