Microsoft Longhorn, 3GIO to change PC rules

But the source, who works for a third party vendor, tell us that Microsoft will make the bold - perhaps foolhardy step - of making Longhorn incompatible with all previous operating systems.

And the introduction of 3GIO at the same time will also upset the third party applecart and probably end users too.

Although Longhorn does not officially debut until spring 2004, it's expected that in autumn next year, both Intel and Microsoft will give strong indications of their plans.

The reason for making the OS non-backward compatible is that both Intel and Microsoft believe that only by taking this radical step can they give a huge impetus to the PC business.

Their thinking is that people are not interested in small incremental changes such as increased clock speeds or tweaking of the operating system, and hope to persuade the entire industry and the user base to move to much improved features on both the hardware and software front.

That will include the end of much of the so-called "legacy" features of PCs, which as we've reported earlier will really start to be phased out during the first half of next year.

People who don't want to switch will more or less have to like it or lump it, the source said, and continue running their old kit and software behind the technology pack.

3GIO, Intel's future bus technology, is an integral part in this cunning plan on the hardware front.

But while Microsoft and Intel may think that's good for the industry, it's a very bold move indeed. And there's probably still time to persuade them otherwise, we reckon. µ