Calling the situation "untenable" and describing Windows as "collapsing," a pair of Gartner analysts yesterday said Microsoft must make radical changes to its operating system or risk becoming a has-been.

Gartner analysts Mike Silver and Neil MacDonald delivered the warnings at a Las Vegas conference sponsored by the giant research firm. Here's CIO magazine's take on the presentation.

They said Windows has become too ungainly, making it harder to upgrade the system. Another excerpt from the article:

Users want a smaller Windows that can run on low-priced -- and low-powered -- hardware. And increasingly, users work with "OS-agnostic applications," the two analysts said in their presentation. It takes too long for Microsoft to build the next version, the company is being beaten by others in the innovation arena, and in the future -- perhaps as soon as the next three years -- it's going to have trouble competing with Web applications and small, specialized devices.

They had to know about the new, leaner "MinWin" Windows kernel that surfaced last October, right?

Either way, they're setting the stage for Microsoft to start talking up the presumably nimbler Windows 7 at its big conferences with partners in July and developers in October and November.