Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has confirmed that the next version of Windows, probably Windows 9, will unify the Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox operating systems into “one single converged operating system.” Microsoft had previously made some moves towards unification with Universal Windows Apps that run across all three platforms, but this new version of Windows will go a lot further: “This means [we’ll have] one operating system that covers all screen sizes.” The question now, of course, is whether this will be the one-Windows-to-rule-them-all (and in the darkness bind them) that Microsoft desperately needs in order to stay relevant in a rapidly shifting personal computing environment, or whether it’ll just be a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none flop — a bit like Windows 8.
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