Chances are, if you run a PC, it’s running Windows. Love it or hate it, it’s the de facto standard operating system for computing environments worldwide, despite widespread complaints of security problems, general distrust in the Microsoft regime, and the OS generally being one giant pile of barely-functioning code. The latest iteration of Windows, Windows Vista, arrived for businesses at the end of last month, bringing with it a new user interface, security upgrades, and a host of other features after a 5-year incubation. Microsoft has gone on record as saying that Vista will be the final iteration of Windows as we know it, but is this claim really true, or is Microsoft simply trying to gain more attention for its long-awaited update? According to the Times Online, we could very well be looking at a huge shift in focus from our friends at Redmond:

Security experts are acknowledging that Vista is the most secure of Windows to date. However, ‘The bad guys will always target the most popular systems,’ Mikko Hypponen, of F-Secure, the security group, said. ‘Vista’s vulnerability to phishing attacks, hackers, viruses and other malicious software will increase quickly.’ But the current fear is that the Internet will kill Windows, with Google being Public Enemy No. 1: ‘Microsoft is way behind Google when it comes to the internet,’ Rupert Godwins, the technology editor at ZDNet, the industry website, said. ‘Building Vista, Microsoft is still doing things the old way at the same time as it undergoes a big shift to catch up.’

Most other operating systems on the market today do have some sort of massive Internet integration; OS X’s Dashboard, for example, is so tightly integrated with the Web that most of its widgets simply can’t function without it. Linux itself is structured in a such a way that it’s really no big deal to be able to use your home computer from a machine at work (thank you VNC) and the open source code powering Linux allows users to make the little OS do damn near anything. Most importantly, both OSs are incredibly resilient against remote attackers, requiring a Herculean effort in order to crack one of their systems.

But Windows is still stuck in 1999; the Internet is there, but it’s an accessory, not a requirement. Even Vista, with it’s Dashboard-esque Windows Sidebar is still a novice when it comes from protecting the OS from Net-based attacks and threats. Google has shown us that the days of user-installed software could start coming to a close with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, beating Microsoft at their own game by making the web-based productivity suite free. Microsoft is making strides to catch up with the rest of the world; Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s new chief software architect, plans on making sure that Microsoft loses its dangerous dependency on the Windows of today. Whether or not he’ll be successful is the matter of some debate; some might argue that Microsoft is too comfortably ingrained in its ways to change in time. We’ll just have to sit back and wait for the results.