The PDC 2008 conference will start today and as reported Microsoft will present the current state of Windows 7 to attending developers. Of course it is exciting to see what Windows 7 will look like and what new features it will bring. ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley has some insights on that. According to her the Windows 7 pre-beta build will include a device stage, action center, StreamOn, animation framework, new taskbar and shell, multi-touch, gesture recognition, improved Bluetooth and UI ribbons.
More important than Windows 7 is the overall strategy Microsoft is taking in the future to battle Google, Amazon and others as a big shift is going on towards cloud computing and Microsoft like always is not on the cutting edge.
Cloud computing is somewhat sneaky intruding on our lives without us consumers really realizing it. We store some photos on flickr, post messages on Twitter, and of course have a Gmail email account. People start sharing document with me on Google Documents and so on. The T-Mobile G1 Android phone is now the clearest example that we are in the midst of cloud computing. You have to sign in with your Google account and all your data is stored in the Google Cloud.
This is very dangerous for Microsoft. Even Apple has with MobileMe a cloud service up and running. The Client operating system is not where the future is and Microsoft once again needs to bet on their huge install base to catch up and survive this evolution once again.