Windows 7 is apparently going to be released by mid-2009, just about the time that Vista gets all the bugs worked out and people get used to using it. Wonderful. As a disclaimer, I use Windows Vista on a Sony VAIO notebook so I’m not cutting down Vista for the sake of cutting down Vista. I use it every day and I’m not happy with it.
There’s reportedly already an early evaluation version of Windows 7 floating around that’s been given to hardware manufacturers. It’s the first of three “milestone” builds. The second milestone should happen in April or May of this year, while the third milestone is supposed to come along sometime thereafter in the third quarter.
If a new version of Windows actually comes out in 2009 without getting delayed at least a year, I’ll be surprised. So will the hardware vendors, businesses, and end-users who have had to put up with Vista’s growing pains, although they’ll be surprised in a more angry-surprised way.
Vista successor, Windows 7 to be released next year? [APC Magazine] via Slashdot
Just curious, but is that an actual screenshot of Windows 7? If so, I fear that Windows 7 is trying to emulate mac os x’s dock instead of creating something innovative. Also, OS releases under five years from the last one really isn’t microsoft’s style so I doubt the 2009 date.
That screenshot is most likely fake. From the APC Magazine article I sourced, “is this Windows 7: this screenshot, floating around on online forums, purports to be from an alpha of Windows 7. Probably fake, but interesting nonetheless.”
remember Millennium Edition?
yea, wheres that ss from?
What is the difference between XP growing pains and Vista growing pains?\\”It’s been a little more than four months since Microsoft’s Windows XP shipped. That should be more than enough time for hardware manufacturers to support an updated operating system with updated device drivers. But there are still plenty of peripherals and programs that won’t play nice with the new system, so if you’ve been holding off on installing XP, we can’t blame you.”
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-332558.html
Many similarities, yes. Although many people were going from ME, which I think we can all agree was a bad operating system, to XP, which felt like either a lateral step or a step forward, depending who you ask. Now, many of us are going from XP, which is pretty stable and runs well, to Vista, which feels like a step backward to many people.
How is Vista a step back from XP – XP was not a big change from 98SE which is what most people had since only 5 copies of ME were ever sold. Vista has some huge changes in it from XP and apart from some software and hardware issues – which XP also dealt with -Vista is great for most users (you are a professional blogger and not an average user anymore).
I would like to see MS make Vista better over time like they did with XP and hold off on Windows 7 or whatever the next OS will be. With web apps and service packs a new OS is just not needed yet.
Um… “apart from some software and hardware issues”… What’s left?
Great. Another rushed Windows product, just what we need. Me thinks I’ll stick with Ubuntu. Though I have been having quite a good time with gOS…
Maybe Vista was just an interm/temporary product?! Or perhaps Microsoft should have waited another two years to get Vista right?
It was a month ago that I first had the question on why Windows is still in it’s infancy years whereas Mac OS has entered the teenage period quite some time ago.
http://www.felgner.ch/2008/01/windows_7.html
In my experience Vista is a fine system – programs open in a blink of an eye, everything runs silky smooth and totally stable, plus I’ve had no problems with legacy software or peripherals.
If you research the net you’ll find that the negative perception of Vista is largely put about by journos with an axe to grind or Microsoft haters.
It’s a myth which parallels the myth about Windows ME. I used ME for seven years as my main operating system. The reason it is always perceived as a bad product is that, like any operating system, it had teething problems which were widely reported. What wasn’t reported was that these were all sorted out, because by that time everybody had moved on to XP.
In many ways ME was more innovative than XP as it pioneered plug and play and System Restore. For a time I dual booted with Ubuntu, and ME was faster and about as stable.
But as for now – Viva Vista!
Is Windows 7 coming out in 2009 in the same manner that Vista came out in 2005?
All the hating on vista really needs to stop. Give it a chance before you dog it. Vista despite its so called problems is right where XP was when it was first released. So please cut the new OS a break. It is partly the vendors fault for lack of drivers when it was released so dont give microsoft all the credit. I run vista 64 with 2 gigs of ram with a system rating of 5.2 and love how quickly it runs my apps. I have a XP pro machine with 2 gigs of ram and the vista is by far faster. So again dont be afraid of the change try it for a week you might like it.
Really? Is it the vendors problem that Microsoft didn’t make Vista easily networkable with XP computers? Is it that difficult to understand that people will have previous versions of your operating systems and that they MAY want to network them?
I run a network with three Vista machines and three XP machines along with several shared printers and a psc. It works just fine. : ) Took a little innovation to figure it our on my own at first but it has been working since January with little incident. Not sure what went wrong for you.
Wow. I’m going to go with your a bitter old man. If you dislike Vista so much then don’t use it. Try going with Linux so at least when you start to complain you will have a real reason too. Vista works fine and these driver compatibility problems are not Microsoft’s fault in any way shape or form. Just because manufacturers such as Sony and HP don’t want to update their drivers doesn’t make an OS bad. These supposed growing pains are other problems caused by other companies. Cut Microsoft a break. There is no real need to Vista or Windows 7 but since people can’t get over their petty desires for pretty and shiny objects then they will have to continue updating.
Thomas and Tetra. I guess your the lucky ones. I bought a new H.P. Quad Processor with Vista preinstalled last December and I,ve gotten well over 2,000 error messages. Last Sunday I was surfing the Web and keeping tabs on the football scores and and the browser shuts down for no reason and of course I get another error message. Vista is GARBAGE and I can’t change back to XP. Why does’nt Bill Gates stand in front of big screen and admit that Vista is no good, I guess cows will be driving car before that happens. I’ve installed Service Pack 1 it did absolutely nothing, I hope Windows 7 is free, I will never buy anything from Microsoft again.
windows will never be free. thats why someone invented thepiratebay.com. its where i get my win 9x vms, xp, vista and win7 iso files
Not true, They officially announced that windows 7 would be released in early 2010, probably around February at the earliest.
Luther,
It just means that you know nothing about computers.
I do agree that ME was a bad OS, But Vista is a completely fine OS with a lot of nice features. It’s very stable.
I’ve had to reinstall it just once, When I’ve had a HDD failure on one of my PCs.
I’ve never had a problem with Vista that I was unable to resolve.
XP is a good OS and I’ve never had any major problems with it, But it’s an old OS. Maybe you have a heavily modified branded version of Vista, Which sometime doesn’t work as expected or as good as a clean version. As of the browsers issue, Don’t install too much addons and your web browser is going to be very stable. I’m able to not close the “Clean” Internet Explorer 8 for weeks long without a sigle crash or error message.
haha did you just say you only had to reinstall vista once?
lowered expectations much?
I use Vista and I have to say its not bad. I dont like the new interface for finding programs, so I changed it to look like XP. The only issue I had with Vista was that my sound did not play properly, it sounded like someone was in slow motion, I fixed that by changing the driver. it has been running really smooth for me. As for this so called Windows 7 I think that if it is all true about this release then we might see issues that was happening with ME. This might really push people to switch to a MAC. I also think that this Windows 7 is going to be like Windows Media Center but with the Vista look.
Author: why would you be surprized if another OS comes out in 2009, after all there was Win95, 98, 2k, ME, XP all within 3 years of each other. So it’s fitting that Vista in 1st quarter ‘07 get’s superseeded in late ‘09 or early ‘10 by something else.
Everyone just got so comfortable with XP and it’s 6 year life that when change occured it was negative. (not that i use Vista, i think it’s poo)
All the talk of ME, now that was tragic. Lauched right before XP for MS to make a quick buck or two. I found it unstable and really bad and BSOD was a common view for me.
Either way i’m still happy with MS releases in general and apart from as OS, MS do so much more.
vista had some teething problems to which was largely resolved by sp1 (no more so then any other os for that matter).
I have been using it in one way or another since it’s beta releases and i have to say it is stable and fast.
there are many new features of it like uac which in a domain enviroment is exceptionaly brilliant, but an annoyance to home users which ms should have probably enabled and disabled depending on the version of vista.
As for the chap who said his internet explorer was unstable, you should create yourselve a limited account so that you are unable to accidently install spyware and malecious software while looking at your porn or what ever it is you do.
don’t blame microsoft for your inability to properly manage what goes on your system.
Vista is da bomb
While I am sure MS would love for us to quit dissing Vista I must admit I still have ME nightmares. The 5 trips the tech took to fix my PC, the countless crashes I fixed myself and the jubliant cry of joy I gave as I rushed out to buy XP. It is for that reason when I tried vista and saw nothing was compatible with it and the first bugs were detected after so many years with my stable friend XP I immediately knew no computer in my home would be upgraded.
I am sure vista is fine if all you are doing is typing a few e-mails or maybe making a pie chart in word or something, but if you need your computer stable for any real work then MS has taught us all to hold on with a death grip to their most stable product forcing it to die a slow obstinate death while we await a new OS that won’t make us stay up late nights crying over lost work.
Here’s hoping Windows 7 is that OS. I love the cool toys, bells and whistles on Vista but no amount of fun stuff can compensate for lost work and man hours.
Really now, people I love vista. I’m able to activate things I haven’t been able to in a few years. This has turned out to be a great product.
What I don’t understand is why I haven’t heard many people raise the question that will be on most consumers minds. So You figured out that Vista wasn’t a great OS. That’s fine. Now you are going to make good on that and then charge me some inflated price to fix it? Right after I purchased a rather expensive system that came with Vista? I don’t care if Windows 7 craps gold into your lap while you surf the web, if this is how it will be handled then bugger off Microsoft!
All I can say is if Microsoft is admiting that Vista is a huge FLOP then I think that all the people that spent the tall dollars on it should get 7 for free, BOTTOM LINE BILL G. your rich enough to give it away.
I was a PC user for years…. went through all of the XP “growing pains”…. still think Win 98 was a way better OS, bought a new computer with Vista ….. nothing but trouble…. more “growing pains”…. switched last year to a Mac…….. HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!! WOW what have I been missing!!!!!!!!! NOT ONE CRASH!!!! NOT ONE FREEZE!!!! UBER STABLE!!!!!! and way more user friendly!!!!!! people!…. don’t complain about Win products… switch to a Mac!! YOU WON”T REGRET IT!!!!!
It does seem an admission of failure for MS to bring out a new operating system so soon. I too will stick with Linux for now :)
rofl, Mac OS is fine but their hardware isn’t what it used to be before the tie up with intel. I run a very stable Vista Ultimate and not had a single problem since I built the machine last year. My wife runs her little macbook and has constant issues with performance.
Personally I go by the rule, don’t by stock machines, built it yourself and things work much better
i personally like vista
Vista really is that bad, it turns a half decent machine into a slow pile of junk. I am using W7 as I type this, it isn’t vastly dissimilar to Vista, but it runs 100% faster and is more stable.
ME was indeed garbage, the best offering from MS to date was 2000.