14 DAY TRIAL // Asphyxiated under Sinofsky's Windows Omerta, the Redmond company is not breathing a single word about the future of Windows XP and Windows Vista, and the whole of the Windows platform for that matter. But Redmond is no longer the sole epicenter of the Windows operating system. Apparently, Microsoft has exported its Windows projects to India. According to Jon DeVaan senior Vice President, Windows Core Operating System Division, cited by The Hindu Business Line the Indian division of Microsoft will play a key role in the development of both Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Seven, the successor of Windows Vista.
DeVaan revealed that the Microsoft Research and Development center in India will be at the heart of the company's efforts to build both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Seven. Microsoft decided such a scenario following a Windows Seven group meeting at the Redmond campus. From the company's headquarters it was decided that the XP SP3 and Windows Seven development efforts to be off shored all the way to India. A melange of Windows and Windows Live development teams, working under the lead of Sunil Bansali will contribute to building the next Windows operating system and the third service pack for Windows XP.
Currently, Microsoft plans to make Windows Seven available sometime in 2010, respecting a timetable of approximately three years. This is of course an integer part of Microsoft's new 'Sinofsky-an' strategy of underpromising and overachieving. And underpromising is an euphemism for gaging the whole of Microsoft. Windows XP SP3 is scheduled for the second half of 2008. Recently, Michael A. Silver Gartner Research VP commented that Microsoft's silence in relation to Windows Seven - a speculation easily extensible to Windows XP SP3 - is generated by the fact that the company does not know what the operating system will contain, or doesn't want to offer any commitment at this point.
One thing is clear: the development of Windows Seven has begun. Michael Howard, the Senior Security Program Manager in the Security Engineering group is training Windows Seven developers in accordance with the secure Development Lifecycle. This is not a detail that came from Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. But by the looks of it, future Windows Seven and XP SP3 answers can potentially come from India and not from Redmond. With a little bit of luck, not even Sinofsky knows what's going on with Windows Seven and Windows XP SP3.