Windows 7 Beta may Arrive this December
According to ZDNet, anonymous sources close to Microsoft have claimed that Beta 1 of Windows 7 should be out sometime in mid to late December. Also, it seems likely because of a December release, those who attend Microsoft’s tech conferences in the coming months (Professional Developers Conference in October and Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in November), might not get that early look at the beta they were hoping for. While the beta seems to be several months off, a small and select group of users have been privy to the two Milestone builds of Windows 7, with a third build supposedly on the way.
If we do see a beta in December, it would make the supposed late-2009 release of Windows 7 look much more realistic, given that the new "major release" OS would have about 12 months as an official beta. However, it would not be a total surprise if he release got pushed to early 2010. A wide release beta will likely happen whenever the expected features of Windows 7 are complete. This will more than likely include Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Center, a possible "superbar" and updates to old favorites like WordPad, Paint, and the taskbar.
One of the more skeptical features of the new OS is the goal of a 15-second boot time. With current mainstream technology, and even looking forward to the next one or two hardware development cycles, this seems unlikely. However, if something like Intel’s Turbo Memory were to become more popular, we could see more software take advantage of having anywhere from 1GB of flash or more to play with. With Turbo Memory available in a myriad of laptops (but not nearly as many desktops), it wouldn’t be a total shock to see Microsoft take full advantage of this extra memory in the future.
As far as betas go, Windows 7 shouldn’t be any different from previous endeavors. According to Windows Customer Engineering program manager Christina Storm, "we will also be collecting feedback from this (Windows Feedback) panel and asking for participation from a set of Windows 7 beta users. Our current plans call for signing up for the beta to happen in the standard Microsoft manner on http://connect.microsoft.com." So for those of you who want the earliest glimpse of Windows 7 possible, keep hitting F5 on the Microsoft Connect site.
- AMD's Budget Video Cards Pack Punches
- Windows 7: Straight from the VPs Mouth
- Toshiba Announces 240GB, 1.8-inch Hard Drive
- Nvidia's Own Shareholders Sue for Coverup
- Superior PowerLine Network Tech Ousted as Standard Due to Politics
- Microsoft Slaps PC Gamers, Decides to Close Ensemble Studios
- Gordon Moore To Receive IEEE Medal Of Honor
- AMD Releases Triple Threat and Price Cuts
- RIM Surging Ahead In Smartphone Market
- Microsoft Manager Says Vista Has Issues
- Google to Move its Data Centers Off-Shore?
- Nvidia GT206 and GT212 Spotted in ELSA Roadmap
- Is HP Wanting to Improve the Vista Experience, or Completely Avoid It?
- Electronic Arts Ends Courtship With Take-Two
- WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Ship Date Announced
- A Kinder, Gentler Copy Protection for Red Alert 3
- Microsoft's IE8 Phones Home
- Intel Engineer Flip-Flops to AMD, Company Secrets Stolen?
who cares anymore, let these clowns pump out as many OSs as they want.
"keep hitting F5 on the Microsoft Connect site" - a fantastic way to put it to words! Thank you.
Lol. Vista sure lasted long...
Some called me an MS hater when I said I would not upgrade to Vista, just like they did when I shunned ME. Seems like having an OS flop every few cycles is becoming par for the course now. Hopefully, they got their ducks in a row for this one.
Don't hold your breath.... M$ lost its way some time ago and have become clueless. Why should it be different in december?
Is Windows 7 "new" or just a renamed Vista SP2 + features left out of the original release?
I think it will be Vista with just a new name.
It is Vista with new "fancy" toys like "multi touch screen" support. Everyone of us who has touch sensible screen can use it... all others wonder why vista2... sorry windows 7 is bigger and eats more memory than vista1...
If anyone was looking for major changes - like a completely new OS built on 'MinWin' like was rumored at one time - You're going to be disappointed. It's already been publicly confirmed that Microsoft aren't doing any major surgery. Win7 will be Vista with some of the originally planned featured completed/implemented.
./shrug
I still don't understand all of the Vista bashing. I've used it since beta, with zero problems, and now have it running on every computer I own, alone with 08 server where applicable. You douchebags with all the issues (perceived or real) need to STFU switch to a Mac already.
Well Vista is indeed guite good OS, there only are so many prosesses going on, that it reguires hefty amount of memory to run properly.
I just hoped shat Vista2, ups windows7 would have been a little bit more streamlined version of original and not just a bunch of new "userfriendly" tricks...
I, personally, think that Win7 will improve on a lot of things that Vista sucked in. Remember that Windows 7 "Vienna" was planned long before Vista was. Vista was simply something to add in the big jump between XP and 7. I'm looking at XP as the Windows 98, Vista as the ME, and Vienna as the XP. I think it's gonna be fairly good.
Well this is a bit of a pain either way. If does have enough changes to be considered really new OS and not Vista with a new name then Vista users who upgrade to this may have to suffer through poorly to no drivers once again after its released. While if it really is just Vista again then MS better do whatever it can to mask that fact because sales will be worse than Vista.
It is Vista with new "fancy" toys like "multi touch screen" support. Everyone of us who has touch sensible screen can use it... all others wonder why vista2... sorry windows 7 is bigger and eats more memory than vista1...
I think not, windows Vista 7 is 7 servicepacks away from SP1.. lol..
Nono, Windows 7 is aimed for notebooks, and therefor it'll have a less heavy OS. It'll basically be a reworked from the ground updated XP OS in my opinion.
XP with DX10 support and HD for movies, as well as hybrid Flash HD drives,Sata 2/3 support and the newer USB?3? support as well.
Also optimized to support the newer intel processors with integrated graphic chips and memory controller; more advanced power options and ofcourse will probably support standard wireless N for notebooks (no more drivers for common wireless cards).
Also it'll support a new feat, when the pc is disabled completely, it will provide a low bandwidth connection with the network, enough for system administrators to update pc's in standby/offline mode, and for users to stream/upload multimedia files while the pc is off.
Alot of the newer implementations will be power-efficiency oriented.
For meI hope wecan go back to the days of doing everything out of the ordinary manual. Meaning,appart from plugging in a new device,all background activity must be set to a stop..
But MS, blind as it is, is continuing to bring forth the newer filesystem that will allow users to find files much quicer, and edit their multiple file-properties; thinking that users actually need that!
if you now rightclick on a file, and select properties, and select 'summary', how many files actually use this useless feat?
In my pc ZERO,NIHIL, NONE!
This is also useless artwork from MS; which I hope they'll get rid with, since hardly anyone uses it, and it takes up space and valuable resources!
I am so excited about $NEXT_VERSION of Windows. It will go beyond just solving all of the problems with $CURRENT_VERSION, it will be an entirely new paradigm. Forget about security problems, those are all fixed in $NEXT_VERSION. And they’re finally ridding themselves of $ANCIENT_LEGACY_STUFF.
Also, there’ll be $DATABASE_FILESYSTEM. It’ll be awesome!
I wonder how $NEXT_VERSION will compare to $NEXT_NEXT_VERSION.
:-)