Posted on Monday, August 13 2012 @ 22:24 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
ZD Net's Mary Jo Foley
heard rumors that the next version of Windows is not going to be Windows 9 but an interim release codenamed "Blue". The rumored launch date of Blue is Summer 2013, but details about what it will be are uncertain.
I've heard the next version of Windows is not going to be Windows 9. Instead, I've heard from a couple of my contacts that some kind of an update is coming next year. The Windows release codenamed "Blue" -- mentioned by Win8China last week -- is likely the codename of this interim release, my contacts claim.
I'm not clear if Blue is simply what we in the Windows world typically call a service pack, which is a rollup of fixes and updates. Or maybe Blue is more of a feature pack, which would/could include be a rollup of fixes plus some new features.
The word seems to be, whichever it is, that Microsoft is moving away from the big-bang Windows release schedule to which it typically has adhered, and is now attempting to move toward something more like what Apple does, with point releases. I'll be curious if Blue eventually gets a version number, like Windows 8.1 or 8.5 or something. And if we'll see Blue materializes in the summer of 2013, as I've heard from some of my contacts....
