Did Nadella confirm that Windows 9 will replace three OSes?

Amidst all the bad news about job losses and closures, somewhere in Microsoft's quarterly conference call, held yesterday, the company's CEO Satya Nadella, confirmed that the company was working towards a unified Windows operating system, potentially replacing Windows RT, Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

Following the release of the Universal Windows Apps developer tools back in April, Nadella said that "We will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes."

He added, "In the past we had multiple teams working on different versions of Windows. Now we have one team with a common architecture. This allows us to scale, create Universal Windows Apps."

In practice, developers are still having to deal with two fundamentally different architectures (x86 and ARM) but development tools (like Visual Studio) transparently handles the coding process, making it less demanding in terms of money and human resource.

Microsoft biggest competitors, Apple and Google are also likely to merge their mobile and desktop OSes; MacOS has adopted some of iOS' features while Google confirmed years ago that Chrome OS and Android will merge sooner or later.

What that entails in the long term is an architecture agnostic approach that focuses more on the market, the audience needs and the screen sizes. Windows Pro, Windows Phone, Windows Enterprise, Windows Embedded and other versions will still exist, albeit in slightly different formats.

Microsoft Windows 9 Will Reportedly Come in 3 Flavors

Microsoft’s Windows 8 is approaching its second birthday and the terrible twos. Even though Windows 8.1 was a major update, the OS is still an albatross around the company’s neck, according to many users. To remedy that Redmond is reportedly working on a new take on its operating system, called Windows 9, or Windows Threshold, which will address many complaints. Among other things, that includes offering three different versions of the OS for desktop, 2-in-1 and mobile users.

According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, each version of Windows 9 will work differently depending on the type of hardware. The desktop-specific variant, which will be designed for desktop and laptop PCs, will put more emphasis on the traditional desktop screen, rather than the tile-like Windows 8.1 Modern UI.

That also means users will be able to run Modern UI apps on the desktop screen – something that’s been rumored for quite some time. The fan-favorite Start Menu button that made an appearance at Microsoft’s Build conference will also return in the desktop version of Windows 9.

For 2-in-1 devices, like Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, a separate Windows 9 version will let users switch between desktop and Metro UI modes depending on whether they have a keyboard connected to their system. Tablet and smartphone users, on the other hand, will only have access to the Metro UI. That said, Foley reports that the OS will still allow users to run two apps on-screen at once.

Windows 9 isn’t expected to make its first appearance until later this fall. Until then, you’ll have to contend with Windows 8.1, downgrade to Windows 7 or switch to Mac.