Windows 7 coming mid 2009

So there you go: Microsoft's promising Windows 7 by mid-2009, with pre-configured PCs hitting by the Holiday Season. That means summer will have two big OS releases on both side of the camp: Snow Leopard for Macheads and Windows 7 for PC users. Let's hope the close juxtaposition of releases doesn't make any one of them look the poorer (prediction: it will.)

Microsoft aims Windows 7 for 2009 holiday season [CNET]

[#1 posted by Joel Johnson , November 7, 2008 11:47 AM]

Let me be the first Mac user in here to say: I'm liking a lot of what I'm seeing in Windows 7.

[#2 posted by dculberson , November 7, 2008 11:58 AM]

Fanboi!!!

Oh, wait.. crap.

[#3 posted by zikman , November 7, 2008 12:23 PM]

as a mac user, windows 7 doesn't look all too evil

[#4 posted by LeavingHalfway , November 7, 2008 12:27 PM]

They really just need to start from scratch though. Keep supporting XP, scrap vista, and have a brand-spankin-new OS for those of us who don't really need backwards compatibility. And make it really really easy to get a dev kit, so that open-source apps can get out in a hurry.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , November 7, 2008 1:32 PM]

From what I read Windows 7 isn't going to be substantially different from Vista. The underlying architecture full of DRM and bloat is still going to be there.

If it weren't for gaming purposes I would've dumped Windows long ago.. but its already been established that Vista isn't exactly gaming friendly (in my mind at least).

I look forward to Microsoft keeling over like all the other American companies full of hubris and ending this virtual OS monopoly.

For now I'm looking into Mandriva and Ubuntu myself..

[#6 posted by Anonymous , November 7, 2008 11:56 PM]

Wow, stickies!!! Mac circa 1995. Simplify, MSFT, simplify. This OS looks a little too much like Vista to me.

[#7 posted by Bloodboiler , November 8, 2008 7:01 AM]

Wonder why they settled to only including the third stupidest feature on Macs (the dock). Including the second stupidest feature (window size control only in one corner) would have been easy and with little strong arming they could have forced hardware manufacturers to remove right mounse/touchpad buttons.

[#8 posted by zuzu , November 8, 2008 7:31 AM]

From what I read Windows 7 isn't going to be substantially different from Vista. The underlying architecture full of DRM and bloat is still going to be there.

Yes, this bears repeating.

[#9 posted by remmelt , November 8, 2008 9:53 AM]

From what I read Windows 7 isn't going to be substantially different from Vista.

Are you kidding? They windows that you can shake now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RknDJIfGws

[#10 posted by zuzu , November 8, 2008 12:30 PM]

oooh, sarcasm!

[#11 posted by mdh , November 8, 2008 3:12 PM]

Aero shake? For real? [facepalm]

[#12 posted by zuzu , November 8, 2008 3:31 PM]

Sticking with WinXP is like when people had to copy explorer.exe from Windows 95 so that they weren't forced into adopting Internet Explorer in Windows 98 (which explorer.exe then pointed to as "shell integration").

In other words, wanting to stick with an older but more reliable Windows platform when Microsoft engineers planned obsolescence into everything they make becomes a vexing tug-of-war.

Then again, virtual machines from Parallels, VMware, QEMU, Xen, et. al. significantly changes this dynamic. Windows only matters as a legacy platform for running specific apps that aren't cross-platform.

[#13 posted by toxonix , November 10, 2008 12:53 PM]

Why did they name this one "7"? There have been at least 9 major public versions of Windows, not to mention things like 'Win95 Me', which isn't really a major version.
I think Ina Fried is a strange and confused individual. Tech writers in general are kind of weird, but this one..
I don't see anything I like in windows 7, which is not suprising. Windows is torture.