Microsoft Midori

Posted on July 30, 2008

Microsoft is working on a project, codenamed Midori, to create an Internet based OS to replace Windows.

This is said to be Windows’ replacement at some point in the future, as the desktop operating system becomes obsolete in function.

Technical details began surfacing yesterday. According to one report, Midori will be a distributed operating system that may contain some elements of previous projects like WinFS

Midori will be designed to run directly on native hardware and be hosted on Microsoft’s virtualization technology. It’s also a project that is in line with Steve Ballmer’s (proper) understanding of the need to fully address and center on cloud computing.

So if the real home of the OS is in the clouds somewhere, you can see them being able to deliver seamlessly, applications designed for Pcs, phones, TVs, or whatever.

Microsoft looks set to walk away from its existing GUI model, and that will probably happen after Windows 7, which brings the arrival of the new OS easily into the next decade, maybe around 2013 or so.

Microsoft continues to downplay the importance of Midori by saying it is just a research project. They don’t want to recreate the spectre of Cairo, a highly touted but failed project back in 1991, that interestingly they shelved to get more involved in the Internet, and now they may be reviving portions of that project because they want to get more involved in the Internet.