Vistacould be the last major upgrade of the desktop Windows
operating system. In the future, Windows will be smaller, more
modular, and easier for the IT department to manage, according to
analysts.
Since the introduction of Windows 95 some 13 years ago,
Microsoft has developed new operating systems by building on top of
previous versions. However, industry experts say that Microsoft's
policy of bundling ever more functionality into Windows is set to
reverse.
Experts have predicted that future versions of Windows may be
made up of a core operating system kernel and modular components,
rather like Linux is constructed today.
Microsoft has started to offer a basic form of modular Windows
in the Server 2008 operating system. Users can configure it to run
in
Core mode, which strips out all non-essential operating system
features.
Server 2008 Core will provide a test-bed for Microsoft to assess
how users would deploy a modular desktop Windows operating system,
said Roy Illsey, senior research analyst at Butler Group. Microsoft
is expected to introduce a modular version of Windows in the next
major release of the operating sytem in 2012.
There is clear pressure for Microsoft to change tack. As Windows
has become more sophisticated, IT directors have taken longer to
move to newer releases. The uptake of Windows Vista has been
particularly slow. A survey of 263 enterprises from analyst
Dataquest, for example, found that Windows Vista was deployed on
fewer than 1% of desktop PCs in enterprises in North America and
Europe.
Modularisation of Windows should enable IT departments to
configure Windows to run on existing hardware, allowing
organisations to extend the life of PCs. In theory, the IT
department could configure Windows with a limited set of modules
needed by end-users to do their jobs.
"The IT department would only need to upgrade the components and
modules that are actually being used, rather than a complete
Windows installation," said Annette Jump, an analyst at
Gartner.
Microsoft has found it increasingly difficult to keep up with
the technology demands of IT departments. For instance, IT
directors have had to turn to VMware and Xen rather than wait for
Microsoft to release its own virtualisation software, which is due
to be released this month.
But by taking a modular approaction, said Bola Rotibi, principal
analyst at analyst firm MWD, Microsoft will be able to develop
Windows in a much more agile way, which should allow Microsoft to
roll out new technologies more quickly.
IT managers will be able to configure different flavours or
personalities of the operating system, each optimised to run a
specific type of application, such as web-serving applications,
desktop productivity or enterprise software such as Microsoft
Dynamics.
To make Windows modularised, Microsoft will need to re-engineer
and rewrite Windows from the ground up to split it into components.
Microsoft will need to ensure that the constituent components of
Windows can be plugged in and out of the operating system kernel
without causing the PC to crash or become unstable. Software will
need to be written to run in multiple configurations of Windows
where different components have been installed.
IT departments will also have to manage PC configurations much
more closely than today to ensure that they only install software
updates to the components on affected machines. David Roberts,
chief executive office of TIF, the user group of corporate IT
managers, said, "Modularisation makes it easier to migrate, but
users will still need to test components." Potentially, the
management of Windows licences could become more complicated if
Microsoft licenses add-on modules for the base operating
system.
Vista may indeed be the last major Windows upgrade IT
departments install. It is in Microsoft's best interests to make it
as easy as possible for users to upgrade and manage operating
system patches.