A new research paper makes a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to Microsoft's secret project to develop a non-Windows-based operating system and programming environment.
Midori -- the Microsoft skunkworks operating-system project -- is still alive and moving forward.
Midori is a new operating system being developed by a team of all-star Microsoft programmers. Midori is not based on the current NT kernel; instead, its original roots can be traced back to Singularity, a Microsoft-Research-developed microkernel operating system. Headed (at least at one point) by Senior Vice President of Technical Strategy Eric Rudder, Midori is believed to be a distributed, concurrent operating system. The product and associated deliverables (a related programming language/framework, etc.) are in technical incubation.
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Microsoft's Midori operating-system skunkworks project soldiers on | ZDNet