Keynote by Joe Belfore focused on the two major platforms of Microsoft i.e. Office 365 and Azure.
O365 next step is the focus on multiple devices and multi-sense. The basis for interconnecting devices is the MS Graph. It is an Azure backed data store that holds information provided by Microsoft Apps and it is used to transfer information between apps to get a better overall user experience. Microsoft wants developers to integrate every App they write with MS Graph as the more data the merrier. Good user experience is driven by rich user context.
Some new Apps are comming:
- MS Timelime is a new application that helps you to track different sets of activities (i.e the MS Sets concept) accross different devices. It is embeded in Winfwos 10 and it will come soon to the phone on IPhone as well as on Android.
- Two new Apps for the phone are Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Launcher.
- Another new app is the Inbox App that brings content and notifications from your mobile device directly to your PC. The connection is organized using the MS Graph.
Office is envolving as well:
- The Fluent UI project keeps on making the UI leaner and meaner. Fluent design also will make better use of the screen estate. In some applications fonts were too big for desktop computer use resulting in wasting space. Depending on screen size, Fluent design will have Duplo, Lego and Micro-Lego sized controls to optimize the use of input and output devices (the screen density)
- The new functionalities Flluent is bringing, are also available for older applications thorugh the use of Xaml islands.
- Notepad with finally understand CR and CR/LF formats.
- Excel will support function extensions written in JavaScript. These functions can be rolled out company wide so they become strictly version controlled
- Adaptice cards will make notification actionable. An e-mail can trigger the next step in a business process.
On the DevOps side we see:
- A decoupling between the .NET updates and the Windows platform updates
- .NET Core can run now in side by side mode with different versions
- Application can be installed with the new MSIX installer for which even Windows7 will be supported
- HyperV will support an Android emulator