Highlights

Windows Server 8 Developer preview released. Available for download
Windows Server 8 “is the most ambitious server release since Server 2000”. Lots of streamlined features for multiplex NICs, virtualisation, storage, etc.
Visual Studio 11 developer preview Web installer here: http://static.withinwindows.com/files/uploads/2011/09/en_visual_studio_11_developer_preview_web_installer_x86_x64_735607.exe
TFS as a Service, hosted on Azure https://tfspreview.com/
ASP.NET MVC4 developer preview http://haacked.com/archive/2011/09/14/asp-net-mvc-4-developer-preview-released.aspx
.Net framework 4.5 developer preview also available for download
The async framework is built into the Visual Studio 11 preview
Can select a HTML DOM element, and visual studio will show you the code that generated it
ASP.Net is smart enough to combine the .css files and run minification on combined file
Visual Studio productivity tools is now built into Visual Studio 2011

Articles

Mary Jo foley on Windows Server 8 details http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsofts-windows-server-8-taking-the-cloud-to-the-operating-system/10643
highlights of Server 8 http://www.itworld.com/virtualization/203199/windows-server-8-highlights-upcoming-server-os

Thoughts:

If you plan on watching it yourself, skip all the sections with Satya on stage. The bulk of the content is in the first sections with Scott Gutherie & Jason Zander. And then the preview of the new Server 8 stuff. The rest of the keynote after that is lots of talk with nothing said.
Skip to the end when Ballmer makes an appearance and talks about the Windows developer ecosystem.

The keynote

Satya comes on stage - President of windows server & tools

Going to talk about the "backend windows platform. Windows Server 8, Azure & Visual Studio
Yesterday they talked a lot about connected services. All of the apps deployed to Win 8 are constantlyhitting services in the cloud
This means web back ends need to be able to scale (Azure)
Identity federation is important
Hybrid infrastructure, Windows Server 8 + Azure...

Just A LOT of waffle manager speak on why services and scale are important

Jason Zander comes on stage. President of Visual Studio

Going to build a game that connects to cloud services

Demos the game by loading It up on the PC
Sends a game request to his friend
Friend is on a Windows Phone 7 and gets the game request
Plays the game together, with the game commands going through Azure

Going to show how he built it with Visual Studio.
Is just using Visual Studio 2010 for the Azure services

New Azure publish window to help with testing cylces

New profiling tools / advanced diagnostics

Opens Visual Studio 11 to show the Immersive app

Can search for code that is duplicated

Then shows a version of the game written in C++ and using directx

Can see models from within visual studio

Modifies the texture from the properties window

But the alpha blending isn't working
Runs it in debug, and manually captures some frames to debug why
Then dives into the steps taken to draw the individual pixel

Jason zander comes back on stage

Being released are Visual Studio 11 dev preview
Windows Azure SDK 1.5
Windows Azure toolkit for Windows 8

Enhancements to messaging, data, asp.net, etc. for .net 4.5

But how does ALM come into this? (hint TFS)
Putting TFS into the cloud on Azure

Scott guthrie comes on stage

Going to walk through how to build an ASP.Net app that can hook into the same services that the game did.

Opens VS 11.
File -> project.
Creates a new MVC4 site

New default template

A lot of the same immersive app HTML dev tools work in asp.net pages also

Hovering over html, shows you the code that created it
Works in it/else statements, etc

He replaces the .CSS file to make it more like the tank game
But the site.css is gone, and only added 2 new .css files
ASP.Net is smart enough to combine the .css files and run minification on combined file

Adds a leaderboard page to the site
Just connects to a JSON service hosted on Azure
Uses the await keyword

The final site is ok. But it is built for desktop screen. Won't look too good on a mobile device,.

Proceeds to create a mobile enabled version
He adds a jquery mobile NuGet package
Jquery mobile will be shipped with MVC 4

Due to it being MVC, he can just create a new mobile view and still have the model created the same way

He re-runs the site and it works fine on desktop. The original page still loads. But on mobile it looks a lot better

Next he wants to integrate chat support
Wants to use web sockets to do that.
Adds some methods so that people can join and leave the chat

Adds some jquery code so that it connects to the web socket

New web socket api in .net 4.5
Connects a console app to it and spams it with messages

There is a new visual studio menu to create the azure package. So now you can do it after you have a site running

Jason Zander comes back on stage

Going to talk about project management by using TFS
Is now a software as a service.

Product backlogs, can drag work items around

Satya back on stage

Announcing Windows Server 8 Developer preview
Took a lot of the learnings from Azure and bring them back into Server 8

UGH, Satya just waffles on for another 10 minutes with buzzword waffle. I am just tuning out again

Bryon Sauce on stage to talk about Windows Server 8

Going to focus on storage, networking and vitualisation

Traditionally used to take some very specialised skills to manage big storage file servers
No need for special RAID drives, etc.
He has 16 SSD drives connect configured as a JBOD. All managed by windows.

You don't need a phd in storage. Just connect them all and add the role.
The files are shared with the new SMB2.2 protocol
NIC can now be multiplexed and combined together.
Demonstrates it by creating 2 virtual machines
Show the performance of a single 1Gb ethernet connection, vs. multiplexing many of them

Virtual machines have live migrations
Can move the executing host from one machine to another, as long as the VHD is in a shared place.
Now you can migrated the VHD to a different location

Under the covers it de-duplicates the data.
Multiple VHDs that are stored on the server wil be de-duplicated. Makes them go from multiple GBs each, to just a few KB each

Satya back on stage

*braces self for the Satya buzzword rant*

Going to focus on Azure now
Satya announce that you can build AND consume data *gasp*

Seriously, if you watch this feed later, just fast forward past any time he comes on stage
Summary: devs need to write a lot of code. Azure services help you now write it.

John Shewchuk comes on stage

Going to talk about Azure Identity, data market, etc.

Shows a demo application for a "travel site"
But the user needs to create a new account. But who wants to create "yet another account"?

Why not let users log in with their other credentials (google, facebook, etc)
The list of supported providers come from the Azure ACS (Access Control Service)

Windows 8 has a new credential vault.
With 3 lines of code you can support single sign on.
If the user has previously provided a credential, you can just sign them in

The credential vault is syncable.
So you sign in on your PC, then pick up your tablet. The credentials have been synced across, so the tablet just logs straight in.

All of the demos are available in the Windows Azure toolkit for windows 8 download

Satyr back on stage

Geo replication for data storage

Invites 2 Channel 9 guys on stage to demo Viper

Viper Smart start for your car. http://www.viper.com/
Allows you to locate, start, lock, unlock all from the cloud
Can get telemetry on your car

Behind the scenes it is using Azure table
Http REST calls, etc

CEO of West Coast Customs comes on stage

Microsoft & west coast customs are going to build the ULTIMATE car together.
Will be documented on the Discovery channel in December.
Heads up display, augmented reality, etc.

Satyr back on stage

Steve Ballmer comes on stage

Already been 500,000 downloads of Windows 8 in the last 24 hours
Lots of good buzz around Windows 8 already

Microsoft is trying to reimagine itself. Shifting its direction.
New hardware platforms, cloud services, new dev opportunities
They are still very early on in the transition to the cloud

Reimagining Windows
Windows at the centre, the other products pivot around it

Windows Server 8 is the most ambitious server release since Server 2000.
Lots of excitement about it in the IT pro sector

Windows Phone 7
Lots of technology is shared between phone and Windows now (XAML, DirectX, XNA, etc)

Office 365 is a dev opportunity. Extending Sharepoint, etc.
Extending Bing

Microsoft is in 7 businesses. Phone, pc, tablets, tv devices, cloud platform, productivity, search, ERP and CRM
Each of the businesses are moving to the cloud
Retooling everything to take it to the cloud

Is a time of unprecedented developer opportunity
Never been a better time to have software development as a skill

"There's nothing on the planet that will ship 350 million units of anything (this year), other than Windows"

"it’s the day and age of the Microsoft developer"

By David Burela