Windows 7: Will this be the
next Operating System
from Microsoft?
Chris Flores, a Microsoft
director of the Windows
Client Communications team, talks about the future of
Windows to a British news daily.
First of all, Chris assured that
there will be a next Windows,
and it's called Windows 7. But it
seems that Microsoft has
changed the communication
policy, and does not want to
reveal too much about it.Chris
said“So, why the change in
approach? We know that when
we talk about our plans for the
next release of Windows, people
take action. As a result, we can
significantly impact our partners
and our customers if we broadly
share information that later
changes. With Windows 7,
we're trying to more carefully
plan how we share information
with our customers and
partners”. This means sharing
the right level of information at
the right time depending on the
needs of the audience.
Windows Vista established
a very solid foundation,
particularly on subsystems such
as graphics, audio, and storage.
Windows Server 2008 was built
on that foundation and Windows
7 will be as well.Contrary to
some speculation, Microsoft is
not creating a new kernel for
Windows 7. Rather, Microsoft
refining the kernel architecture
and componentization modelintroduced in Windows Vista.
Microsoft will try to avoid the
compatibility issues existing
during the transition from XP to
Vista:In fact, one of the design
goals for Windows 7 is that it will
run on the recommended
hardware we specified for
Windows Vista and that the
applications and devices that
work with Windows Vista will be
compatible with Windows 7.
One of the new features that will
be included in Windows 7 is
Surface introduced to the public
by Bill Gates a year ago.
Microsoft has released a video
demo of its Surface technology
showing how one can interact
with a touching screen using
simultaneously several fingers
to perform new and interesting
actions in more natural ways.
The plan is to deliver Windows 7
about 3 years after Vista's
launch, and Chris says they are
on track. Since January is not a
good month to launch a new OS
for Microsoft , it will be probably
delivered during the spring or
summer of 2010.