Windows 7: Windows 8 to Sport New GUI Codenamed Wind, Reportedly

I know Microsoft gets a lot of criticism, but I'm sure they can at least walk and chew gum at the same time.

And I don't see another OS out here as widely used as theirs

Considering that NVidia has and continues to work on 3D technology for GPUs, I wouldn't be surprised if this "Wind" will incorporate that.

If you thought the "3D" tabbing of windows in Vista and 7 were something, imagine it with 3D technology that are in the theaters and TVs now.

Yaeh that would be pretty sweet.

This all sounds interesting, only if the OS still provides installing of local applications and support for legacy programs. But if they move to a total cloud based model you can count me out. The cloud may be cute for cell phones and netbooks but it has no business on real hardware. We are long past the days of mainframes connected to dumb terminals which is what the cloud is in my opinion.

It shouldn't be an issue. Microsoft is still supporting 3 separate consumer versions of Windows, I don't think releasing Windows 8 about 3 years after 7 will be too big of an issue.

Personally I'm wondering about the service pack releases. Let's look at Windows history from NT to today.

NT: 6 service packs
2000: 4 service packs
XP: 3 service packs
Vista: 2 service packs (unknown if a 3rd is coming)
7: no service packs with 1 on the way, after that, who knows?

Each release is more and more refined than the last. Who knows if Windows 8 will even need one after it's been out for a year or two?

While I agree vNext is awful, I still think Wind is cool.

Wind isn't as bad as vNext. I could live with "Wind", that is if it was just used as the name for the UI or similar like "Aero" is now. For the name of the OS, then absolutely not. They need to stick with the number scheme. Especially since they hit it off with Windows 7, I would think they would want to continue with even the small things like that.

vNext sounds like some kind of Netflix service or something.

+1

As for the new GUI... 170MB? Why in the name of God we need such a waste of VRAM for the new GUI? No matter how computing and components advance, every new version asks for a GREATER upgrade in ytour hardware, Is Microsoft thinking that in 3 years all we will buy new harware just for running the new OS? At this rate, W8 will ask for 2 or 3 GB of RAM at minimum with at least 2 Ghz quad-core chip to be installed... what are the benefits of asking for more system specs in terms of usability?

Just needin to know, why every iteration of windows need more hardware specs to run? is security related? Aero is as usefull now as every user could ever need... let the 3D effects for games and specialized programs, the GUI don't need that unless it is a real need to make things easir for users...

See ya!!

Heh, I remember when people were castigating Sun's Open Look clock tool which took around 1.5MB of memory.

Say, how much memory does Aero use up on average?