Fresh Air For Windows?

jmcbain writes "The NY Times has an opinion piece on how the next Windows could be designed (even through Microsoft has already laid plans for Windows 7). The author suggests 'A monolithic operating system like Windows perpetuates an obsolete design. We don't need to load up our machines with bloated layers we won't use.' He also brings up the example of Apple breaking ties with its legacy OS when OS X was built. Can Windows move forward with a completely new, fast, and secure OS and still keep legacy application support?"

Comments

Short answer: no

[Anonymous Coward]

Can Windows move forward with a completely new, fast, and secure OS and still keep legacy application support?

Based on past performance: No.

This has been another edition of Short Answers to Stupid Quesitons.

Re:Short answer: no

[postbigbang]

Oh yeah... remember the 'Ring Zero' contentiousness, it was incredible red herring. I remember the paperless office, and as Adam Osborne once said, it'll happen when the paperless bathroom does.

Re:Short answer: no

[MrEricSir]

Compared to NetBeans, Eclipse is a formula one car.

But to be fair, compared to NetBeans, a dead snail is a formula one race car.

Existing legacy support. Wait, what?

[jeffmeden]

Remember Vista? Supporting legacy apps is already something MS has no interest in, apparently.

Windows done right from the ground up

[BadAnalogyGuy]

WinCE. Pity about the name, though.

Re:Time to Get Rid of The Gates Borg Icon

[Spy der Mann]

I vote for a chair breaking a Window :D

No, I'm serious. Get a picture from the Microsoft Headquarters, and from a building, add a chair breaking a window and falling to the floor. Cartoonize it, and you're done! :)

Re:frist pawst

[Drinking Bleach]

I would argue that the New York Times is better qualified to write an OS than Microsoft is...

Sure they can!

[ThorGod]

Just switch to Mac and get parallels :P

Yeah, I know, not very funny. But does every comment have to be great?

Re:Time to Get Rid of The Gates Borg Icon

[bigstrat2003]

If anyone doesn't get the Borg reference, they don't belong here, they should be at the geek office turning in their geek card (or educating themselves, whichever they prefer).

Re:Time to Get Rid of The Gates Borg Icon

[antdude]

How about a dancing egg'ed Steve Ballmer who is throwing a chair? :)

Re:Wine?

[Brian Gordon]

That's ridiculous- WINE aims to emulate win32 perfectly, including reproducing bugs, so all windows programs run as expected.

Re:Time to Get Rid of The Gates Borg Icon

[Renderer of Evil]

Now that Bill Gates is retired from Microsoft, the editors should get with the times and lose that dated, painfully unfunny logo they use for Microsoft.

That icon is there for legacy purposes.

Challenge accepted

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a challenge?
Static
Animated GIF

Re:Adopt a model similar to Apple!

[jamrock]

given an infinite number of monkeys banging away on an infinite number of keyboards, one will reproduce exactly the entire works of William Shakespeare

The rest will produce "The Wit and Wisdom of George W. Bush".

Re:oh come on

[Nefarious Wheel]

The extra 30GB is to hold the fine print on the new EULA.