I continue to be interested in how app and OS code plays in to the energy-efficiency equation. What it seems to boil down to is, the smaller the application footprint, and thus the less memory and CPU power it needs, the lower the power requirements of the hardware. I continue to be interested in how app and OS code plays in to the energy-efficiency equation. What it seems to boil down to is, the smaller the application footprint, and thus the less memory and CPU power it needs, the lower the power requirements of the hardware.With features such as the Aero UI, Microsoft Vista has been deemed a pretty hardware-intensive OS, especially if users want to reap every shiny bell and whistle it has to offer. I was thus interested by an IDGNS article from the other day about Microsoft’s plan to slim down the Windows kernel.Microsoft’s Distinguished Engineer Eric Traut had this to say about Windows: “A lot of people think of Windows as this large, bloated operating system, and that’s maybe a fair characterization, I have to admit,” Traut said. “But at its core, the kernel, and the components that make up the very core of the operating system, is actually pretty streamlined.” The company has created a beta version of the OS, called MinWin, which will be a part of Windows 7, and which lacks a GUI. According to the IDGNS report, MinWin “takes up just 25MB when stored on disk, compared to the massive 4GB the full Windows Vista OS needs.”Given the focus companies have on energy efficiency these days, it makes perfect sense for MS to put the kernel — as well as its other OS offerings — on diets. Technology Industry