Vista’s Successors: Fiji and Vienna with Mockup Screenshots

So we are just weeks away from the Windows Vista consumer launch but the excitement doesn’t seem to be nearly what I would expect it to be. Why? Having used Vista for several months I find a lot of great things that make using Windows a more smooth operation. It is quite disappointing that I can’t get the Aero Glass on my laptop (with an integrated Intel 915 graphics card) because without it I can’t use things like Flip-3D or see thumbnail images when hovering over Taskbar items.

In fact using Vista RC2 on my laptop has been quite troublesome and slow lately. I install and uninstall applications all of the time and I know that isn’t good for keeping a PC clean, but the performance hit on Vista has been much more drastic than it ever was on XP. At this rate I would be reformatting my computer every month compared to every 3 to 4 months that I reformat an XP machine. This is probably a story for another day though…I’ll get back on topic now.

Windows Fiji is the codename for what will become an update or service pack to Windows Vista and is slated for a release in 2008. This release should have features that didn’t make it in time for the Windows Vista launch which should mean that it will be free (*crosses fingers*). Here are the rumored features for this release according to Wikipedia:

• The user interface will be updated with things that were originally promised for Vista, along with a more powerful sidebar, which will be more than just a dock for widgets
• .Net Framework will be updated to 3.5 or 4
• WinFS will be applied over NTFS to give us Virtual Folders
• All bundled application will be updated to newer versions
• Tighter integration with Windows Live. Probably through ‘Codename Nemo’, a media center application that’s integrated with Messenger, Spaces, and probably lots of other Windows Live Services
• We might see Monaco, a music authoring tool, similar to Apple’s Garageband
• Default playback of HD-DVD, Vista currently identifies these disks but cannot play them without an external decoder
• A more advanced speech recognition software
• The system will be made more secure
• New themes, icons, wallpapers, games, and minor tweaks to almost everything

Those features sound nice but the only one of interest to me is WinFS (Windows Future Storage). That is the new file system that is supposed to allow better searching and break away from the barriers that folders create by organizing data in relationships:

• Integrated storage – One example scenario is the Integrated Storage Conception that helps to reuse data. This feature will be of great use for businesses, by allowing it to automatically aggregate data from different departments.
• Full text search – A second possible scenario is a full-text search that works with items fields – the rich filters feature. By making use of the fact that any application’s data files can be used by any other application, searches can be made to encompass the contents of the file as well, rather than just its attributes.
• Advanced search and data aggregation – WinFS provides an opportunity to create rich and custom made search queries, such as to find “all persons whom I called last weekend”.
• Data mining – WinFS can also give more information about data, by using data mining techniques and applying rules to the data, thus helping to uncover new information. This scenario is intended to use in development of expert systems.

There is still no guarantees that WinFS will make it out in time for Windows Fiji, but I would sure hope it will.

Windows Vienna (expected in 2010) is really supposed to break the mold that Windows 95 established with a Start Menu, Taskbar, and an Explorer shell. Actually, Vista was supposed to do this but the amount of time it would take to develop such a system was greatly underestimated. Other details about what to expect in Vienna are pretty scarce but crawling around the Web I have been able to find some mockups of what people think it will be like (images below taken from this forum).

This screenshot obviously favors transparency and combines the Taskbar with a sidebar, which would take up a large amount of screen space. I also think the glowing edges are way too much:

Next up is a replacement for the Flip-3D feature that can be found in Vista…and I actually really like this. It exposes more of each window so that you can see more of the content but at the same time it is easy to see which window is currently selected. I would love to see a Windows XP/Vista application do something like this:

To break away from the Taskbars and Start Menu Microsoft has been investigating the use of “pie menus.” A pie menu offers the options in a circular fashion around the mouse, and therefore reducing the distance that the mouse has to travel in order to get to the desired option. I’ll explain how the Firefox extension works that does the same thing since it is a real example that everyone can try:

The Firefox extension replaces the standard right-click menu with a pie menu, as pictured above. When I right-clicked on the image at the top of our website it noticed that it was hyperlinked so the options it provided me with were mostly related to hyperlinks. Selecting any of the options takes hardly any effort at all since they are all right next to the mouse.

I would love to see Windows go to a pie menu solution like this, but it just seems like there are so many options that have to be crammed in such a small space. Sure the circle could be made bigger than the one shown above, but that would almost defeat the purpose. I’m sure this can be effectively accomplished, but Microsoft will have to spend a lot of time and money in research to get it done right.

Here is a small mockup of how the pie menu(s) might be displayed in Vienna:

That’s really everything I know about what’s coming after Windows Vista. It might not be as detailed as you would like, but information is hard to come by right now. Heck, Microsoft probably isn’t even sure what kind of features can be made ready in the next 3 years, and time seems to be their worst enemy.

News Source: Slashdot