Warning this article may contain opinions of the author that you and iTWire don't agree with.
Visit the last page to have your say in our forum.

No. 1 Story

Mobile operators get fixed price spectrum renewal in $3b Government windfall

The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.

read more

Vista follow-up Vienna in 2009 or whenever

Opinion and Analysis

A report from the IDG News Service that Microsoft plans to release a follow up operating system to Vista code-named Vienna appears to be long on rhetoric but short on substance.

For a start, Vienna is the old code name. According to Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development with Microsoft's Windows Core Operating System Division, Microsoft insiders are not allowed to use the new name publicly. But this is Microsoft not Apple so expect it to leak out sometime soon.

Another piece of rhetoric is that the new operating system will be ready within two and half years. The rationale behind this is that it took roughly that amount of time between the delivery of XP SP2 and Vista. But wasn't Vista formerly known as Longhorn already under development before the SP2 update of XP?

The real kicker, however, is that Microsoft apparently still doesn't have a clue what this new operating system is going to have that Vista doesn't. At least that's the impression based on the words of Fathi, who indicates that it may have something to do with virtualization (hypervisors) or a new interface paradigm for consumers, and then claims that he doesn't know all in one breath.

So what we know is that Microsoft is planning a new operating system for 2009, which judging by past efforts could appear sometime around 2011 or 2012. The planned operating system was formerly code-named Vienna but now has a new moniker.

Finally, the operating system will probably have virtualization capabilities, enabling it to run guest operating systems, and will introduce a new interface paradigm for consumers.

In essence, this so-called Vienna sounds more like a wish list than an actual product under development.

Loading comments ...

Latest Listings - Australian IT Directory

  • Spotty Dog Computer Services
    We are located in Morayfield near Caboolture, halfway between Brisbane...
  • Boom
    We are Boom. We put our pants on just like the...
  • Network Overdrive
    Network Overdrive is the leading provider of Australia-wide Managed IT...
- sponsored feature -

The Death of Traditional BI: What’s Next?

How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business IP PABX BUYING GUIDE

Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more