In an article over at PC World we learn that the delay of Longhorn, that’s the codename for Windows Vista folks, was due to the massive worm attacks on Windows XP. Five years later and Vista is out all over the world.

But what’s next? Well, Microsoft have big plans, including new file systems and stuff like that, but that just wasn’t possible with Vista due to time and, of course, backwards compatibility. The next Windows version, codenamed Vienna, is scheduled to be released before the end of 2009, and we can expect it to kick all those XP programs you love down the drain. Vista is pretty backwards compatible, but that’s probably something that weighs a bit on the performance.

When asked about the key super duper cool feature in Vienna, we get this answer:

“We’re going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe its hypervisors, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “Maybe it’s a new user interface paradigm for consumers.”

My guess? Multiple desktops, much like Linux systems have had for years, and Apple is introducing in the next OS X version. Oh, and they’ll kill the Start menu for something niftier. Time to speed up, Microsoft?

There’s a Techmeme discussion on this as well.

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