Operating system

May 4, 2007 19:51 GMT  ·  By

The Windows Vista successor operating system may be just in embryonic phase, but Microsoft is indeed working on the product. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer not only revealed that Windows Vista will not be the last big operating system to come out from Redmond but also that the company's strategy currently involves continuing making available versions of the Windows platform.

In an interview with USA Today, Steve Ballmer dismissed the hypothesis that Windows Vista will not be followed by another big release. "People like to write that; I don't know why. Nothing we've said should cause people to think that way. There will be a Vista. There will be a Vista plus one. There will be a Vista plus two, plus three," Ballmer said.

In the months both before and after the Windows Vista launch, analysts have speculated that the operating system business strategy might be changed in the sense that customers will no longer look to adopt Vista-size products but modular alternatives instead. Microsoft failed to confirm such scenarios and stated that the company will remain loyal to the Windows platform.

Steve Ballmer, as well the rest of Microsoft are still not commenting on the availability date for the next release of the Windows operating system. "That I won't share with you. Not because we're not hard at work on that; I want to let the team do their job, figure out what the release looks like. I guarantee you it won't be four or five years," Ballmer said on the launch date. Still, Microsoft is targeting a two-year timeframe for the upcoming version of the Windows platform.