If you're not yet entirely bored with the subject, and want to see what may be up with the next version beyond Vista (tentatively referred to as "Windows 7"... let's see, is 7 before or after 98? Oh, you're counting up from the first version? Then which ones count, exactly? Leaving out ME, are we?) then head on over to Shipping Seven. Purportedly the product of a nameless Microsoft employee working on or near the project, it hasn't revealed much so far, and may in fact just be a tease, but then again it may be the next Mini-Microsoft and then you could say that you were reading it way back in '08 before anyone else had jumped on the band-wagon.

While the Vista development leaked like a Sieve, Microsoft has become much more tight-lipped about future versions of Windows. This is no doubt in part to reduce the chances of cannibalizing existing sales by convincing users it's worth waiting to upgrade (particularly because few have any compelling reason to leave XP for Vista in the first place) but I've also heard rumblings that there is some Apple envy over in Redmond; the buzz around the upcoming Macworld wouldn't be there without the tight veil of secrecy that Apple maintains around its projects, and Microsoft has no doubt noted that the surprise release strategy leaves little time for products to be run down before they are on the market (as happened with Vista). So blogs like Shipping Seven may well be the best source of information we have about new versions of Microsoft software... because Microsoft, whatever their intent, just doesn't have the culture to keep a secret.

Props to Inside Microsoft for the link.