Nadella reaffirms Microsoft's commitment to a unified operating system

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed during an earnings call yesterday that the software giant will merge all major versions of Windows into a unified operating system.

Nadella said that Microsoft is set to "streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system. This means one operating system that covers all screen sizes."

Microsoft is in process of a reorganization that sees teams working on different versions of Windows merging into a single unit. Nadella said that the shuffle would allow Microsoft to scale and create new services better. "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."

The change does not mean that Microsoft will stop selling different versions of Windows. Nadella said that there will still be several flavours available to choose for end-users, but that the underlying architecture between the versions would be the same. Nadella said that another major change with the upcoming version of Windows is the unification of stores, commerce and developer platforms.

A unified operating system certainly makes sense given Microsoft's diverse offerings, although it remains to be seen how the software giant would manage to offer a customized experience to users on each platform. Nadella mentioned that additional details will be forthcoming in the coming months.

What do you guys think of the change? What are you looking forward to in a unified version of Windows?

Source: Microsoft

Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia for Android Central, Windows Central's sister site. When not reviewing phones, he's testing PC hardware, including video cards, motherboards, gaming accessories, and keyboards.