Posted 05/01/09 at 02:18:50 PM by Paul Lilly

Starting yesterday, MSDN and TechNet subscribers have been able to download the Release Candidate (RC) for Windows 7, Microsoft's upcoming operating system. This latest version represents the final phases of development and is geared towards giving hardware and software partners a headstart in coding device drivers and services.

"Listening to our partners and customers has been fundamental to the development of Windows 7," said Bill Veghte, senior VP for the Windows business at Microsoft. "We heard them and worked hard to deliver the highest quality Release Candidate in the history of Windows. We have more partner support than we've ever had for an RC and are pleased to say that the Windows 7 RC has hit the quality and compatibility bar for enterprises to start putting it through its paces and testing in earnest."

That should come as good news to everyone who plans on upgrading once Windows 7 starts shipping. By contrast, Vista's release was the polar opposite to what Microsoft is claiming we can expect out of Windows 7. Driver issues, particularly with Nvidia hardware, plagued Vista's release, as did several performance hampering bugs.

If you're not an MSDN or TechNet subscriber, you still won't have to wait long to get your hands on the RC. Microsoft says it will make Windows 7 RC available to the general public on May 5, which is next Tuesday.

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Posted 08/15/08 at 07:47:57 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Wondering what's going on inside the mystery that we call "Windows 7?" You could do worse than dropping in from time to time on the brand-new Engineering Windows 7 blog hosted at MSDN.

E7, as its co-authors, Windows 7 product senior engineering managers, Jon DeVann and Steven Sinofsky, call it, is aimed at the "...audience of enthusiasts, bloggers, and those that are the most passionate about Windows..."

DeVann and Sinofsky (learn more about them at the ArsTechnica article about E7) make some big promises in their "Welcome to Engineering Windows 7" blog entry:

We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion about how we balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows. We promise and will deliver such a dialog with this blog.

....

Starting from the first days of developing Windows 7, we have committed as a team to “promise and deliver”. That’s our goal—share with you what we’re going to get done, why we’re doing it, and deliver it with high quality and on time.

Can they deliver - not just on the expectations we have for Windows 7, but on the promise to keep us in the loop during the run-up to RTM? Find out what others have to say about that, and get your chance to speak up after the jump.

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