Geeks are always on the lookout for “what’s next” according to the crowd, Vista is so 2006. Well good news because the next version of Windows is already in development.

Windows Fiji (My guess is that this will turn into a Vista Service Pack)

-The UI will be updated with things that were originally promised for Vista,
along with a more powerful sidebar, which will be more than just a dock for
widgets (a.k.a. gadgets)

-.Net Framework will be updated to 3.5 (or maybe even 4)

-WinFS will be applied over NTFS to give us Virtual Folders
(or maybe just Saved Searches)

-All bundled application will be updated to newer versions

-Tighter integration with Windows Live. Probably through ‘Codename Nemo’, a
media center application thats integrated with Messenger, Spaces, and probably
lots of other Windows Live Services.

- We might see Monaco, a music authoring tool, similar to Apple’s Garageband.

- Default playback of HD-DVD (maybe even Blu-ray), Vista currently identifies
these disks but cannot play them without an external decoder.

-A more advanced Speech Recognition

-NGSCB will be implemented to make the system more secure.

-New themes, icons, wallpapers, games, and minor tweaks to almost everything.

Perhaps even more exciting - and unrealistic at this point - is the true “next” version of Windows, codename Vienna.

Windows Vienna

-The current interface will be completely stripped, no more explorer shells,
and taskbars. No start menu. Probably no toolbars, or menus (which already
started with Vista).

-Speech Recognition will become a major input device (though it will not
replace the keyboard and mouse) and will be supported by most third party
applications

-Many projects from Microsoft’s R&D will come into play, especially from
their VIBE research center. A pie-menu is rumored to be used.

- A new version of NTFS wrapped in a more powerful WinFS. No more drives, or
files/folders location to worry about. File Management will be done through
applications, which will automatically index and sort the files they support.

- Even bundled applications will evolve a lot (compare WMP6 with WMP11).

- Search will part a huge part in Vienna (like it does in the control panel
of Vienna)

- Applications with non-managed code will run in a sandbox mode (like IE7
does in Vista), so that security exploits in a single application doesn’t affect
the entire OS.

If this pans out, it would be a welcome improvement. But let’s not forget these types of changes were promised for Vista as well.

[via unnecessary]