It’s not even a year since Windows 8 has been released and rumours are doing the round that its successor codenamed ‘Windows Blue’ might be shipped by the middle of this year. This indeed is weird keeping in mind that Microsoft has termed Windows 8 a ‘success’ despite many people switching back to Windows 7 (not sure if someone went back to Vista).
Where did it start?
The report was first leaked with a official Microsoft job announcement (link removed from the site now) that sighted an experience engineer. The job description read as:
Windows Blue promises to build and improve upon these aspects of the OS, enhancing ease of use and the overall user experience on devices and PCs worldwide.
Microsoft declined to comment on it and thus neither denied it nor accepted it.
Is it really a new OS?
As reported by Win8China the new Windows Blue is a major update to Windows 8 rather than a full fledged system. In other words, it could be termed as Service Pack to Windows 8. But no confirmation has come to whether the Windows 8 will renamed to Windows Blue after wards or not. As speculation goes, it should be free for current Windows 8 users.
Features of Windows Blue:
Windows Blue is supposed to have the following features to provide improvements on Windows 8:
- A better search for online contents such as Windows app, fully integrated with Bing (gauche! Kill me please).
- Built on new Kernel
- Equipped with Internet Explorer 11 (like I’m gonna use it)
- Will support smaller (6-8 inches) touch devices. This could be for Surface Mini.
- Will be faster and consume less power (I don’t trust it)
- Better integration of apps to Windows environment
I sincerely hope Windows Blue to be an improvement on Windows 8 rather than reminding us of Blue from the notorious Blue Screen Of Death. The news about Windows Blue has at least proved one thing, Windows OS are good in alternate version only. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the curios case of Windows OS (Courtesy: 9Gag):
