Keyboard, mouse to get company in Windows 7
PALO ALTO, Calif.--I still don't know much about what Windows 7 will do or what it will look like, but I can tell you that you won't have to rely on a keyboard and mouse to use it.
After decades of investing in things like speech technology and handwriting recognition, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that users appear ready for new ways of interacting with machines. And, he said, advances in those areas and in touch-based gestures will find their way into the next version of Windows, known as Windows 7.
"The version after Vista is a big step forward in terms of speech," Gates said in an interview following his speech at Stanford University. "It's a big step forward in terms of ink. It's a big step forward in terms of touch."
Microsoft has already hinted that iPhone-like gestures are a part of the next Windows, and Gates said that touch-screen is likely to be the most broadly appealing of the new interfaces.
"The likelihood is that touch will become mainstream on certain form factors very quickly because we are working hand-in-hand with the hardware companies," Gates told CNET News.com "Speech and ink it's a little harder to say."
Gates has been a tireless proponent of the Tablet PC concept and made it clear he is not giving up on that dream, despite the fact that such machines remain a small fraction of notebooks nearly half a decade after their introduction.
"I'm a big ink lover," he said, adding that he hopes with Windows 7 more students decide to go with a Windows notebook that can use pen input. "I would vote yes, but I have a known bias."
Microsoft has not said when to expect Windows 7. Some have said it may not be until 2010, while others predict Microsoft will try to get a release out the door next year following a lackluster reception for Vista and growing competition from Apple.
In addition to Windows 7, Gates talked about a number of other topics, including why he thinks Yahoo is worth so much money to Microsoft. I'll post a more detailed transcript of the interview Wednesday or click here to see the video part of the interview.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
I wish people would learn that they sound like idiots when they say 'could care less.'
good ol willie is so OCD
Yes, they maintain older releases with SP and I'm sure that won't change when 7 ships. In fact, many of the fixes that are developed for 7 will be included in Vista SP2 or SP3.
If you are using a single core celeron / semperon by the time Windows 7 comes out, then you sort of deserve the slowness if you decide to upgrade.
implementing...touch *cough* Apple... accessibility *cough*
Apple...
Apple has better marketing.
FWIW, Apple innovates a lot of core items in addition to mere "look+feel".
Compare OSX to MacOS9... OSX is nowhere near as bloated, it is far more nimble, and it doesn't require a monster multi-core chip and a metric ton of RAM just to respond to the user at something approaching real-time ;)
Personally, I think the biggest hotbed of core innovation comes from places like Linux, FreeBSD, and the like. There, you get to see some pretty revolutionary things coming to existence right out of thin air (e.g. journaled filesystems, package management, new UI concepts, etc). She's a little young, she's a little unrefined, but damn can she ever move... ;)
/P
I've been eying buying a tablet for some time now, but Dell hasn't got the XT on their Ubuntu lineup yet.
www.dell.com/ubuntu
bloated garbage pile known as asta-la-vista supposed to come
with a new file system, a revolutionary new file system at that?
Anyone care to argue that NTFS is that revolutionary new file
system? I didn't think so.
I'll believe it when I read about it in a review. I'll never
experience it myself because I have to much self esteem to
become a slave to the evil Micro$loth empire. I just don't hate
myself that much anymore, I got better.
- by Rádi Pál May 14, 2008 7:57 PM PDT
- My do not know comment/ IE7 pro mouse function professional /keyboard hot keys excellent > Ie8 emulate IE7 function professional <Ina sorry> pal
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