Why Windows 7?
As Operating systems go Windows 7 is poised to be successful even before launch on October 22. Hardly has any criticism been offered up by testers who have used the product for several months. That is remarkable that the consensus at this time is that Microsoft got it right after the debacle of Vista. But Vista has at least one thing in common with Windows 7 that will endure and that is the kernel.
Designed from the ground up, the OS kernel will run on 40 MB of code (MinWin) as opposed to the 2 gig on the original Vista. It is also the same kernel on Server 2008. Since Vista SP1 was released, the kernel was upgraded to the “MinWin” version. The other features of Windows 7 is that the user interface made a dramatic change, and this will probably drive more sales than the kernel. This should keep many consumers and PC users happy. But technical engineers, network administrators, programmers, server administrators who work beneath the surface should find that the OS changes will support their hardware, in ways that previous OS versions did not.
Hardware design and redesign and OS support are like Ying and Yang, they drive each other: one follows the other, or one leads the other. But changes in hardware technology, quad-4 motherboards with terabyte hard drives, and gigabytes of Ram have forced the OS to get to it’s operational limits. The MinWin kernel is scalable to 256 processors. While this may seem like a lot, and it is, with design changes in motherboards, processors and supporting technology this OS may only have a commercial life time of 5 years, maybe only three.
The Drive to VM’s
While Windows 7 may be the hot OS of the present, this doesn’t mean that there will be businesses jumping onto the wagon with abandon. First, many companies, in this economy see that growth will occur tepidly. Changing OS will also entail changing hardware if they are moving from XP to Windows 7 or from an earlier OS. And the problem of backward software compatibility will also influence the decision to keep their current OS.
But with the distribution of virtual machine technology in 2004 as a free download, some of the issues that hampered change will disappear, or at least put aside. If a company is running a financial program on Windows 98, the change to a more modern version may cost too much. That is where a VM can come in. Using a VM with a Windows 98 OS, and then adding the financial software, can keep the program running. Meanwhile an upgrade to a modern version Windows 7 can allow the rest of the company take advantage of the newer technology. By using a VM the company can have the best of both worlds.
Windows ##
The hardware technology is already available where multiple VM’s can run a variety of applications using different OS’s. Consider that a company may have a mail exchange server, a Sql Server, a SharePoint server, and a document server. Further assume that each one of these servers is running on its own OS. Exchange on Server 2003, SQL on XP, SharePoint on Vista , and the document Server on Windows 7. Instead of running an OS with a lot of overhead, an OS is designed to run nothing but VM’s. This would take advantage of the hardware technology. It could even be part of the processor, or the BIOS. This future Windows OS, version ##, could be just what companies would need, backward compatibility to any legacy system, but a modern OS that would run on the most current hardware.
The launch of Windows 7 may be the most important desktop OS launch to date. But it may also be the beginning of the end of the OS as we know it.
Sources:
http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?form=MSHOME&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&q=minwin
