JP
Now that Vista has finally moved off of Wired News’ Vaporware Awards list, albeit only in business versions, flighty analysts are already looking to the future of Microsoft’s OS strategy. There have been plenty of opinion pieces claiming that Vista will be the last of the traditional Windows series, with dark hints about internet-based web-appliance systems and the like, but it all seems rather hashed together. Still, I’m all for intrigue and crystal-ball gazing, so it was interesting to see James Kyton’s analysis of what little information about the next-gen developments will be.
Codenamed Fiji and Vienna, the former could be considered ‘Vista RC2′; expected to be released in 2008, it will build on the much-vaunted sidebar and tighter system integration of the OS with WinFS add-ons to enable virtual folders and/or saved searches, default HD-DVD compatibility, NGSCB security and possibly even a Garageband-rivalling music suite provisionally titled Monaco.
Details on Vienna after the cut.
Vienna is to be a true replacement to Vista, taking the potentially dangerous step of advancing so far as to break backward compatibility with existing software. James voices what are likely Microsoft’s own hopes, that the “more flexible, richer and secure platform” will be enough of an incentive for software developers to re-write their wares. Fully adopting WinFS and the search benefits that come with that, it will apparently do away with menus, toolbars and taskbar with a greater reliance on Microsoft’s R&D department’s new interface paradigms (examples of which SlashGear has covered before) such as highly-advanced speech recognition. OS stability will also be a primary concern, with unvalidated or non-managed code running in a so-called “sandbox mode”, with security exploits prevented from impacting on Vienna itself. A greater degree of vitualisation will likely play a big part in this.
With the scarcity of Vienna information, even an estimated delivery date is near-impossible to predict. James’ article makes for good reading, and I’m hoping it’s just the first of many on what looks to be a new blog.
unnecessary [via Pclaunches.com; thanks to Vinit for the tip]
2 Responses to “Microsoft’s future OS plans to be ambitious”
LikesTechnology December 31, 2006
Microsoft eliminating backwards compatibility is nothing new, they did it before. In part it’s to allow different software and OS to be implemented, innovations to be enabled, that’s one of the reasons why Microsoft is loved. In part it’s another way for Microsoft to make more money. That’s one of the reasons why they are hated.
The article gives me the impression that the new OS is not much more than bells and whistles especially to those who use computers for activities such as writing, calculations, analyses, number crunching, graphics, reports, etc., in other words, not the media oriented audio and video features.
Despite the dancing dog (video gimmick) in Window’s Find program (search for files, etc.), that program is crap at best and doesn’t find the all the files for some searches especially when searching by substring. I use a program I wrote and a third party program. Both do a better job.
If the future is to have the OS on the internet to run a computer then I will look for a desktop or laptop based OS and I hope that Microsoft’s monopoly is ended. I am not always connected to the net when I work and forget these so called “secure” programs and operating systems. They are fairy tales. Hackers on my computer proved this in the past. Look at the periodic if not frequent reports Microsoft issues through their Windows updates stating that we need this update for greater security against this or that. We are told now that the new software is “secure” and after install the new software, we will be sent updates that “improve” security. Where is the Federal Trade Commission (FTD) when we need them?
NeutralJ Hoover January 4, 2007
Ah, the cycle begins again. Promise the moon. Deliver crap.
Neutral