Next Microsoft Windows Version Due in 2009

I've written previously about largely rumored upcoming versions of Windows with code-names of Fiji and Vienna, but Microsoft has finally confirmed that a new version of Windows is now in the works. According to one source, it might actually be called Vienna when it ships: Which Microsoft has planned for 2009, or, in the kind of time we use here in the real world, 2011.

What might Vienna actually have in it? Microsoft isn't talking, but most observers expect it to be a rather radical departure from current operating system design, which was the original goal with Vista before the development of it completely collapsed and had to be started over from scratch.

Of course, that's mainly speculation: No one actually knows what Vienna will include, not even Microsoft: The company is currently in an investigation stage where the OS's features are being debated and analyzed. As this Yahoo! News/PC World story notes, via quote from a Microsoft VP: "We're going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe it's hypervisors, I don't know what it is," he said. "Maybe it's a new user interface paradigm for consumers." (Hypervisors are systems that run multiple OSes at the same time.)

Here's what a few additional tech sites have to say about the latest round of rumors: Cnet and Dr. Dobb's Journal.