Microsoft Talks Up Future Windows OSs, Sort Of

Admitting that the current Windows architecture is getting long in the tooth, Microsoft is now finally in the early stages of creating a new OS based on an entirely new foundation. This new OS would eventually replace Windows. This news shouldn't come as a surprise, per se. But what's interesting is that Microsoft is actually talking about it for the first time. A future OS with a new foundation would better leverage the power of multicore microprocessors, the company says, but would require software-development tools that don't yet exist. Replacing Windows won't be easy, of course, and Microsoft is only at the first, tentative stages. But given how deftly the company handled the transitions to technologies such as the Intel 286, Windows NT, and x64 architecture, I can state with some certainty that we should be free of Windows by 2050, at the latest.