With Windows 7 out the door, many people have forgotten about the fact that Microsoft has a release pattern when it comes to their operating systems. Let's take a look at some of the releases that Microsoft has done in the past few years, in 2003 Microsoft came up with Windows server 2003, in 2005 there was yet another update to the server OS, in 2008 a major release after server operating system was done in 2009 there was yet another release of their server operating system along with a major mainstream operating system release such as Windows 7.

According to a January 31 blog post published on the Microsoft developer network the development of the next generation of operating systems which has been codenamed "Windows 8"is already well on its way. According to Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, the new generation of operating systems will do something completely different from what people usually expect from Windows.

After Microsoft CEO made such statement developers as well as users have begun to wonder if Microsoft will follow the trend that Google has already set, we're talking about Google chrome which has evolved from a regular browser into a full-blown OS which is mostly driven by web applications instead of programs installed within a user's computer.

Operating systems that heavily rely on Internet applications will change the way the people use and store information for instance, the developers of Google chrome have already said that all the information manipulated through a web browser can be stored on Google's servers which is a case of e-mail and spreadsheet documents that can be accessed and edited through Gmail's web interface.

Having such environment in mind has apparently triggered a revolutionary new idea in the minds of Microsoft OS developers who have said that the next generation of operating systems will change the way that people think about Microsoft. Following Microsoft's OS release pattern we can estimate that between 2011 and 2012 there will be yet another major release from this company, a release which has been codenamed Windows 8.

According to eWeek, people can expect to see the integration of new web platforms into their windows OS such as a Twitter interface, Facebook apps, a MySpace app and so on. All this buzz about Microsoft following the trend that Google chrome has set leads us to believe that Windows 7 might indeed be the last OS to heavily rely on information and applications that are stored on people's computers, that being the case with you start thinking that all of the information will move from our desktop into the web which brings about a new set of challenges and concerns about privacy and security.