There have been several recent leaks of new Surface products that may be announced at Microsoft’s big hardware event on October 2nd, including the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, and an ARM-powered Surface 2-in-1 laptop. Now, leaker Evan Blass has spilled details about Windows 10X, which is said to be Microsoft’s fork of Windows 10 that’s built for dual-screen devices.
Of course, a dual-screen Surface product (codenamed “Centaurus”) is rumored to make its debut at the big Surface event. Based on Blass’ tweet, it will run on Windows 10X, which has been previously referred to as Windows Lite.
While the tweet shared no images of the software, it states that Windows 10X is made to run on dual- and folding-screen devices. Compared to standard Windows 10, 10X might run applications in “containers.” As for what that means, 10X may lean on virtualization to run a majority of the apps over the internet instead of running them locally off of the hardware.
The Verge will be covering Microsoft’s big event tomorrow, October 2nd, starting at 10AM ET, so tune in to see if this and all of the other leaks pan out. Hopefully, Microsoft will still have a few surprises left in store, so stay tuned.
Comments
Genuine question: I thought virtualization meant something very different from what is being described here
By Tuff on 10.01.19 10:03am
I think what they meant of Containers are more like these:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/about/
https://blog.netapp.com/blogs/containers-vs-vms/
They don’t mean they are apps running over the cloud, but Containers are sorta like VM but instead of having OS sitting on top of Hypervisor and typically means separate OS, this Containers sits on top of the Host OS and the hardware, sharing OS kernel, libraries and other components. It is a lot lighter and leaner than VM.
This is just what I think given that the technology already exist and Windows and many other OS does this.
By MaroonBlend on 10.01.19 10:14am
This doesn’t refer to either. It’s talking about App streaming for underpowered hardware using an internet connection.
I imagine it will be some newer consumer version of the enterprise app-v.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/appv-v4/how-to-configure-the-application-virtualization-streaming-servers
By theratchetnclank on 10.01.19 10:46am
If you ask me, Windows is Microsoft’s biggest liability. It still has way too many ties to the past, is still a chore to have to use, and is still being riffed on for future platforms.
By brianericford on 10.01.19 10:47am
That’s a bit like saying that Toyota’s biggest liability are the 10 million fossil-fuelled cars that it sells every year. Yes, it is true that the future of cars is undeniably electric, a category in which Toyota isn’t yet playing. But they still make $20B / year in profit on those gas-powered vehicles, so…
People who say that Windows is a chore to use today are generally the same minority of people who have always hated Windows. Most people think of using Windows as synonymous with "using a computer."
By Turbofrog on 10.01.19 10:56am
Windows is definitely not the future of Microsoft, but it is the cash cow they are milking to help fund their future innovations and products. It’s a better strategy than not investing and slowly dying. And hey, if the improvements they make along the way catch lightning in a bottle and take off, even better.
By BassMonkey on 10.01.19 11:42am
Windows 10 is nearing a billion installations… It’s also the platform on which most personal computing and almost all PC gaming is done on. They also have quite a few billion dollar sectors to their business and windows is just one among them. It’s not like it’s the iPhone in apple’s portfolio.
By Abbott77 on 10.01.19 1:03pm
This is a bad analogy. Toyota is no more or less reliant on the combustion engine than any of their competitors, save Tesla.
Saying that Windows isn’t a liability because it’s profitable today isn’t particularly responsive to my point.
By brianericford on 10.01.19 3:50pm
I don’t find Windows 10 a chore. There are a few niceties from MacOS that I wish they’d crib (particularly the network "locations" switching) but honestly it’s not that bad.
Part of me thinks that most people’s perception of Windows is clouded by their corporate IT policy and all of the shitty "security" software and settings dictated by group policy. I can say that my work laptop, while still not what I’d consider a chore, is absolutely worse to use than the my personal Windows computer at home.
By shabanga on 10.01.19 11:16am
I completely agree with you.
I have a PC and Mac for personal use and Windows 10 is a joy to use. Agreed that it has its issues but the flexibility of what you can do with Windows is unmatched by Mac OS, which wont be surpassed by Mac OS anytime soon. Coupled with the availability of programs. All depends on your use case but still Windows is not as people love to hate it.
By Micrones on 10.01.19 11:22am
Windows is the bedrock of Microsoft existence. Regardless of how people feel about Windows, Microsoft has no choice but to stick with Windows. People are so used to Windows that any new OS from Microsoft will take decades for adoption.
By Micrones on 10.01.19 11:24am
Yes. This is my point. They’re beholden to something that is still rooted in development that happened decades ago.
Windows 10 still has two different places to change settings. WTF?
It’s still a "this works great but god forbid something strange happens because I’ll probably have to spend way too long trying to figure out what driver or update fucked this up" says the guy who currently has a 4K display that has to be unplugged from a Surface Dock which in turn has to be completely untethered from a Surface Book and unplugged from power prior to a restart or else the 4K monitor will refuse to display any resolution higher than 1024×768.
Somewhere buried on a random web forum I found exactly 1 thread with a few people saying this has been an ongoing problem and no fix in sight. It’s just crap like that that is rampant and completely beyond most people’s ability or patience to deal with.
It’s a 90s OS wearing a modern skin.
By brianericford on 10.01.19 3:43pm
I often find that people who complain about Windows today have no idea how Windows today works.
By wixostrix on 10.01.19 11:38am
exactly.
By wizll on 10.01.19 1:27pm
Why do you inaccurately think that?
By brianericford on 10.01.19 3:45pm
because you keep commenting.
By Dirty_Dogg on 10.01.19 5:42pm
That’s a stupid reason.
By brianericford on 10.01.19 10:11pm
It may have some ties to the past lingering around but the general UI has been updated to work on multiple types of devices and continues to be refined. macOS is built on its past. The program dock and top navigation bar have been a feature of macOS going all the way back to the introduction of OS X. There’s something to be said about that as someone who used a Mac 10 years ago can use one today but the UI has definitely aged and Apple isn’t keen on adapting it to different form factors.
By P_Devil on 10.01.19 11:44am
Yeah. The UI has been updated. Painting a house doesn’t fix a foundation problem.
By brianericford on 10.01.19 3:52pm
Tell that to Apple then. If we are going to nitpick, let’s also look at iOS where the camera settings aren’t actually in with the camera app, e-mail settings aren’t in the e-mail app, it’s basic UI has visually been updated a couple of times now (which doesn’t fix its foundation problems), there are at least two places where you can turn wi-fi/bluetooth/airplane mode on and off (cause heaven forbid there’s a shortcut that’s easy to access)… Apple is just now getting rid of dashboard with macOS, something that looked right out of 2010; the OS UI has remained (basically) the same since it was introduced as, as you previously stated, a fresh coat of paint doesn’t fix the foundations.
The issue is that Windows, macOS, and even iOS and Android have all become so popular for such long periods of time (more for Windows and macOS) that they can’t stray too far from their original formulas or people will get confused. MS could still polish Windows 10, there are some areas where the font and colors look like they’re still in Windows 2000 but there are plenty of areas where Apple could modernize the OS. At least MS isn’t afraid of trying something new with Windows whether it works or not, they’re adapting it to form factors that Apple is ignoring in favor of adding a touch bar while pushing people to buy two PC devices (MacBook and iPad).
By P_Devil on 10.01.19 4:32pm
This comparison with iOS doesn’t make sense, because it’s not the same. If Apple wanted they could put the settings within the camera app. Microsoft needs to support certain old stuff that hold them back.
By eduardobragaxz on 10.01.19 9:28pm
Glad someone gets it. It’s weird when people get so aggravated about a fairly non-controversial comment, for weirdly non-responsive and mostly emotional reasons.
By brianericford on 10.01.19 10:13pm
Glad.Out of 100 Comments, someone agrees with you. why you are so delusional?
By Sugadevan on 10.02.19 1:37am
It’s good to see some Windows fanatics survived the 90s.
By brianericford on 10.02.19 1:50am
Agree 100%. And Microsoft knows that. They can’t change things because of old software. It is a problem to them.
By eduardobragaxz on 10.01.19 9:26pm