Bill Gates announces new version of Windows

Bill Gates, according to Reuters - expects the new version of Windows operating software, code-named Windows 7, to be released “sometime in the next year or so.”

The software giant has said it expected to release a new version of Windows approximately 3 years after the introduction of Vista in January 2007, and in the process - issue more regular updates of the operating system software that powers the majority of the world’s personal computers.

However, Bill Gates’ comments suggested that a successor to the Vista program might be released sooner than was generally expected.

Gates’ comments are in line with the development cycle that usually follows the release of a test version of the software before its official introduction.

“I’m superenthused about what it will do in lots of ways,” Gates said in a seminar on corporate philanthropy held during an annual meeting in Miami of the Inter-American Development Bank.

“That’ll be sometime in the next year or so that we’ll have a new version,” Gates said in response to a question from the audience.

Gates, is due to leave his day-to-day functions at Microsoft and dedicate himself to the philanthropic efforts of the Gates Foundation in June.