Whether you’re a fan of Vista or not, the current Windows will soon be called a dinosaur OS. After the negative reception Vista received, Microsoft is putting a rush on Vista’s follow-up, known currently as Windows 7.

At this point Windows 7 seems to be the OS that Microsoft wanted to release as Vista, but lacked the time or resources to complete. Besides continuing refinements to the security system of the OS and to its look and feel, Windows 7 may finally bring to fruition the long-rumored database-like WinFS file system. Performance and compatibility improvements over Vista are also expected.

Windows 7 is likely to have enhanced online integration and more cloud computing features, look for Microsoft to tie its growing Windows Live services into the OS more strongly than ever.

Before his retirement as Microsoft’s chairman, Bill Gates suggested that a so-called pervasive desktop would be a focus of Windows 7, giving users a way to take all their data, desktop settings, bookmarks, and the like from one computer to another–presumably as long as all those computers were running Windows 7.