Windows 7 due in three years, says Microsoft

Lately, news sites have been abuzz about Windows XP's surprising staying power, in the face of Vista apathy from both consumers and enterprise buyers. Still, that hasn't stopped Microsoft from looking toward the future. The company has announced internally that Vista's successor will be in development for three years. The announcement was made at a Microsoft sales training conference in Orlando last week, where the company also revealed the OS's code name has changed from "Vienna" to "7." What's with all the blabbing? Apparently, this is all part of a new "iterative" information-sharing plan, whereby Redmond will provide its partners with something approaching a software roadmap. Of course, the company won't likely be upset that this information has managed to leak to the general public: after the six-year incubation period Vista required, anything short of a decade can be filed under "good PR."

For more on the internal announcement:
- see this CNET article