Uni’s Blog

Discussing and demonstrating the next version of Windows while the current one is just one year and a half old is quite an unusual move for Microsoft. However, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer took up the stage at the “D: All Things Digital” to offer a glimpse of what we could expect from the next Windows, for the moment referred to as Windows 7.

Over the past few months there have been various rumors about what one should expect from the next-generation Windows.

In October 2007, Microsoft’s Distinguished Engineer Eric Traut demonstrated during a presentation at the University of Illinois, a version of the Windows kernel, called MinWin, which has just 100 files and 25MB. The small kernel will allegedly be a part of Windows 7, which seeks to componentized the Windows kernel and reduce the dependencies, with the purpose of reducing the disk footprint and memory usage.

But it seems like the demo introduced by Ballmer and Gates has nothing to do with MinWin. Instead, what is known so far is that Windows 7 will be largely based on Windows Vista, an operating system which is considered a real success by Microsoft.

And in order to stir up the interest of the media and analysts, Microsoft pulled out a new trick from its software hat: the touch interface.