It seems that barely a day goes by now without a new rumor surfacing about the next iteration of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, smartly dubbed Windows 7 (it will be the 7th major version of the software). Today brings word that the new OS is on track for a 2010 release. Why is there so much talk about it this far out? Is it because users are eager for a follow-up to Windows Vista, or is it because Microsoft is?
Microsoft is the one that confirmed today’s news about the launch time-frame. Normally you might expect the company to be a little hesitant to name a date given how badly they were burned with Vista’s delays. However, they also don’t want to let the rumors continue to spread – some people were predicting we’d see the next version of Windows as soon as next year.
Yet, it’s Microsoft’s own fault for that speculation. The company keeps showing off early versions of Windows 7 and other operating system projects — and it’s hardly being secretive about it. It’s clear that the company needs to keep excitement up about the brand given just how poorly Vista has been received, and shifting the focus forward is exactly how they are trying to do that.
I predicted as much last year, stating that I thought we would see Microsoft continue to talk about Windows 7 this year to try and blunt the negativity surrounding Windows Vista. Microsoft spent an estimated $6 billion on Windows Vista and had more than 10,000 people work on it over the course of more than five years. That hardly seems like an investment you would want to trump so quickly. Yet, before Vista was even a year old, talk started about Windows 7. People always love thinking about shiny new toys, even if they are operating systems.
So who wants Windows 7 more? It’s really a toss up at this point. Both sides clearly want it badly enough to talk about it constantly barely a year after Microsoft got its last operating system onto the streets.
[Above: An early build of Windows 7]
7 Comments
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Zoli Erdos said:
Vista should be labeled Beta, and Win 7 released as the final version of Vista :-)
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MG Siegler said:
Ha, that is a great thought Zoli. Windows Vista Take 2.
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Jojo said:
Even though I built a new computer a few months back, I am still running WinXP. MS keeps band-aiding and tacking on to the 15 year old NT code base. Also wasting their huge resources screwing around with eye-candy “enhancements”!
I’d like to see them build a new OS code base from ground zero. They should be able to achieve better security and give us a true multi-user PC OS where users are totally isolated from each other and user code can’t cause problems by being mixed in with OS code.
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atul arbaham said:
when i looked at the screenshot posted on this page and another postd elsewhere my first thought was ” enough already ” im SICK of that blue screen, that logo, and that smug attitude –
i started using windows in 1995, toyed with Macs and then had to move back for development purposes back to NT4 …
what strikes me most about MSFT now is that they do indeed have a strangle hold on the market, they can force hardware manufacturers to go the windows way bcos of the billions they can use for after sales support and repair and the pre-sales hyperbole,
i looked at the screen above and my second reaction was
where are my internet tools ?
where is my dual boot tool-kit ?
why arent they on my desktop ?they arent their bcos this isnt my desktop - this is MSFT ´s desktop that i was fooled into buying, bcos RedHat and Debian and SUSE dont have the bucks needed to force themselves onto hardware manufacturers, and stay there, DELL and a few others offer linux like they are peddling a disease
so good hardware gets burdened with a clunky, slow, ugly, non-intuitively built OS that some bean counter built for other FUD victims –
dont get me wrong, im a power business user with average programming skills (not bcos i cant do better, but bcos i dont want to write code, i want to do other things), no Unix fan or Linux geek
yet i wonder, where is the freedom i have to buy a laptop or a PC and then run it, error free, with hundreds of differenty types of other devices ? a laptop on which i can install any OS and it wont not detect this and not be compatible with that — when will windows finally level the playing field for the end user ?
the time to get rid of the ugly windows monopoly is nigh, they stifle innovation, variety,
yes, they do have a lot of very deep roots among business users, but thats going to change and change very fast indeed, this is why redmond is now getting into consumer electronics,
there is only one way MSFT can pull off involvement in 3 major businesses - break up into smaller units and compete via innovation rather than ballmer powered brow-beating, they are currently a classic case of doing many things quite poorly —
– this is Information Technology not a war. it needs to be led by intelligent people not the sales and marketing department.
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BenN said:
@Atul: “where is the freedom i have to buy a laptop or a PC and then run it, error free, with hundreds of differenty types of other devices ? a laptop on which i can install any OS and it wont not detect this and not be compatible with that ”
You do realise that last isn’t possible from *any* OS yet? -OSX is available only on Apple hardware (although with great support for anything you add around that), Linux has issues with hardware less than a year old (until companies start producing the Linux versions of their drivers, the advanced features of that ATI graphics card will go unused) and although Windows probably has the best hardware compatibility, it sacrifices some reliability to do that. And if no OS can do what you’re asking, then we’re even further off being able to choose *any* OS and have it just work.
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Brandon Paddock said:
This article is pretty misleading.
“Yet, it’s Microsoft’s own fault for that speculation. The company keeps showing off early versions of Windows 7 and other operating system projects — and it’s hardly being secretive about it.”
Microsoft has made absolutely no announcements about the next version of Windows, nor talked about or shown anything related to it. There are the supposed “leaks” and that is it. Clearly, Microsoft doesn’t want *anybody* talking about anything but Vista for a while to come.
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MG Siegler said:
@Brandon - I have to respectfully disagree. I realize you’re coming at it from the perspective of a Microsoft employee so it’ll be a different than mine or other’s.
While Microsoft hasn’t made any official announcements at say, a press conference on Windows 7, there have been confirmations and plenty of what I would consider interesting leaks and demonstrations the company is holding continuously.
You state that Microsoft doesn’t want anybody talking about anything but Vista for a while to come - to which I would agree if the majority of the talk were positive, which I think you and I both know it has not been.
A bad public sentiment can certainly be an albatross - even if you feel it is unearned (not sure if you do or not), and sometimes the only thing you can do is move forward - which in this case is Windows 7.
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