It is clear since day one that Microsoft is using a different approach to communicating Windows 7. One could say they are extremely tight-lipped and do not reveal more than necessary to the public which includes online and offline press. The approach is not without risks and one of the greatest is that not saying anything about a new operating system leaves room for speculations, rumors and fake news like those fake Windows 7 Videos on Youtube. Chris Flores is explaining in a blog post entitled Communicating Windows 7 why Microsoft is using this approach for their next operating system: So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we’re trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience. For instance, several months ago we began privately sharing our preliminary plans for Windows 7 with software and hardware partners who build on the Windows platform. This gave them an opportunity to give us feedback and gave us the opportunity to incorporate their input into our plans. As the product becomes more complete, we will have the opportunity to share our plans more broadly. One aspect that Chris forgot to mention though is the public perception of Windows Vista. Many Windows XP users do not feel that it is necessary to change to Windows Vista yet and an announcement that Windows 7 would be faster, better looking, more secure and coming out in the near future would definitely have an impact on their decision. The lack of information prevents that users make that decision based on the next Microsoft operating system. As I said earlier not speaking about Windows 7 will inevitably lead to false rumors and Chris responds to the rumor that Windows 7 will make use of a new kernel. Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. Rather, we are refining the kernel architecture and componentization model introduced in Windows Vista. While these changes will increase our engineering agility, they will not impact the user experience or reduce application or hardware compatibility. In fact, one of our design goals for Windows 7 is that it will run on the recommended hardware we specified for Windows Vista and that the applications and devices that work with Windows Vista will be compatible with Windows 7. Last but not least he clears the confusing three years after Windows Vista statement by Bill Gates when asked about the release of the Microsoft operating system. Windows Vista was released on January 30, 2007 to the general public which would mean that the release date of Windows 7 will be most likely in the first quarter of 2010. We are well into the development process of Windows 7, and we’re happy to report that we’re still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista. As always, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain feedback, but we’re not yet ready to discuss timing and specific plans for any Beta releases. In the meantime, customers can confidently continue with their Windows Vista deployment plans. It obviously is just an estimation and anyone working in IT knows that things sometimes happen that impact a release date dramatically. As of know this is the only information that we got. [windows7news.com] windows 7 screenshots , windows 7 pictures , windows 7 videos
Microsoft: Why we are not talking about Windows 7 yet
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
More about windows seven windows 7 MinWin Milestone 1 2 and windows 7 pictures ,windows 7 features
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Windows 7 (formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the working name for the next major version of Microsoft Windows as the successor of Windows Vista. Microsoft has announced that it is “scoping Windows 7 development to a three-year timeframe”, and that “the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar.” The client versions of Windows 7 will ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. A server variant, codenamed Windows Server 7, is also under development.
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 doesn’t want to promise features and then fail to deliver, though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged. As a result, little is known about the feature set, though public presentations from company officials have disseminated information about some features. Leaked information from people to whom Milestone 1 (M1) of Windows 7 was shipped also provide some insight into the feature set.
History
Circa 2000, Windows XP and its server counterpart Windows Server 2003 (codenamed Whistler) were planned to be followed-up by a major release of Windows that was codenamed Blackcomb (both codenames refer to the Whistler-Blackcomb resort) and scheduled for a 2005 release. Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios. In this context, a feature mentioned by Bill Gates for Blackcomb was “a pervasive typing line that will recognize the sentence that [the user is] typing in.”
Later Blackcomb was delayed and an interim minor release, codenamed “Longhorn”, was announced for a 2003 release. By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb, including WinFS, the Desktop Window Manager, and new versions of system components built on the .NET Framework. After the Summer of Worms, where three major viruses exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period, Microsoft changed their development priorities, putting some of Longhorn’s major development work on hold while new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that included a number of new security and safety features. Development of Windows Vista was also “reset” in September 2004 as a result of concerns about the quality of code that was being introduced to the operating system. The eventual result of this was that WinFS, the Next Generation Secure Computing Base, and other features seen in Longhorn builds were deemed “not ready” for wide release, and as such did not appear in Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008.
As major feature work on Windows Vista wound down in early 2006, Blackcomb was renamed Vienna. However, following the release of Windows Vista, it was confirmed by Microsoft on July 20, 2007 that “the internal name for the next version of the Windows Client OS” is Windows 7, a name that had been reported by some sources months before.
Focus
Microsoft’s Ben Fathi claimed on February 9, 2007 that the focus on the operating system was still being worked out, and could merely hint at some possibilities:
| We’re going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe it’s hypervisors. I don’t know what it is” [...] “Maybe it’s a new user interface paradigm for consumers. |
Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that the next version of Windows would “be more user-centric.” When asked to clarify what he meant, Gates said:
| That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you’ve got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one. Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services to know what you’re interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else’s PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things. So that’s kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable. [Also,] in Vista, things got a lot better with [digital] ink and speech, but by the next release there will be a much bigger bet. Students won’t need textbooks; they can just use these tablet devices. Parallel computing is pretty important for the next release. We’ll make it so that a lot of the high-level graphics will be just built into the operating system. So we’ve got a pretty good outline. |
Milestone 1
The first known build of Windows 7 was identified as a “Milestone 1 (M1) code drop” according to TG Daily with a version number of 6.1.6519.1. It was sent to key Microsoft partners by January 2008 in both x86 and x64 versions. Though not yet commented on by Microsoft, reviews and screenshots have been published by various sources. The M1 code drop installation requires Windows Vista with Service Pack 1, and creates a dual-boot system with Windows Vista.
Later builds
According to TG Daily, the Milestone 2 (M2) code drop is scheduled for April or May 2008. UI changes are expected to appear in later builds of Windows 7. Milestone 3 (M3) is listed as coming in the third quarter, with the release to manufacturing in the second half of 2009. The release dates of a beta version and a release candidate are “to be determined”.
Features
Windows 7 has reached the Milestone 1 (M1) stage and has been made available to key partners. According to reports sent to TG Daily, the build adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards and a new version of Windows Media Center. New features in Milestone 1 also reportedly include Gadgets being integrated into Windows Explorer, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, the ability to visually pin and unpin items from the Start Menu and Recycle Bin, improved media features, a new XPS Viewer, and the Calculator accessory featuring Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion.
Reports indictate that a feedback tool included in Milestone 1 lists some coming features: the ability to store Internet Explorer settings on a Windows Live account, updated versions of Paint and WordPad, and a 10 minute install process. In addition, improved network connection tools might be included.
MinWin
A minimalistic variation of the Windows kernel, known as MinWin, is being developed for use in Windows 7. The MinWin development efforts are aimed towards componentizing the Windows kernel and reducing the dependencies with a view to carving out the minimal set of components required to build a self-contained kernel as well as reducing the disk footprint and memory usage. MinWin takes up about 25 MB on disk and has a working set (memory usage) of 40 MB. It lacks a graphical user interface and is interfaced using a full-screen command line interface. It includes the I/O and networking subsystems. MinWin was first publicly demonstrated on October 13, 2007 by Eric Traut. The demo system included an OS image, made up of about 100 files, on which a basic HTTP server was running.
Incidentally, the name MinWin was also used earlier to refer to what is currently known as Server Core in Windows Server 2008. However, the two are quite different. While both efforts are to consolidate and componentize the core of Windows, with server core, the functionality of the OS is constrained according to server roles, and unneeded components (which will never be used as the role isn’t supported) are removed from the binary image. However, the dependencies still exist in code, and the code cannot compile without the components. In contrast, with MinWin, the dependencies are consolidated into MinWin and what is not needed is removed at the code level itself. As a result, the code compiles even without any extraneous components and builds a stripped-down self-contained OS kernel image.
Methods of input
On December 11, 2007, Hilton Locke, who worked on the Tablet PC team at Microsoft reported that Windows 7 will have new touch features.
| I will say that if you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7. Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales. |
Also, Bill Gates has said that Windows 7 is also “a big step forward” for speech technology and handwriting recognition
Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Windows 7 isn't headed for 2009, says Microsoft. More like 2011.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Hey, it's not Microsoft's fault that 2011 sounds like the realm of jet pack VR massage cars, but it's certainly a long ways away any way you slice it. Contrary to previous rumors of Microsoft planning a Windows 7 release sometime in 2009, Microsoft has apparently gotten in touch with WinVistaClub and set the record straight: Windows 7 is in "planning stages," and development will take approximately three years. Microsoft wouldn't comment on that supposed leak we spotted last week, and of course denied any implications that development was being accelerated to make up for Vista shortcomings. We can't help but wonder how different the OS landscape will look three years from now, with Linux rapidly reaching feature and usability parity, while Apple plugs away at OS X and cloud computing lands everywhere, but we're sure Vista SP1 won't be the last bid Microsoft makes at this generation.
[Via The Inquirer]
Update: Other quotes from Microsoft has the date set at 3 years from the launch of Vista, which would indeed land it around 2009, so perhaps all hope is not lost. No date is set yet, and our money is on 2010 at the earliest.
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