The next version of Windows won’t be here until 2010 at the earliest, but a leaked memo from inside Microsoft’s planning department lets us know what’s in store when it finally lands.
Detailing what Microsoft is calling “Windows Live Wave 3,” the memo unearthed by ZDNet is dated August 2007, and contains explanations from Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of Windows Live Experience; David Treadwell, Corporate Vice President of Live Platform Services; and Brian Arbogast, Corporate Vice President of Mobile Services on how the next version of Windows will shape up.
According to the Windows bosses, the next version of the operating system will be tightly integrated with Microsoft’s Live services, as well as Internet Explorer, Office, MSN and Live Search.
“Our [Live] experiences will be designed so when they are connected to Windows 7 they seamlessly extend the Windows experience, and we will work to follow the Windows 7 style guidelines for applications” the memo explains.
“We will work with the Internet Explorer 8 team to make sure we deliver an experience that seamlessly extends the browser with our toolbar and other offerings… We have an opportunity to make it much easier for customers to ‘get started’ with Windows Live. Our goal should be to have customers log in, type their Live ID, and then they are automatically ’set up’ with Live.”
So Microsoft wants to make Live the centrepiece of the Windows experience, eh? Sounds good to us. Especially the section of the memo that explains how existing photo libraries, calendars and movie collections could be automatically downloaded when a new computer is first fired up.
But that’s not all. It also seems the next version of Microsoft Office will be better integrated with Live. “It should be easy to use Windows Live Messenger and our communication services with the Outlook client. It should be easy to publish from Office applications to Live Folders” the memo states.
Good news if you’ve piled all your eggs into the Windows Live basket. But what if you’re using Google’s suite of apps, or Yahoo!’s? We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below.
TBC | £TBC
Microsoft (via ZDNet)
