Windows 7, Vista's follow-up, already will be a thinner, more streamlined OS, replacing some of the software Microsoft previously included with the OS with Web-based Windows Live Services. And if comments made by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week are any indication, Windows will slim down even further in the future, returning to the original intent of an OS -- a way to optimize the hardware it runs on -- instead of being a bloated piece of software whose performance and value rely on compatibility with installed applications.

"The purpose of the OS on the device is to have the best value on that device," Ozzie said at PDC in an interview with the IDG News Service, adding that there is still "tremendous opportunity for innovation" for using the OS to leverage device hardware.

He said that in the future Windows will have "base connections to the Internet" so people can connect to the Web through a browser and services like Windows Update.

But Microsoft won't rely too heavily on the Internet to achieve its goal to support innovative hardware features -- such as touchscreen capability -- so people in places without reliable connections to the Web can still reap the benefits of the OS, he said.

This slimming down of the client OS is as much a way for Microsoft to keep Windows relevant as a hardware OS as it is for the company to concede to the new cloud-computing and services paradigm that Google, Amazon and other companies are pioneering.