Windows 7 When? ArsTechnica Makes the Case for 2009 - and 2010
Posted 10/24/08 at 01:45:14 PM by Mark Edward Soper
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ArsTechnica's been looking at the tea leaves in the Microsoft cup to try to figure out when Windows 7 will show up on retail shelves. There are lots of indicators that suggest late 2009:
- A posting at I Started Something notes that the 2008 version of WinHEC (November 2008) will be the last WinHEC before Windows 7 ships (WinHEC is normally held in April or May).
- ZDNet's Ed Bott and others (including our own Pulkit Chandna) note that ASUS is planning to put Windows 7 on its Eee PCs in the second half of 2009.
- Microsoft is distributing a pre-beta release of Windows 7 at next week's PDC, and a public beta is expected in December of this year.
However, ArsTechnica also sounds a note of caution with a familiar ring for those of us who watched the botched Vista launch:
In spite of that pressure, the release of Windows 7 is one the software giant has to get right. The company cannot afford for Windows 7's quality to be compromised just to hit a deadline. Though Microsoft's customers clearly won't tolerate a kind of Duke Nukem Forever "when it's finished" approach—the software does need to ship, after all—a first-rate Windows 7 in the first half of 2010 will make customers much happier than another release with Vista-like teething trouble in late 2009. Windows 7 needs the wow factor. Next week's PDC release should tell us if it has it.
So, what do you think? Are you waiting for Windows 7, planning to trade in your Bill Gates doll for a stuffed penguin, or content to play a waiting game and keep running XP for now? Hit the Comment button and tell us your thoughts.
Illustration courtesy of ArsTechnica.
windows7 prolly wont launch
Submitted by Rampage on Sun, 10/26/2008 - 8:59am
windows7 prolly wont launch on time anyway. when was the last time microsoft released anything on time? vista isnt as bad as people maqke it seem anyway,and people who skip vista entirely will more than like have to do hardware upgrade as well when they go for windows7
And that is the sickness
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Sat, 10/25/2008 - 9:51am
And that is the sickness because MS knows that no matter how much we nerds whine and complain and cry we are still going to line up with our mouths open for our daily dose of childrens motrin, err MS Windows. We will buy the newest stuff as it comes out because we have to have it. We are sick. We need an ANON for this.
When MS Win7 gets released lets not complain about it so much and just blame people that are really at fault. Just look in the mirror next time. The person you see in the mirror is the true problem..LOL...
Submitted by Velcrow on Sat, 10/25/2008 - 11:55am
I think you've been taking something other than childrens motrin... or too much of it. heh
I'll be first in line.
Submitted by K0BALT on Sat, 10/25/2008 - 3:37am
I'll be first in line.
Submitted by Velcrow on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 10:31pm
There's a difference between botching a launch and releasing software that is buggy. I'd wager most OS's are buggy at launch, hence the constant updates and eventual service packs. Vista launch was botched.
Submitted by ikleinit on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 1:00pm
IMHO Windows 7 should be just like server 2008 without the server features.
I recently installed server2008 on a amd platform and experience is awesome'
Velcro wrote : If Vista is
Submitted by dedgar on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 12:50pm
Velcrow wrote : If Vista is stable now, it should literally be impossible to botch the launch of Win7 that bad.
Given Microsoft's history, would you care to make a wager on your assumption?
Hhhmmmmmm?????
Submitted by Phoenix. on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 12:25pm
Hopefully they don't push to hard to get Windows 7 out quickly and end up making it all buggy like Vista was. I like Vista now, but when it was launched, not so much.
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 10:57am
Fast forward to 2010 after the Win7 release........ "God windows 7 is so buggy, man I hate the win7 drm, man win7 is broken what was wrong with Vista?, ms at it again, Vista was great and man i'm never upgrading to win7, win7 sucks, waa waa waa cry cry cry.
Fast forward to 2011 MS does Mojave Experiment 2. Vista users are tricked into trying Win7 thinking it's a new unreleased OS and they love it. But one Vista user after being told that he is using Win7 will pull a gun and shoot the testers.
Again in Mid2011 MS acknowledges it's mistakes and botched Win7 release and tells the world about it's new super OS that is built with assisstance from Mac and the Linux community. It's called WinLinMac and it's so hardware friendly that it will install on an abacus.
Submitted by Velcrow on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 10:42am
Quite content right now with XP Pro, actually. I'll probably just skip Vista entirely when Win7 launches. And as for the timeline, I thought Win7 was an enhanced version of Vista. If Vista is stable now, it should literally be impossible to botch the launch of Win7 that bad. I'm betting on it being a more stable, more feature rich version of Vista. Which I'm fine with. Tell me if I'm wrong.
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