The Next Windows?

This morning I came across the question "How will the next Windows Version look like?" Well, you know, not Vista, but the one after Vista.

The guys from Microsoft said, that Vista will be the last Windows that has a monolithic structure. And when you hear the whining of more and more people about how fast the "old" Computers were coming up (back then, when the C64 ruled the earth), I think it is not hard to imagine that the next Windows will partly be in a FlashRAM.

The basic operating system would kind of come up instantly, because:

• Drivers for the graphics-card? What for? The OS would use DirectX to communicate with the graphics-card.
• Drivers for harddrives or any other kind of peripheral hooked up on SATA wouldn't need a special driver also. It could even be packed into the BIOS, wherever that would reside.
• Drivers for a network card could also be "precompiled" into the startup-procedure by the installation process. This would also seems plausible to fit into Microsoft's Activation Scheme, when you change the hardware of your machine. The Setup would have to run again to "compile" a new basic kernel that sits in the FlashRAM, going through the activation process automatically.

Applications would still reside on the harddrive or the network, no need to put them into the FlashRAM.

The benefit would be a computer that would boot up in seconds. No need for "Hibernate", "Sleep" or whatever mode. Just switch it off and let e.g. the network-card switch it on when needed.

Even this hated competitor called Linux would be left behind, since Microsoft would probably not publish the specifications for this Boot-Scheme and could also "protect" the writing of the FlashRAM. So you would end up booting this new Microsoft Operating System and would then have to boot into Linux. But who would do this, when the Microsoft OS is already up and running?

Could it be possible? From a legal standpoint, Microsoft would certainly be begging for another process with the EU since this "bundling" of the hardware with the software would certainly bring up the EU-commisioners. But in the U.S.? And the rest of the world? What about Asia?

And Microsoft is already doing it with its XBox (360)! Microsoft could be selling its own computer, mouse, keyboard and operating system without suffering any "in-between loses". This would certainly be a hard time for companies like Dell.

If this vision (nightmare?) should come true, then we will certainly be living in interesting times. A whole lot of the market would certainly jump to the new "Microsoft Computer" and why not? For the average user this would be a great improvement, no more long boot-up times just to check your emails, and also no constantly running computer, simply heating the environment without doing anything useful.

Certainly, there will a bunch of guys who will not like this and will come up with a hack to let you stuff the operating system you like into your computer.

Let's see what the future brings...

[Microsoft, Windows, Dell, DirectX, etc. are of course all Trademarks of their respective owners.]