Microsoft's Longhorn may blend Tablet PC, Media Center

Microsoft plans to drop the "Home" and "Pro" tags with the next release of Windows, code-named Longhorn, and is looking at shipping a single product that includes the features found in today's Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC editions.

While still mum on many Longhorn packaging details, Microsoft representatives are more willing to talk publicly about the product now that a first beta release is set to ship in the coming months and the decisions about key operating system components have been made.

For one, Microsoft has decided that the Home and Pro monikers it introduced with Windows XP to distinguish versions of the operating system meant for home and office use are not descriptive enough. There will be versions of Longhorn specifically meant for consumer and business use, but the naming will be changed.

"Having more friendly names that more accurately describe what the products are is going to be a big focus for us," said Brad Brooks, director of Windows client consumer marketing at Microsoft. "You will see very clear distinctions between what we are doing on the consumer side versus the business side."

Brooks, in an interview at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, declined to further discuss Microsoft's plans for Longhorn naming, except to confirm that the product will be called Windows. "There are lots of thoughts, but we're not ready to talk about it," he said.

As it works on packaging for Longhorn, Microsoft is considering adding the Media Center and Tablet PC features to the core operating system package. Today Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition are distinct products.

Building Media Center and Tablet PC capabilities into the basic operating system would allow for a rich and flexible user experience, Brooks said. For example, a high-end laptop could be set to function as a Media Center PC when it is docked and as a Tablet PC when out of the docking station, he said.

A Media Center PC is designed to be the entertainment hub of a home. It can serve media content to TVs throughout a home and includes digital video recorder capabilities. Tablet PC functionality is designed for notebook computers and lets users input data on a touch screen using a pen. A Tablet PC and Media Center combination does not exist today.

Switching between the different modes should happen automatically, Brooks said. When the system is taken out of the docking station it should change the user interface, start managing power more efficiently and adapt the screen resolution to the mobile display without any action from the user, he said.

However, with all the functionality in the basic operating system, users would likely still have to pick what features they want their PC to support when they install the operating system, depending on how they plan to use that PC. "You answer a few questions and the operating system tailors itself," Brooks said.

A PC vendor or IT department could also customize the operating system on new PCs for the various usage models, Brooks said.

"These are some things that are driving our thinking," Brooks said.