Andromeda Dreams and Awakenings (Premium)

Yes, folks, Andromeda is real. Beyond that, most of what we think we know about this coming platform is pure speculation.

So here's an update. Both the facts and some educated guesses.

I last wrote about Andromeda back in January in The Andromeda Strain (Premium). At the time, my focus was on the Windows enthusiast base and whether they were just setting themselves up for another disappointment.

I still worry about that, and I have little doubt that Andromeda, as I currently understand it, will be a niche product for certain vertical markets that "need" a dual-screen mobile device that lets the user read and take notes simultaneously. The issue, as always, is ecosystem: Microsoft doesn't have one. Thus, the hardware itself, no matter how pretty, is pointless.

And yet there is still a very good chance that Andromeda will happen. And an even better chance that the heart of Microsoft's new "Windows 10 everywhere" strategy, called Polaris, will happen. So we'll need to deal with these things on some level.

Before moving on to this week's Andromeda revelations, let me quickly recap what I do know about this Microsoft project.

First, yes, it's real: Andromeda is a dual-screen mobile device, often incorrectly referred to as "Surface phone," that Microsoft is prototyping and considering for production. It runs some version of Windows 10 for PCs, not Windows Mobile.

Andromeda is not a consumer device. It's aimed instead at productivity scenarios, specifically those where you can write on one screen and read on the other simultaneously.

And here's a bit I've not yet discussed publicly: Microsoft didn't add an ebook store to Windows 10 so that you can read books on a PC. That happened specifically for Andromeda. Which, by the way, lends some weight to the notion that Microsoft will approve this device for production.

OK, so what's new in Andromeda facts and speculation?

(Speculation is fun, but it's also cheap, and anyone can do it. Just be careful of speculation that's presented as fact. I try to be clear about which is which, but other sites are a bit looser with this stuff.)

This week, WalkingCat posted some images from the latest Windows 10 Redstone 5 pre-release SDK that reference "Factory OS Andromeda Device." That is clearly the Windows 10 edition that will power Andromeda, which is a hardware device.

But then he engages in a bit of expansion. He suggests that the phrase "Andromeda OS" is a thing, which further suggests that Andromeda runs something different than Windows 10. It doesn't, it's just some version of Windows 10. (Could there be a specific "edition" or version of Windows 10 that targets Andromeda? Of course.)

WalkingCat also posted some images that reference "Polaris" and "PolarisOS." This, he says, is "Windows Core." Which, again, isn't actually mentioned in the shot he posts.

Windows Core, of course, is nothing new. It's basically the lowest levels Windows, architecturally, and the part t...