Microsoft has an interesting problem on the horizon in trying to persuade netbook owners to upgrade to Windows 7 when said netbook owners’ netbooks don’t have optical drives. What’s a giant software company to do?

Gather ’round the campfire, children, as we look at the Windows 7 boxes. There’s Home Premium… there’s Professional… and is that… yes! Yes, it’s Windows 7 Ultimate! Three cheers for life!

So there’s this leaked Best Buy memo that shows the store that I’ll never visit again selling Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrades for $49.99 and Windows 7 Professional Upgrades for $99.99. Does that mean that Microsoft will sell said Windows 7 upgrades for said prices across the boards? Eh, not really. I seem to recall Best Buy selling Vista upgrades for one price, then, when Vista actually comes out, it was going for a different price.

A leaked memo has outed June 26 as the starting date when Best Buy (and possibly other places, if this is a Microsoft-blessed program) will guarantee a free copy of Windows 7 at its launch if you buy a Vista-based system immediately. The memo itself is actually a bit catty, saying that Windows 7 isn’t just a “Vista that works” — cold as ice, Best Buy. But the point of that little crack is more that Best Buy employees should really be pushing this as a major update, to allay the fears of people who might be afraid 7 is just an updated Vista. Still, ouch.

A couple weeks ago we got an early demo of the Surface SP1 update, and saw that one of the goals of which was to improve Windows-Surface cross-compatibility and encourage developers to make their apps touch-compatible. Looks like that work goes both ways, as it appears that Surface content and functionality is going to be kicking it with Windows 7.

Check out the video inside. Everyone loves videos.

Last week, Acer let the cat out of the bag by revealing the expected launch date for Windows 7. There was no real reason to doubt it, but now we’re pretty much sure it’ll be October 23rd or thereabouts. A Microsoft press release has made it all very clear:

I’m down with Windows 7. I really am. It’s going to be a good, solid OS that will take us well into the next decade. Microsoft does this kind of thing every few years - they dump out a clinker (Windows ME) then amaze us all with something great (Windows XP). They’re not the richest company in the world because they’re dumb. They know what they’re doing.

The folks at DownloadSquad, however, note that XP mode isn’t just an admission of defeat by Microsoft. It is, instead, it is a way to allow folks to run POS systems on new hardware. Fair enough. But it is a cop out. It’s a cop out on the part of IT departments, just as it should be, in that it allows them to sit on tested - but old - software while updating their junky old hardware.

Windows 7 is a speedy little bastard, even on an Asus Eee PC 1000HA as this video shows. Spoiler: it’s quick but not OMG fast.

A loose-lipped Acer spokesman appears to have put a date on Windows 7. Quoth Bobby Watkins from Acer UK:

23rd October is the date the Windows 7 will be available. There is a 30 day upgrade time so that customers don’t wait to buy a new computer, so if you buy during that 30 day period, you’ll get a free upgrade to Windows 7.

Gasp! And here we were expecting to maybe be able to order it around Christmas!

Ladies and gentlemen! Microsoft has officially released Windows 7 RC1—no more need for shady torrents, then. You have to be a member of MSDN or TechNet to download it today; the public at large will have to wait till May 5.

We now have it straight from the horse’s mouth: the Windows 7 Release Candidate will be available for public download on May 5th. The Windows 7 beta team reports that they’ve had a feedback report sent to them at the rate of 1 every 15 seconds during the busiest periods. They also indicated that they have actually used this information, and it’s helped to improve some of the more bleeding edge features coming out.

Flash! The Windows 7 release candidate has leaked. You can find it where you usually find such things.

Of the many flavors of Windows 7, due out this summer, the Starter Edition has received perhaps the most flack. It’s limited to running only three applications at a time, something most computer users find absolutely ludicrous. Microsoft isn’t targeting Starter Edition for your everyday desktop PC, though: they’re targeting it at netbooks.