Vista will be the last version of Windows that exists in its current, monolithic form, according to Gartner. Instead, the research firm predicts, Microsoft will be forced to migrate Windows to a modular architecture tied together through hardware-supported virtualisation. "The current, integrated architecture of Microsoft Windows is unsustainable - for enterprises and for Microsoft," wrote Gartner analysts Brian Gammage, Michael Silver and David Mitchell Smith.
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Member since:2006-04-21
Member since:2005-07-06
It's funny, isn't it, how "fragmentation" is bad, but the current three (at least) XP OSes (Home, Professional, and 2003 Server) are about to replaced by no less than seven, yes seven, Vista versions?
You left out Media Center and Tablet PC Editions. These seperate SKUs are gone for Vista. Server 2003 doesn't apply here as Vista is just the client release.
Starter and N Editions existed in XP so these aren't Vista additions. Also, these editions are limited to (or mandated by governments for) certain markets.
This leaves 5 SKUs for the mass market -- 2 SKUs for home users, 2 for Business users, and 1 shared SKU:
Business SKUs:
Windows Vista Enterprise (only available via Software Assurance or Enterprise Agreement)
Windows Vista Business
Home SKUs:
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Home Basic
Shared SKU (available to home and business users):
Windows Vista Ultimate
This doesn't fragment the codebase into incompatible products. Each SKU is a superset of the lower SKU, and users may choose based on price/features, and upgrade at any time.
Edited 2006-08-27 00:02
Member since:
2005-10-20
I'd say the article's on the right track in that the monolithic system model's becoming unsustainable: *not* the kernel, but the system as a whole, but comes to the wrong conclusion with the "modular architecture tied together through hardware-supported virtualisation". As MS has tightened up the configuration options on it's OSes it's added more and more "flavours" of windows. XP had enough variants but we've got what 16 or something Vista variants coming out? each with a strictly defined profile and basically MS preselected installation options. MS admitted as much a while ago that for it's server line it's going to have to modularise the OS. Virtualisation might be a module, but not the basis of the modularity (*requiring* virtualisation would be insane). MS is having to compete with Linux/BSD's configurability, and while for the moment MS is reacting by having dozens of product lines, eventually they'll collapse back down to a highly configurable & modular base product (like Linux/BSD) simply for simplicity's sake.