[NOTE: Here’s the lead story from last week’s Technologizer’s T-Week newsletter–go here to sign up to receive it each Friday. You’ll get original stuff that won’t show up on the site until later, if at all.]
Last week, I wrote about a Steve Ballmer quote–one about Windows Phone 7. I swear that I don’t intend to devote Technologizer’s newsletter to full-time analysis of Ballmer sound bites. But this week I’m intrigued by another one.
At a recent event hosted by research firm Gartner, Ballmer was asked what Microsoft’s riskiest product bet was. He answered “the next version of Windows,” and then moved on. It’s not surprising that he didn’t elaborate: Microsoft has said pretty much nothing at all about the next Windows so far, and probably won’t disclose any facts until it’s ready to say quite a bit. (It didn’t start disclosing information about Windows 7 until a year before it was released.) If you take Ballmer literally, though, even that quick answer is significant.
Contrary to popular belief, Windows is far from boring. Dig below the surface, and you’ll discover a stranger side to the world’s most popular operating system. It’s filled with twisted homages, forgotten platforms, and dead ends. In a word, it’s full of oddities.
I did the unbelievable — a beginner’s mistake, if I ever heard one. I unplugged of a USB-attached device without using the Safely Remove Hardware applet. And up from the depths of the system tray came the here-comes-lunch “Windows – Corrupt File” message.
