During the interview, Microsoft was asked point blank about whether they'd be making more visual styles for Windows XP. Their answer was essentially to use WindowBlinds.
That said, Microsoft is working hard to make the next version of Windows have all sorts of cool extensions (which I cannot publicly comment on except to say they're cool). Those of you with Object Desktop and have the WindowFX 2 alpha already have seen the benefits of some of the extensions to Windows Microsoft has been putting in and has opened up to third parties.
The trend we've seen in Microsoft has been for them to focus on making Windows solid, reliable, and more open and allow
third parties "like Stardock" to then extend it to suit specific needs. So rather than throwing in everything but the kitchen skin, Windows (which we've seen with XP) has gone the direction of having hooks in for others to exend. WindowBlinds 3.3, which is Microsoft Windows XP certified, basically turns WindowBlinds skins into a new visual style format by hooking into Microsoft's visual style architecture.
This bodes well for the customization community who want to be able to customize their PCs to match their particular ways of using them without having to suffer from loss of performance, instability and other problems (as a side note, compare how Stardock's Object Desktop functions on say Windows 95 compared to how it functions on Windows XP! The seamlessness gets better and better largely thanks to Microsoft making it easier for third parties to integrate as part of the operating system).
Of course, this isn't necessarily good news for Linux advocates as many Windows ISVs now get to have their cake and eat it too - they can extend Windows and Microsoft seems to look at developers much more like partners than potential competitors.
While the next version of Windows is years away, Windows XP is proving to be a really fantastic desktop OS for most people and the philosphy behind Longhorn/Blackcomb sounds very exciting.
What do you think?