The IT Nerd

Microsoft seems to have a very agressive timeline for Windows 7. Not only are reviews of the beta starting to appear that are generally positive, and the beta has leaked to Bittorrent without much of a reaction from Redmond (possibly because they themselves leaked it), but Tech ARP (who from previous experience has a high degree of accuracy) is saying that upgrade eligibility for Windows 7 will start on July 1st of this year. That means a ship date for Windows 7 in the second half of this year is in the card. All of this is to make you forget the word “Vista” and stop you from going to The Temple Of Steve Jobs Apple Stores for your next computer.

I guess Microsoft has no other choice given that Vista has been an utter disaster for them. The question is, will it work or is it too late for them?

At this hour, Microsoft is showing off Windows 7 at PDC 2008. There’s a live blog at CNet that you can check out to see not only Windows 7, but Office 14 too. If you want a more in-depth look, surf over to PC Pro and take a look at a very detailed article on Windows 7. For those at PDC 2008, a beta will be available later today.

Will this be enough to make up for the disaster called Vista? I’ll let you know after I get my hands on a beta. In the meantime, expect Apple to make a commercial about Windows 7 shortly.

Sometimes the stuff that happens in this industry is too strange to make up. Take this example. According to this blog posting, the upcoming version of Windows which has been codenamed Windows 7 will actually be called Windows 7. Why you ask? Let Microsoft’s Mike Nash explain:

The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows.  We’ve used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or “aspirational” monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista.  And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense.  Likewise, coming up with an all-new “aspirational” name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.

Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore “Windows 7” just makes sense.

Okay then. Call it whatever you want. But let’s face facts for a second:

1. If you look at these screenshots, Windows 7 looks just like Vista. I guess that’s what Nash means when he says that it’s “firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista.” Could it be that Windows 7 is a warmed over version of Vista?
2. Microsoft is going to be handing out betas (or “pre-beta developer only release” in Microsoft speak) at PDC and at WinHEC. That implies that Windows 7 is a lot further along then Microsoft is leading us to believe. Is a 2009 release that unrealistic? In the past I would have said yes. But given the circus that is Vista, one would think that Microsoft has an incentive to ship Windows 7 quickly before Apple takes over the world.

I suspect things are about to get very interesting in the Windows world. Stay tuned to this page for whatever happens next.

Microsoft dropped a big hint about the fact that Vista sucks its future plans by announcing a ship date for Windows 7. According to Microsoft VP Bill Veghte:

“our plan is to deliver Windows 7 approximately three years after the January 2007 general availability launch date of Windows Vista.”

Now Microsoft ship dates have a history of slipping (Vista itself was years late and missing a ton of promised features), but I have a feeling that this one is carved in stone given all the bad press that Windows Vista has received.

I do have one question: If we now know that Windows 7 is going to ship in or around January 2010 and XP support is going to exist for much longer than that, do I have any incentive to update to Vista at all?

UPDATE: This letter just appeared on the Microsoft site from Microsoft VP Bill Veghte. He’s turned the spin cycle on to MAX.

UPDATE #2: It seems that Microsoft’s PR people read my blog (I guess that I must have influence or something). I just got an e-mail from a rep from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide who said the following:

“I was just reading your coverage of Bill Veghte’s letter to customers and wanted to clarify one point with you.  The reason for the letter was not to announce any new information but to share information that has already been communicated to the media directly to customers.  The support date of April 2014 was set in January of 2007, I’ve seen news coverage on-line which goes back as far as Jan 14, 2007.  ( I would note that one of your own links supports this: http://ffextensionguru.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/xp-supported-longer-than-vista/)”

The link that she refers to is something that automatically gets generated by WordPress (the people who host my blog) as it scans all the other blogs that they host and looks for possibly related links. Thus it has nothing to do with me per-se. Also, traditional industry media (rather than bloggers like me) seem to think that this is new information. More on that in a moment.

She goes on to say:

” For clarification, I have a few links that I think may help.

Here is a full listing of dates for support:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&C2=1173&x=13&y=13

As you’ll see, this information was published in April on the MS Support Blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/lifecycle/archive/2008/04/25/what-s-happening-to-windows-xp-on-june-30th.aspx

If you would like a live link to the letter itself, it can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/letter.html

Please let me know if you have any further questions!”

Most of these are useful links that I knew about, but have never bothered to post until now. You may want to bookmark them for future reference. The PR rep also indicatd that she is contacting other people in regards to this:

“You are not the only one we’re touching base with to help clarify that information. :)”

It sounds like they’re contacting anyone who’s written something on this topic to “clarify that information” as the perception is within the blogasphere and the traditional media that this is new info as opposed to one year old info. Of course that may have something to do with the fact that nobody likely cared about this info in 2007 and now they do since XP is going to disappear. Or perhaps someone didn’t do a great job getting that info out there. Who knows?

I’ll see what the traditional industry media publishes in repsonse to this (if anything) and I’ll comment accordingly.

InfoWorld is reporting that Microsoft sent out an edict that all ordered computer and other hardware makers to begin testing their devices on the forthcoming Windows 7 OS as soon as the first beta version becomes available. Those don’t comply with the edict won’t qualify for Microsoft’s Windows Logo certified compatibility program.

Well…. I wonder if it has anything to do with the Vista Capable lawsuit? Or perhaps Vista sucks so much that Microsoft is going with plan “B” which would be Windows 7 (which means it might be coming “real soon now”)? Perhaps both.

Before you get excited about Windows 7, a recent CNet interview with the guy who heads Windows development indicates that Windows 7 is likely to be an evolution of Windows Vista:

“We’re very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7; in fact, they’ll work the same. We’re going to not introduce additional compatibilities, particularly in the driver model. Windows Vista was about improving those things. We are going to build on the success and the strength of the Windows Server 2008 kernel, and that has all of this work that you’ve been talking about. The key there is that the kernel in Windows Server 08 is an evolution of the kernel in Windows Vista, and then Windows 7 will be a further evolution of that kernel as well.”

Wait a second! Read this part again:

“We’re very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7; in fact, they’ll work the same.”

How in the world is that possible? Doesn’t that statement contradict itself? What I think they’re trying to say is that the drivers and software that run on vista are going to run on Windows 7, only everything will actually work. Clearly, all they’re going to do is fix and re-brand Vista, change some eye candy (Aero II perhaps?), and pray it sells this time around. They’d come out with it now, but they need to wait long enough that people will believe it’s a new OS rather than a refreshed OS that may actually work. Plus if they did it now, they’d all but admit that Vista was half baked from day one.

For those of you who want to see what the next version of Windows MAY look like, I found this blog posting with some screen shots and info. I can’t confirm that these shots are authentic, but they do look interesting. I also find it interesting that while the posting allegedly confirms a ship date in 2010, there is also the following:

“Microsoft is maintaining a policy of silence concerning discussion of plans and aspirations for Windows 7 as they focus on the release and marketing of Windows Vista, stating that Microsoft does not want to promise features and then fail to deliver, as happened with Windows Vista Ultimate, though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged.”

Assuming that this is true, the other reason that they haven’t commented on this is that users may decide that is probably worth waiting three years rather than buying the failure known as Vista.