by Mary Jo Foley
March 20th, 2008 @ 6:27 pm

There are a growing number of clues that Windows 7 — the next version of Windows about which Microsoft continues to remain mum — could be available in pieces. By “pieces,” I mean a couple of different things:

1. Delivered in a role-based fashion, a la Windows Server.
Windows Server 2008 allows users to select which bits they want to install or ignore, based on a handful of predetermined “roles.” Windows Server Core is the minimum configuration. Given that Windows client and server are built from the same code base, doesn’t it make sense that the next version of client also will move to more of a roles-like system? Microsoft already allows OEMs to pick and choose among components using the OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK). So why not allow customers to do the same?

A user-selectable, role-based Windows client could help Microsoft’s marketing folks from having to make the kinds of SKU choices that got Microsoft in legal hot water with Windows Vista. It wouldn’t be Microsoft deciding what constitutes “Windows-7-capable.” Instead, users would choose how much (or little) of Windows 7 they want on their systems.

2. Divided into complementary Software+Services elements.
Again, Microsoft has been foreshadowing, to an extent, what it is planning here. With Windows Vista, Microsoft showed that it could update components of Vista (example: the Windows Photo Gallery) via a Windows Live service (Windows Live Photo Gallery). One of my sources close to Microsoft recently told me that “major parts are being removed from Windows 7 (mail, photo, video)” but still will be available as user-selectable services......