Windows 7

[Vince]

At a recent conference, AMD announced that they expect Windows 7 to be released in 2009.

Also:

Microsoft has demonstrated Windows 7 with a multi-touch interface, and has also said that it won’t feature email and photo apps as standard, with optional software available for download instead. Meanwhile, DirectX 11 promises a compute shader for GPGPU tasks, as well as a tesselator domain shader . Interestingly, the new API will also be compatible with DirectX 10 hardware.

[Vince]

Some guy claims to have taken snapshots at a conference in Japan where they showed previews of Windows 7.

DO NOT download his theme for Windows 7. After it was too late, Windows XP informed me that it had changed so many files that Windows XP needed to be re-installed. This was supposed to be a theme, remember?

Fortunately, I ALWAYS set a System Restore Point before installing anything, and I was able to get running again.

[Vince]

The consensus is that Windows 7 will be released earlier than January 2010. The consensus also holds that machines that run Vista with no problems should run Windows 7 with little or no problems.

Upgrading from XP to 7 could be tricky, but with most drivers problems solved, it MIGHT be easier than going from XP to Vista was.

And I pulled this straight off one technical site:

64-bit Windows 7 will be important. While there will be a 32-bit version of Windows 7, we're likely to see OEMs installing 64-bit versions. Quad-core PCs with 4GB or more of RAM are becoming more common (and are getting cheaper and cheaper). A 64-bit version of Windows 7 will be able to take advantage of 2010's hardware – and there might finally be enough 64-bit drivers by then, as Windows 7 will use the same driver model as Windows Vista.

[eternalchaos]

Windows 7 will be nice but I'm not jumping to it so fast. I want to wait and see the public reaction.

The big thing is microsoft getting a flawless launch. I mean XP and Vista both had rocky launches; but unilke Vista.. Xp solved many of its problems by the time Sp1 came and dramatically improved itself with SP2

Vista hasnt' shown much improvement even with SP1 and Microsoft seems to have no problems talking about how quickly Win 7 is coming and how great it is.

[Vince]

Another technical forum explained that Windows 7 will be backwards-compatible with older programs by running a virtual machine for them. This is faster than the curent method of simply making the entire OS backwards compatible.

Instead of having to load the library of every possible obsolete program, Windows 7 will simply shuttle them to a virtual machine, making the OS much faster.

[Vince]

Today's big news: Microsoft officially confirmed that they are scaling back the UAC function. Tired at being asked to confirm too many moves, most Vista users either shut it off or confirm everything. Eventually, the UAC fails to provide security to most users.

Microsoft will continue UAC in Windows 7, but only for the most important decisions.

[The Envenomed Kiss]

My comp dual-boots XP/Vista. I trick it into thinking it's 4 but i'm actually running 8GB of RAM

[Vince]

Oh, the pain. Some company has devised the first Windows 7 compatability test. You install it on your computer and then run your regular programming for several hours (Does anybody else smell a rat?) It will then evaluate your machine's readiness for 7.

First, Microsoft has not released enough information for any such test to be reliable.

Second, compatability tests for Windows 95 and Vista only took a few minutes to run.

[Vince]

On 10/16/08 Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer stated that Vista had been a success. Then he alternated between saying that Wndows 7 will be like Vista, only better; and saying that 7 will be a "major release," not an upgrade. A critic challenged Balmer, stating that if 7 does too much, it will have major problems, but if it is only an upgrade, it isn't worth much. Blamer continued to swing back and forth, stating that 7 will do a lot, that it won't have all the problems of Vista, that Vista runs well, and that you should buy Vista now instead of skipping it.

IMHO, Vista "with no problems" would be a very good system. |I'm looking forward to 7.

[Lightz29]

By that time Ill have a brand new iMac setting on my desk