Windows 9 will be to Windows 8 what Windows 7 was to Windows Vista.
Not a GREAT OS, but it will be such an improvement over the pile of shit they last released, it will seem like the greatest thing ever to most people!!
In all reality, Windows XP Professional still has all of the functionality that most home and the majority of business users need. You could almost say the same with Server 2003 on the Server side, but Server 2008 had enough additions over 2003 to make it a worthwhile deployment. Virtualization changed everything. I generally prefer VMware’s products over Microsoft’s in the area of virtualization.
Microsoft is basically treading water. They haven’t made any real innovations in YEARS(if not over a decade), every new thing they try has failed, and they are basically just sitting there - just waiting to be replaced by someone/something else. I suppose the ONLY REAL fairly recent success they had was with the XBox 360 gaming consoles, but with the latest offerings, Sony’s PS4 is blowing away Microsoft’s XBox ONE. (I own both, and prefer the PS4 by FAR)
The only noticeable difference between Windows Vista and Windows 7 was the elimination of Windows Vista's constant consumption of memory / bad memory management.
It's been awhile, but IIRC they were virtually identical UI's. Windows 7 just "fixed" Vista's memory & performance issues.
For Windows 9 to be to Windows 8 what Vista was to Windows 7, that means the UI stays the same and the performance issues are "fixed."
Granted Windows 8's conflicting UI's (Metro vs. Desktop) sucks rocks, but the performance over Windows 7 is really quite good.
So I think your analogy is wrong. Windows 9 will be to Windows 8 what Windows XP was to Windows 3.11/Windows for Workgroups.
You nailed it on the head. I agree with you 100%.