TheByte

Mikael

November 6, 2008 4:50 PM PST
by Ina Fried

LOS ANGELES--In a technical session on Thursday afternoon, Microsoft provided the clearest public indication that it is planning on getting Windows 7 completed in time to run on PCs that ship for next year's holiday buying season.

In a presentation on its somewhat secretive Velocity program to improve PC quality, Microsoft director Doug Howe showed a slide saying that the Vista Velocity program would continue through next spring as Microsoft worked to improve Vista machines that ship in next year's back-to-school time frame. He went on to say that Microsoft would continue the Velocity effort with Windows 7.

The slides and Howe's presentation appeared to confirm what has been widely speculated--but something Microsoft has not outright said--namely that Windows 7 is aimed to ship around mid-year, in time to be on machines that ship for the 2009 holiday buying season. After the session, Howe essentially confirmed that Microsoft is aiming Windows 7 for the holidays.

"Definitely the holiday focus is going to be on 7," Howe told me.

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BMW_Owner

Can't wait! Someone at work was showing me some new features etc. and it looks great. Might hold off on a new laptop and purchase one with preinstalled.

BMW Power

I dont get it...is this meant to be the successor to Vista? if So, isnt this rather too soon? What kind of benefits will this have over vista?

Mikael

Yes, it's the successor to Vista. Basically it's about the same schedule as with older Windows releases (although it's somewhat complicated as there were two separate product lines, Win9x and NT before MS merged them in the WinXP). Vista was released 5 years after XP so you could say it was released significantly late).

I've read that Windows 7 will have performance improvements and many new features such as advanced speech and multi-touch recognition.

BMW_Owner

vedjo01

I´m quite excited about this new Windows 7 cause Vista isn´t what it should be in terms of stability and speed..Dnloading right now Beat version so I will post my observations when I finaly get it on my machine .

Mikael

Microsoft begins Windows 7 push



The first public trial, or beta, version of Windows 7 has been released.

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer used his keynote speech at CES to announce that software developers would get at the trial version on 7 January.

On 9 January members of the public will get the chance to download the successor to Windows for themselves.

Mr Ballmer said Windows 7 would be the pivot of a broader Microsoft push to improve the way its separate software and service families work together.

In delivering the opening keynote, Mr Ballmer has taken over from Bill Gates - who in 2008 bowed out of day-to-day involvement with the company he founded.

In a nod to the chilly economic climate, Mr Ballmer said: "We face some really big challenges. We are all feeling it and its impact will likely be with us for some time."

But, he said, the global economic slowdown would not hobble the pace of technological change.

"I believe our digital lives will only continue to get richer," said Mr Ballmer. "There's no turning back from the connected world."

The newest version of the Windows operating system would, he said, be the "linchpin" of an effort to make it easier for customers to do more with the different Microsoft gadgets and services they use. Click the following link to read the rest of the article: BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft begins Windows 7 push

Mikael

For those interested, the Beta version will be available for download tomorrow (January 9) on Microsoft's official Windows 7 site (Welcome to Windows 7).

Amo

I'll maybe download it and give it a try... on a partition though, I'm too scared to replace my OS with a beta version!

Mikael

Download is limited to 2.5 million copies. The Beta version will expire on August 1st 2009.

Download: Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview