Tom Brew

So, it seems Microsoft are taking their battle for Web supremacy to the next level. Apparently, they are soon to release an operating system specifically for the ‘cloud’, rumoured to be called Windows Strata.

Now, I was a bit dubious about this name. On first impressions it sounds ‘cloudy’ but a quick bit of googling revealed that I wasn’t alone. Strata actually describes layers of rock, as opposed to Stratus, which is a type of cloud formation…

Anyway, I digress.

I’m curious as to how a Cloud OS would actually work. Is Windows Strata Stratus eventually meant to supersede the likes of XP and Vista? Well, probably not because that’s Windows 7’s job, right?

So in order to access a cloud-based OS, surely you need another OS running locally? A browser would probably be handy too.

This got me thinking, I wonder if/when we’ll see a day where computers are not bought with an OS pre-installed, but instead run some variant of browser software through which an OS could be instantly accessed.

This is where I can see a cloud based OS really working: A platform independent, subscription based OS, able to run any manner of applications online. Storage and processing will be carried out remotely in ‘computing power stations’ and any updating or patching would be discretely performed in the background (imagine that, Windows Users.)

Maybe I’ve just got cloud-fever, but its interesting thought…

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