Windows 8 and Server “Next” to Be Developed in Parallel

The transition according to Microsoft for client and server operating systems are … minor…then major…then minor…etc. That is how server and tools unit president Bob Muglia sees it. Basically, Microsoft is sticking to a schedule presented several years ago. It stated that the server and tools unit would put out alternating minor and major versions every two years. The most recent update of the server version of Windows 7, called Windows Server 2008 R2, was a minor update. This update was completed last year.

What will the be the name of the next version of Server 2008?  That was not revealed in the interview, but Muglia did point out that Windows Server “vNext” will be a major release of the OS. This is similar to the upgrade of Windows Server 2008 R2 as a minor upgrade to the plain version of Windows Server 2008.

“We’re not talking a lot about the next version of Windows Server today but I think what you’ll see is…that the learnings that we have from Windows Azure will be pulled back into Windows Server, just like there’s features in Windows Server and SQL Server that are being pulled up into Windows Azure and SQL Azure.”

Muglia did say that the next version of Windows Server is progressing in development alongside the next desktop operating system. As of yet, Microsoft is not displaying their cards about a formal codename, or list of features, or even a target date. But according to Muglia, the two teams, one on client and one on server, worked together side by side in the development process.

This goes with the development of the next version of Windows 7, probably to be called Windows 8. Why? Because of Steven Sinofsky.

Steven Sinofsky, whose position is president, of the Windows and Windows Live Division, has made an interesting feature known about how the development process of Windows has changed after he came to the helm of the project. He had been brought in from the Office team.

When Sinofsky was leading Office, Microsoft used product numbers. They did not use code names for future releases of the productivity suite. Office 2010, for example, was Office 14. The next version of Office has already been labeled Office 15.

So when Sinofsky moved over to Windows division, the follow up to Windows Vista became Windows 7, as Vista was Windows 6.0. Thus, it is only natural to assume, and apparently some of Microsoft’s own employees have done so, that the next version of Windows will be labeled Windows 8.