Interesting post by Paul Thurrott about the 2015 version of Windows, currently code named “Threshold.”
Windows 8.1 Service Pack/Feature Pack 1 will be about around the April 2014 timeframe this year.
During the Microsoft Build 2014 conference, also scheduled for April of this year, “Threshold” should get official as Windows 9.
Metro 2.0 should be arriving in Windows 9, allowing us to run traditional Windows desktop applications alongside Metro, aka “Modern UI”, applications.
And, thankfully, the Windows Start button and menu should be back in this release.
But most interesting, or maybe not, of over the 1 billion traditional desktop and laptop PCs that are out in the wild, there are only 25 million PCs currently running either Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Wow.
With the return of a more traditional Windows Start button and menu, and the ability to run Metro applications in a window next to traditional PC applications, I think Microsoft will be striking the correct balance between tablet and touch-enabled PCs and the traditional keyboard and mouse PCs that are still out there.
[Via Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows…]