One Microsoft Way

Mozilla developers are planning to build a dramatically different version of Firefox for Windows 8, a change necessitated by Microsoft's use of the touch-friendly "Metro" user interface for PCs and tablets.

Mozilla describes its Windows 8 plans as part of a 2012 Strategy & Roadmap document updated yesterday. A technology proof-of-concept demonstrating the feasibility of Firefox in Windows 8 is planned for the second quarter of this year, with timing dependent on the release of Microsoft's Windows 8 consumer preview and developer documentation. A Metro version may be necessary for Firefox to avoid being shut out of Windows 8 tablets running on ARM, which will have only a limited "traditional" Windows desktop. But Mozilla is apparently planning Firefox builds both for the traditional Windows desktop environment and Metro.

"Windows 8 contains two application environments, 'Classic' and 'Metro,'" Mozilla notes. "Classic is very similar to the Windows 7 environment at this time, it requires a simple evolution of the current Firefox Windows product. Metro is an entirely new environment and requires a new Firefox front end and system integration points."

Metro Firefox will be a new Gecko-based browser focused on touch interactions, with both full-screen and partial-screen modes, with the possibility of a live tile so that users can see updates on the Start screen. There are several unanswered questions, such as which programming language to use for building the Metro front end. Firefox product manager Asa Dotzler further notes that "This proposal depends on Microsoft providing the same capabilities for Firefox as it does for IE—running at the Medium level integrity process that allows us the full use of the Win32 API and what we need from Metro, or a set of APIs that allow Mozilla to port Gecko to the WinRT. For the purposes of this feature proposal, I'm assuming we'll get the first and we won't have to port the bulk of Gecko and instead will use the win32 dlls from within Metro."

Firefox accounts for about 20 percent of worldwide desktop browser market share, but has lost ground to Google Chrome over the past year. Chrome will presumably have a Metro version for Windows 8 as well, but Google has made no official announcement.

Yesterday, Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows and Windows Live Division, described the restrictions that Windows on ARM ("WOA") would impose on its desktop. The built-in Windows apps—including Explorer and Internet Explorer 10—and four Office apps—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote—would run on the desktop, but nothing else would. Third-party applications would be prohibited, and there would be no provision to port existing desktop applications to run on the ARM desktop.

This led to an immediate, if somewhat surprising, reaction across the Internet. "But what about browser plugins? Will they also be forbidden?"

The answer to that is "Yes." Or perhaps even "Yes, of course they are, since it was stated in unequivocal terms that there would be no provision to run third-party code on the desktop. That means you, Flash."

And if there were any lingering doubts, Sinofsky told AllThingsD that indeed, the ARM desktop browser would have no plugins.

Plugin users will therefore have few options when Windows 8 ships. The Metro-style browser won't support plugins on any processor architecture. x86 and x64 Windows will allow sites to tell you to use the desktop browser, and if plugins are what you want, that's what you'll have to use.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview—notably it's not being called a "beta"—will be launched on February 29th. Microsoft will launch it at an event it's hosting in Barcelona to coincide with Mobile World Congress.

Taking full advantage of the opportunity afforded by the leap year, the release will just hit Microsoft's previously announced "late February" date. Redmond has no comment (yet) on whether the event will be Webcast.

Releasing the Consumer Preview of a desktop operating system at a conference for cellular communications might seem strange. But with Windows 8's tablet ambitions and the leaked information that Windows Phone 8 will probably use the Windows 8 kernel, this is a desktop operating system that won't be confined to the desktop.

Barnes & Noble received a boost in its patent infringement case against Microsoft after staff attorneys at the US International Trade Commission recommended that ITC Judge Theodore Essex find that the book company had not infringed on three Microsoft patents, reports Bloomberg.

Microsoft brought the case against Barnes & Noble in March of last year, claiming that the NOOK and NOOK Color tablets infringed on five patents. In the run up to the eventual hearings, Redmond dropped two of the patents from the case, with three remaining.

Essex discarded Barnes & Noble's affirmative defense in which the company alleged that Microsoft's attempt to assert patents against Android was a breach of antitrust law, leaving subsequent discussion to revolve around the validity and applicability of Microsoft's patents. The ITC lawyers, acting as an independent third party and giving their own assessment of the evidence presented, argue that there is no infringement case to answer.

After Essex has reviewed the relevant evidence presented by Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, and the ITC's own lawyers, he is expected to release his findings on April 27th. This initial determination will then be reviewed by an ITC panel, which will make the final decision on the case's outcome.

The software giant is downplaying the significance of the ITC lawyers' position. In a statement, a company representative said, "This was a preliminary argument by the Office of Unfair Import Investigations ('OUII') staff attorney, which was filed before the presentation of the evidence at the hearing has occurred. The OUII staff may change its position after the hearing. Additionally, the administrative law judge will hear the evidence and arguments at the hearing and will come to his own conclusion."

Microsoft may have scored an early victory in its legal tussle with Barnes & Noble. The two companies are engaged in parallel battles, one via the Department of Justice, another via United States International Trade Commission. In March 2011, Microsoft accused Barnes & Noble of patent infringement with its NOOK and NOOK Color products; in retaliation, Barnes & Noble made a broad complaint claiming that Microsoft is being an abusive monopoly and that the patents are in any case irrelevant. That antitrust complaint looks likely to be rejected by the ITC, a decision that favors Microsoft.

The document dismissing the antitrust complaint is under seal; however, its title, "Initial Determination Granting Microsoft's Motion for Summary Determination of Respondents' First Affirmative Defense of Patent Misuse," is public, with intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller certain that this means rejection of the claim. Mueller has been commissioned by Microsoft to conduct a study on the worldwide use of FRAND patents.

Microsoft has welcomed the ITC's decision. "Today's action by the ITC makes clear that Barnes & Noble's patent misuse defense was meritless," said deputy general counsel David Howard. Redmond remains open to offering licenses to the bookseller, adding it to the growing list of Android-using companies that pay a fee to Microsoft, with Howard adding, "We remain as open as ever to extending a license to Barnes & Noble, and invite them to join the many other major device makers in paying for the Microsoft-developed intellectual property they use in their devices."

Barnes & Noble's antitrust complaint was made as an affirmative defense against Microsoft's action. Dismissal of this defense has looked likely since June, when ITC staff pointed out that patent law in general creates no obligation to offer licenses or make those licenses freely available. The Department of Justice may arrive at a different conclusion to the ITC.

The ITC action is still on-going, and with the antitrust defense dismissed will focus on the validity and applicability of the patents in question. Earlier this month, Microsoft removed one patent from the suit entirely, and also dropped several of the claims relating to the four remaining patents. In dropping the claims, Microsoft stipulated that the action was "not an admission as to the merits of any claim," but rather was meant to "simplify the Investigation, streamline the hearing, and converse the Parties' and Commission's resources in consideration of the amount of time allotted for the hearing."

The ITC trial will start on Monday, February 6th.

Microsoft has announced that the Technical Preview Program for the software suite codenamed "Office 15" has started. This represents the first time that the company will start to receive customer feedback on the software from a select group of NDA-covered testers.

Redmond is describing Office 15 as the Office team's "most ambitious undertaking yet." In addition to the standard desktop software, Microsoft will be simultaneously updating server software, including SharePoint, Lync, and Exchange, the Office 365 cloud service, and mobile clients.

Office 15 is likely to be the first version of Office to ever ship with a touch-friendly user interface, and could well sport a Metro-style UI.

The Technical Preview is a private test; those keen to try out Microsoft's latest and greatest will have to wait for the public beta, due in summer.

Kinect's vision and depth perception technology could soon be integrated into laptops. The Daily has seen two prototypes, believed to be from Asus, that incorporate an array of sensors above the top of the screen, replacing the traditional webcam. Below the display are a set of LEDs. Sources at Microsoft confirmed to The Daily that the laptops contain versions of the Kinect sensor.

Asus has dabbled with Kinect-like systems before. Its Xtion PRO PC peripheral uses sensor and software technology licensed from PrimeSense—technology also found in Microsoft's Kinect sensor.

What the sensor might be used for is anybody's guess. The Kinect for Windows—a version of the Xbox 360 accessory with revised firmware to support close-up operation—will be released in February, and with that, third-party applications that use the sensor will start to arrive. Windows 8 might even include direct support for Kinect-powered features: documents leaked in 2010 hinted at Kinect integration with automatic user switching using face detection.

Microsoft has revealed a little more of the Windows 8 Store experience, with screenshots and video of browsing the store, application search, and the install and upgrade experience.

The store will be the sole source for non-enterprise users to get Metro applications; it will also include links, but no purchasing or installation, to certain desktop applications. The post describes the major parts of the store—browsing, searching, the descriptions for each application—and showed how application pages will pick up their particular application's branding.

The store will handle installation and updating for Metro applications. Updates will be automatically downloaded in the background—though only when using an unmetered Internet connection—and installed on-demand.

Recognizing the growth in multi-PC households, the store also handles reacquisition of previously purchased/downloaded applications on different PCs. Apps can be installed on up to five machines, and the store can show you all the apps you've bought or installed on other systems plus allow you to install them all together on the current machine. Applications can even implement roaming, allowing not just the app itself, but also all its states and settings to be installed on a different computer.