Microsoft seems to be adapting and evolving a lot these days, as, after the announcement of extensive job losses across the company, the tech giant has announced they are about to do away with separate operating systems for their products, such as smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
The attempt to unify operating systems across the board means that development times and costs could be shortened at the cost of jobs within the company, which is great for profit but certainly not for those 18,000 employees who recently got the sack, in what is being described as the “biggest round of job cuts” to Microsoft for five years.
So it’s goodbye to Windows RT and Windows Phone, as Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella explained how their pc, tablet and smartphone operating systems will soon be merged together to “streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system.”
“This means one operating system that covers all screen sizes,” he said, pointing out how the unification might be deployed over all devices, continuing to point out that “Now, we have one team with a common architecture.” Previously, under former Microsoft chief executives, separate development teams worked on each operating system.
This could mean that the upcoming operating system which some have dubbed Windows 9 could be the culmination of these efforts, and may even be seen across every Windows device following its release. The new OS has been leaked several times recently, but none of the leaks so far have seemed all that legitimate.
No information about any changes to the operating system used on the Xbox One following this decision has arisen, so we’re hoping that the Xbox team will keep hold of their independence in order to further refine the console’s software.
On a more positive note, a unified OS could mean easier file sharing between devices, better remote access to devices in standby mode at home while you’re out, better compatibility for files such as documents and pictures as well as information entered on one device being available across the board for a user only using Windows devices.
We’ll stay tuned on the ongoing unified OS and Windows 9 rumors, hopefully an announcement may confirm whether the two are one and the same.
Source: The Verge