Interesting developments… Bink.nu has previously reported on two Windows versions for “Server Centric Computing Clients". In short these are based on windows XP, sort of "lean" clients for Terminal server purposes.

Now I am reading on bink.nu again about their exclusive interview with Barry Goffe and Jon Murchinson, part of the Microsoft Windows team.

According to the article “The goal is providing a better solution for certain type of customers and their legacy pcs. Companies that have 5-6 year old PCs that still run NT4 or win9x. These customers are not upgrading their hardware for financial or business-political reasons, but they are concerned about security, NT4 and win9x are not patched anymore, since Microsoft does not support these OS'es.”

According to the report the Windows codename Eiger is the solution for this. This would be the latest (or last?) OS for legacy PCs.

Here is a list of what Eiger is NOT:

It’s not a thin client solution, it can be more seen as a lean client.

It’s not a new kind of RDP client. Windows XP Eiger runs on the local CPU, rdp client can be added though.

It’s not a Windows XP "light" edition, where you can run your apps on. Eiger is restricted on what it runs.

It’s not Windows XP Starter Edition, this stripped down version of XP is intended for emerging countries.

It’s not intended for common business server based computer scenarios,

It’s not a general OS; a lot of components are removed.

According to Bink.nu Windows Eiger is based on Windows XP Embedded combined with some Windows XP Pro functionality. For example Windows XP embedded does not support Plug and Play (PnP) but Eiger does. Customers can build an Eiger image by adding components, just like building Windows XP embedded and Windows CE, but the choices are limited

Check the full article for more information.