14 DAY TRIAL // The death of the mammoth Windows operating system releases was proclaimed even before the availability of Windows Vista. With Windows 7, Microsoft managed to prove that Windows was still very much alive and kicking. Now, a new product cooking in Redmond has the potential to make Windows history. With its roots deep in the Singularity operating system, the non-Windows Midori platform seems positioned on a trajectory intersecting that of Windows in the future. And, with Windows being synonymous with the past, Midori looks like the ideal candidate to kill it.
However, Microsoft is not yet giving up on Windows. It is already well into building Windows 7, and has plans in place for Windows 8, even if it is hammering away at Midori. But, at the same time, the company is laboring to "revolutionize the way applications are developed and deployed on Windows," as a member of the team working on the Windows Application Platform revealed. The end purpose is to "have a lasting impact on the Windows platform that will last for the next several decades."
In this context, it seems that Windows will continue to be available for the next several decades. "Applications are the cornerstone for the success of operating systems. Windows has a huge and vibrant ecosystem of applications, used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Over the last decade, the application platform for Windows has evolved to address the requirements of the ever-changing world of applications," the WAP team member added.
In the end, Microsoft is looking to "define and drive key pillars for the evolution of the Windows Application Platform, over the course of multiple releases of Windows," as the WAP team representative indicated. Multiple Windows releases, in combination with a several decade time span, means that Windows is likely to survive Midori.
The only question at this point is in what manner this will happen. From the perspective of the Singularity team, Windows is still connected with the Multics operating system from the 1960s. And, whether Microsoft likes it or not, there is not that much more room left for evolution for Windows. Still, this is valid only for the actual code and not for the brand. Midori could remain Midori only throughout its development, and then be rebranded as Windows.
"We are a group of people in the Windows Core Systems, working to evolve the Windows platform to address the needs of the next-generation of applications, and application management technologies. This is an investment of tremendous strategic importance to Windows and to Microsoft. We are chartered with solving hard problems like identity, state separation, extensibility and roaming (application and user). When we solve these problems, we would have revitalized the long-standing success Windows has had with being the most compelling platform for developing and deploying applications," the WAP team member said.