Microsoft wants to “get a lean and mean Windows running everywhere”

A job post by Microsoft highlights aninteresting strategy which the tech giant is picking up with itsWindows and Windows Phone platforms. The company is working to scaleWindows's memory footprint down to mere megabytes instead of theseveral gigabytes which the operating system's installation normallytakes. 

The effort stems from having to fit Windows Phone on deviceswith less than 4GB of in-built storage. But MS's mobile platformisn't the only product that's being sent to a weight loss program.Microsoft wants to make a small, efficient subset of the full-fledgedWindows which will run on connected devices of all kinds. It's thesame strategy that Google is developing with Android and Samsung isworking on with Tizen.

With the way things are going, whilewe're currently choosing our smartphones and tablets based on theoperating system, one day we will be choosing our entire smart-homesbased on what OS they run too. We can already picture the heated messageboard debates - "iOS is best for the car but doesn't do heatingvery well, Android runs great on the fridge but isn't secure enoughfor the garage door, and Windows is definitely the way to go for thekitchen table."

Apparently, Windows Phone 8 was thefirst Windows subset developed with the goal of shrinking in mind."As we further scale down to lower cost devices and smallerfootprint form factors, we need to further improve its CPU, RAM, anddisk footprint." - explains Microsoft, adding that its goalis "to get a lean and mean Windows running everywhere."

via MicrosoftNews