Windows 7 due in 2009 leaves Vista upgraders scratching head

newsguy 0 Tallied Votes 395 Views Share

According to a statement from IT research company Gartner Windows 7 is just three short years away from fruition. In response to an enquiry following a CNET News story reporting a sales meeting of the Seattle software giants where the three year figure was supposedly mentioned, Gartner cites a Microsoft spokesperson as confirming that the company is "scoping Windows 7 development to a three year time frame." Gartner further states that Microsoft went on to qualify this by adding "the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar."

Although the Microsoft disclosure is not copied in its full unedited glory, Gartner does reveal that there will be 32 and 64-bit versions, and that it will be a full, kosher release rather than just a service pack.

From this it deduces that Microsoft either does not know what Windows 7 will be, or does not want to publically comment on it as of yet. I suspect that both deductions are not mutually exclusive and the truth is a mixture of the two. Three years in OS software development is worth at least two weeks in mixed political metaphors.

While Gartner use this as an advice springboard for enterprise users not to hold back in plans to deploy Vista, and continue to do so between the end of this year and the middle of next. Warning that "they should remember that if they target Windows 7 as their next OS instead of Vista, they will likely be waiting until mid-2011 — 12 to 18 months after Windows 7 ships — before they will be able to begin replacing Windows XP" Gartner points out that this would leave only three years before official XP support is likely to vanish.

I sort of agree, but would say to enterprise and consumer users alike: why bother upgrading to Vista at all, when what you have got works perfectly well anyway? There is not always a need to move to the latest and shiniest of everything, and operating systems are no different. Do not be rushed into an upgrade, at any end of the deployment spectrum.

jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster

So, will windows 7 be based on Longhorn (Server 2007) then? I mean, Vista was based on server 2003...

jwenting 1,889 duckman Team Colleague

aren't those the same guys who said that Vista was to be released in 2004 (or was it 2003, I keep forgetting)?

jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster

Vista was supposed to be released in 2004 but they started again

lasher511 185 Veteran Poster

Personally im happy with XP for now. I will probably upgrade when people start making games for direct X 10.

jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster

I dont get how halo needs vista + directx10 + 2gb+ of ram when it runs on my original (not 360) xbox just fine (that cost me £15!)

Sturm 270 Veteran Poster

3

wow halo requires 2 gigs? I bet you could get away with 512...or does it check? I mean the graphics are horrible.
oh and you can run it on xp just fine im told..it just requires a bit of hacking.

jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster

well vista needf 512 to a gig just to run and 1-2gb of ram is the standard for XP games so say somewhere between 1.5 - 3gb is required.

happyandyk 0 Newbie Poster

Looks like Microsoft is NOT planning to release Windows 7 in 2009.

Microsoft's official response, by an email dated 26th January, 2008, to WinVistaClub's enquiry, states that Windows 7 is still in the planning stage and will take approximately 3 years to develop.

While the answers to the other 2 questions may have been on predictable lines, what is important to note that Microsoft TODAY maintains that Windows 7 is STILL in the planning stages and it will take approximately 3 (more) years to develop.

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