Gates' changing priorities mask Windows overhaul

Microsoft has shed some light on the vision behind Longhorn, its next-generation, post-XP operating system.

A Fortune magazine article which appeared in yesterday's The Business said: "Microsoft is putting its best development teams on a project that will render virtually all its products obsolete."

Whether that is true or not, it is clear Longhorn will mean a coming together of personal and business software, from desktop applications to gaming to communications - integrated with Microsoft's .Net web services strategy.

However, as the piece adds: "Company executives are uneasy even talking about the project, for fear of hurting sales of Windows XP."

Instead, we get a profile piece of a new, more relaxed Bill Gates. Now 46 and no longer CEO, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect "still tries to wring the most out of every minute" and "seems more serene and contemplative - and just plain funnier".

The profile painted is of one of the world's most famous business leaders willing to let someone else handle day-to-day decisions while he works with developers and in-house teams or spends time outside the company he founded, in particular with his young family or working for his philanthropic foundation.

And rumour has it he's even become a passable golfer in between mapping out Microsoft's next 10 years, which is news to us.