Microsoft Moves Forward on Post Vista Windows OSes

Published: February 14, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft has already started work on the next major release of the Windows operating system after Vista, which started mass shipments just two weeks ago. "Vienna," the codename for the next major release, is reportedly on tap for 2009, but in the meantime, we'll see Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), codename "Fiji," which should ship about the same time as Windows Server "Longhorn." Lastly, a new beta of Windows Home Server is on tap.

For a company that has committed to keeping up with the latest Web 2.0 creations, operating systems still receive a lot of attention from Microsoft. The company's online competitors, like Google and Yahoo, are driving the industry toward applications that live on the Web (or more correctly, live on Google and Yahoo's Web servers located in data centers), which takes the focus away from applications that sit directly on Windows.

So is the era of the operating system dead? Gartner famously predicted that Vista would be the last release of Windows, as the computing world moves toward an online existence. If the new operating systems that Microsoft has in store are any prediction, the answer is most certainly no.

Last week at the RSA conference in San Francisco, Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development with the Windows division, was quoted as saying the next major release of Windows would ship in about two and a half years, which would put it somewhere in the year 2009. Microsoft had previously used the codename Vienna to refer to the next major release of Windows, and before that, it was called "Blackcomb." But the company has apparently changed the codename for the next version of Windows again, and isn't discussing its replacement. (Incidentally, Vienna has seen its share of use: it was used by SAP for the NetWeaver integration platform, and it was also the codename for Office Live Communications Server 2005 a couple of years ago, so perhaps it's a good thing the name has been changed again.)

Exactly what Vienna will look like and do is unknown. Executives with the company have suggested there is still a lot of work to do to fully realize the potential impact computers can have on our lives. Despite Vista's tagline of "the wow starts now," chairman Bill Gates told TV's Jon Stewart two weeks ago that "we're not there yet" when it comes to fulfilling his original vision about what computers can do. Gates highlighted the difficulties that handwriting and speech recognition have posed to computer scientists, so those forms of user-computer interactions are possibilities for Windows Vienna.

And then there's the Windows File System (WinFS), which Microsoft is still working on. Whether or not Microsoft will have WinFS ready for business in just two and a half years is unknown. At first blush, that would appear to be an aggressive timeframe. But then again, it was supposed to have already been done by now. Chances seem good that WinFS will be slated for the post-Vienna release of Windows, which some people have speculated will be the next major release of Windows after Vista, and will be bigger than Vienna. That release, which Microsoft also hasn't publicly named, is reportedly due two years after Vienna.

As you know, Microsoft's Windows timetables aren't set in stone, and are in fact likely to change. Vienna and post-Vienna releases won't have as immediate of an impact on the market as the upcoming release of Windows Server Longhorn and Windows Vista SP 1.

Microsoft isn't yet ready to lift the veil on post Vista releases. "We are not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows, other than that we're working on it," says Kevin Kutz, director of Microsoft's Windows Client organization. "When we are ready, we will provide updates."

Nevertheless, development work continues, especially on Windows Server "Longhorn," which Microsoft's server roadmap still lists with a ship date of later this year. The company posted a new Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Longhorn in December, and could be gearing up for a third major revamp in the next few weeks. Microsoft has committed to delivering Longhorn Beta 3 during the first half of 2007, but the rumor is that Beta 3 could be delivered in the first week of March. Whenever it becomes available, Longhorn Beta 3 will be a major affair because it will be the first beta release available for download to the public. The first two betas, shipped in July 2005 and May 2006, were only open to a select few testers.

Also on Microsoft's developers' plate is Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft is reportedly gearing up to ship the Fiji release of Vista at the same time as Longhorn Server. Microsoft may be timing the releases to boost compatibility between Longhorn Server, which will bring new security features such as Network Access Protection, and Vista. Fiji could also bring other new features (above and beyond the expected bug fixes and security updates), but Microsoft is keeping quiet about them, if there are any.

That brings us to Windows Home Server, which was officially unveiled a month ago. Windows Home Server is based on the Windows Server 2003 kernel and will act as a storage and integration hub, mainly for other Windows Vista and XP PCs, but also for music players, gaming consoles, and DVRs.

A small group of about 1,000 Microsoft employees and partners have been involved in Windows Home Server testing, and now Microsoft is looking to open it up a bit with Beta 2, which was announced this week. People interested in testing Beta 2 are encouraged to sign up for the program here. Microsoft isn't guaranteeing that people who sign up will actually be chosen to participate in the second beta test, but it's putting the word out, nonetheless.

The world may be moving toward Web-based apps, but without a feasible alternative to traditional operating systems on which to run a Web browser, client-side computing won't be going away anytime soon.

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