When Microsoft releases a new version of its Windows operating system, we usually see it hang around for between three and four years, but the company might be pushing to release a new Windows even sooner than previously expected.
While the big M aren’t likely to talk about it publicly, Windows 8 hasn’t been the overwhelming success everyone thought it would be.
Perhaps it’s that the design is too dramatically different for older Windows users to migrate to, or maybe it’s because Microsoft tried forcing touch on a world where few really wanted to upgrade to.
Whatever the issue, it looks like Microsoft is getting the follow-up to Windows 8 ready for release next year.
According to Paul Thurrot over at Windows Supersite, Microsoft is currently eyeing April 2015 as the release for what is currently known as “Threshold,” but will likely be named Windows 9 when it does see the light of day.
The goss, according to Thurrot, is that Microsoft will likely bring the Start button back, and make it possible for the Windows 8 modern apps to run in a desktop window, similar to what Stardock’s ModernMix offers right now.
What we’d like to see would be some form of choice for users, and if you want to use the touchscreen-style grid menu by you can, or if you prefer the Windows Start button and old desktop mode, you could use that too.
In fact, an acknowledgement on that type of choice could make all the difference, and would probably have made Windows 8 less of a problem for people who didn’t have touchscreens or decent trackpads at their disposal.
Whatever the case, we suspect we’ll be hearing more about Windows soon. Here’s hoping the news is good.
UPDATE (2015): Hey, good news. It’s not Windows 9 anymore, because Microsoft will instead skip a number.
