Brandon LeBlanc at the Windows 7 Team Blog says that RTM will be in 3 or so months -

If the telemetry we receive from the Windows 7 RC meets our expectations in terms of quality, then we expect to hit RTM in 3 months or so. Again, check out Steven’s blog post on this process. If this happens, it looks like we’ll be able to have Windows 7 done in time for the holidays.

Steven Sinfosky at the Engineering Windows 7 Blog writes -

Delivering the highest quality Windows 7 is the most important criteria for us at this point—quality in every dimension.  The RTM process is designed to be deliberate and maintain the overall engineering integrity of the system.  Many are pushing us to release the product sooner rather than later, but our focus remains on a high quality release.

Ultimately our partners will determine when their PCs are available in market.  If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 7 match our expectations then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about 3 months.  If we are successful in that, then we tracking to our shared goal of having PCs with Windows 7 available this Holiday season.

This news was broken today at the TechEd conference in LA.

This is really big news. There are a few related snippets -

1. Office 2010 Beta will release in July 2009. It will initially be available to TechEd and MSDN subscribers. 
2. Microsoft Surface Service Pack 1 released today. 

As far as Windows 7 -

1. Microsoft is recommending teams that were testing Vista to start testing Windows 7 instead.  
2. It does seem like Microsoft is considering Vista a completely lost cause. 
3. I spent all day yesterday using the Windows 7 RC and its very polished. Also, IE8 is no longer troublesome.
4. August RTM hints at late October to late November general availability. Dell would probably be one of the earliest manufacturers to offer Windows 7 machines.
5. The US Holiday shopping season is considered to start November 1st so that would probably be the date Microsoft targets for General Availability of Windows 7.

You can get the Windows 7 Release Candidate at Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: windows 7, windows 7 rtm

1. The Engineering Windows 7 blog goes into details of how Disk Defragmentation has been improved in Windows 7. 
2. Windows 7 Build 7025 screenshots leaked at a Chinese site. Based on this it seems that like Vista, 7 will ship in multiple versions including Home Basic, Home Starter, and Ultimate.
3. Linus Torvalds says that Vista being bad is going to make Windows 7 look great. 
4. A very useful list of Windows 7 shortcuts from Brandon Paddock.
5. The Feds are already looking at Windows 7 for possible violations.
6. Gizmodo describes the Windows 7 Device Stage feature with some great screenshots. The verdict – it rocks.

Overall, it was a good week for Windows 7 with the overwhelming majority of 7 reviews being very positive. In my opinion the three most significant updates were –

1. The tips list from Brandon Paddock which makes it easier to access one of Windows 7’s strong points the great User Interface. 
2. The overwhelmingly positive reviews – even Linus and Mark Shuttleworth are admitting that Windows 7 is good. 
3. The push to get Windows 7 working on netbooks.

There is also talk of a Windows 7 RC1 and the leaked screenshots from the 7025 build seem to confirm this. I’m guessing it should be out in the 2nd week of Feb.

Technorati Tags: windows 7 news

You can get you copy of Windows 7 Beta 1 at the official windows 7 page.

It’d be really cool to have Microsoft let us know how many people actually downloaded keys, and how many of them activated windows 7 and are running it.

I’d highly recommend downloading it and trying it out. It’s very usable, and a lot of fun. The new taskbar is different and takes a little getting used to – however, it really speeds things up once you get the hang of it.

Technorati Tags: windows 7 beta, windows 7 key

Update: Jan 9th – Direct download links ( courtesy neowin ) -

Download: Windows 7 x86 (32bit) and x64 (64 bit). Microsoft was overwhelmed by traffic and delayed downloads from the official windows7 site – however these download links still work.

For TechEd and MSDN customers – available right now i.e. Wednesday 7th Jan. This is really good news – I wish it was available right now, instead of having to wait two more days.

Anyways, here are some more updates on how to get the Windows 7 Beta 1 -

1. It’ll be made available sometime on Friday 9th Jan afternoon. Probably EST or PST. So if you’re in Australia or Europe adjust times accordingly.
2. There will be only 2.5 million copies available. You’ll have to register to get an activation key. 
3. Only Upgrades from Vista SP1, and fresh installs will be possible. 
4. There’ll be an iso image made available so you’ll have to create a DVD and then run it.  
5. The Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.
6. Languages available include English, Hindi, German, Japanese, and Arabic.

More details at the Windows Team Blog and their post on the Win7 Beta. Which, btw, does not work for me. I’m guessing tomorrow is going to be a similar fiasco.

Finally, a little note on how to get the beta to work for 30+120 days if you miss out on the 2.5 million activation keys (courtesy My Digital Life) -

Microsoft won’t pull the download after the 2.5 million, it will just stop handing out keys.

Minus a key, you can still download and install the beta, then run it for 30 days before it quits on you. And by using the same “slmgr -rearm” command that gained notoriety after Windows Vista’s debut, you can extend that trial period to 120 days.

Technorati Tags: release date, windows 7 beta

1. It gives system builders an additional 4 months to get their hands on XP.  
2. A lot of PC companies are shipping PCs, laptops, and netbooks with XP rather than Vista. Includes Asus Eee PC.
3. Microsoft has lost the perception battle on Vista and people don’t want Vista.  
4. This is to the extent that If Microsoft stops offering XP, some people would switch from Windows rather than keep Vista.  
5. XP has lower system requirements than Vista – which makes it ideal for use in netbooks and other lower configuration PCs.

And – I think this strongly hints that Windows 7 will be available around June 2009. The larger transition than Vista to Windows 7, is going to be XP to Windows 7. By delaying XP availability till the wide scale availability of Windows 7, Microsoft does 2 main things -

1. Provide a great transition path for PC Manufacturers, Companies and People. 
2. Always have a well perceived OS available. Windows 7 with its MultiTouch and ability to be loaded onto netbooks (and use less than 1 GB of RAM) is already creating a much better image than Vista did.

Technorati Tags: windows 7, windows xp

Mac retail sales in the U.S. last month fell 1% from a year ago, even as sales of Windows PCs climbed 7%, market research company NPD Group Inc. reported today.

It’s an interesting trend – Apple had some really weak promotions for Black Friday – just $100 of their laptops. I’m sure that had a part to play.

The other, much more important, piece of news for me was that Steve Jobs wouldn’t be presenting at MacWorld in 2009, and that Apple would not be presenting MacWorld starting 2010. This hints at possible  major health concern for Mr. Jobs. He did have pancreatic cancer that would’ve given him just a year to live. Luckily, the pancreatic cancer was the rare type that was curable.

There have been a lot of health scares for Steve Jobs lately, and the thought of an Apple without Mr. Jobs is scary. It wouldn’t be the same company.

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Technorati Tags: twitter, windows 7 news

Technorati Tags: twitter, windows 7 news

Technorati Tags: twitter, windows 7 news