Tech Shout!

It has barely been two weeks since Microsoft launched its much-awaited operating system, Windows Vista. But now, there are already talks among senior executives at Microsoft of a successor to Windows Vista, which will perhaps come out in 2009. Apparently, the next operating system that Microsoft plans to launch will be called ‘Vienna’.

According to Ben Fathi, VP of development in Microsoft’s operating system group, Microsoft customers and business partners can expect to have Vienna in their hands in two to two-and-a-half years. However, the features that will be includes in the next big operating system, Vienna, is yet not known to anyone.

Till date, the software giant has said little about Vienna, which is the code name for its next operating system. Even the benefits that it might offer to consumers and business users are yet unknown.

However, there are a few clues. At the Windows Vista launch on January 30, 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer provided some clues saying that Microsoft would like to see more built-in support at the operating system level.

Ballmer also said that the continued convergence of communications and information technologies and consumer demand for much more sophisticated forms of digital entertainment will require operating systems with capabilities well beyond those offered by Vista, its latest operating system. “All these things will evolve, and the operating system will need to evolve with them,” concluded Ballmer.

Microsoft may also add features to Vienna or another future operating system that go beyond more efficient pointing and clicking — features such as standard support for touch-screen and voice-activated computing.

It’s also likely that Vienna will be designed to act in less of a client-centric manner than its predecessors and more like a conduit between the desktop and a host of services that Microsoft plans to deliver over the Web under its Windows Live initiatives. Those services include search, e-mail, and social networking tools.

Besides, in a recent interview with Newsweek, Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, suggested the focus (of the next operating system) would be on allowing users to have access to their files, regardless of the PC they are using. “So even if you drop by a (public) kiosk or somebody else’s PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things,” Gates added.

Looking at these little clues and other talks that Microsoft’s officials have been getting into these days, it does seem a bit rushed, considering there were five years between the release of Windows XP and Windows Vista. However, before XP, Microsoft typically released new versions of Windows every two or three years.