A leaked copy of the next generation of Windows has been circulating in IRC groups. Code-named “Yukon”, Microsoft has acknowleged that it is an authentic OS. The most significant change is a new filesystem to replace FAT and NTFS used in current versions of Windows, with WinFS, a database like indexed filesystem.
This will make organization of documents and files much easier, now that 80-100Gb hard drives are common, and users are frequently searching through hundreds or thousands of MP3’s and digital photographs. It’s still a ways off though. Yukon is scheduled for release in late 2004.
