Comments on: Microsoft aims Windows 7 for 2009 holiday season

The software maker provides the clearest public confirmation yet of when its ship target is for the successor to Windows Vista.

[timber2005]

The ideal "Velocity" benchmark for a CONSUMER...
CPU: 4.0
RAM: 4.0
GPU: 4.0 (both)

Starts in 50 seconds from POST to Desktop showing, NO VARIANCE FOR CRAPWARE LIKE NORTON SLOWING IT DOWN.

[Lerianis]

Norton? Crapware? What world are you living in? I have Norton on all my PC's, and it slows them down NOT ONE WHIT. They start within 30 seconds to the desktop, and are totally usable within 1 minute.

[jessiethe3rd]

Norton is a SLUG!!!!!! That's why I use Forefront :D

[The_Decider]

Norton is an amazingly crappy piece of security software and is a nasty virus.

It acts just like a virus does.

[ajnauron]

Norton may or may not be slow, since they improved the speed in the newest version, but its protection isn't as good as that of AVG, Avast, and Avira. I mean, come on, WEEKLY updates?

[ddesy]

Symantec's antivirus software really is very bloated. I have used many similar pieces of software, and I find that most of them use less resources than Symantec's offerings.

[its_a_paddlin]

Prior to Norton 2009 it was embarrassingly slow and bloated. They've finally cleaned it with the newer version though. Also, the definitiion updates are daily.

[gsmiller88]

And let's hope it is truly out for the holiday shopping season, and they don't have another faux pas like with the "Vista ready" program they had for the 2006 holiday season.

[Signal-Support-System-Spc]

I might be incorrect in assuming this, but I'm hoping that down the line, whatever they end up calling Window 7 will successfully replace Vista the same way XP saved us from the abysmal ME. Until it ships, I'm holding on to my non-Vista OS.

[Lerianis]

Why? Vista isn't anywhere NEAR as 'abysmal' as ME, in fact compared EVEN TO XP it is a rose WITHOUT thorns.

[The_Decider]

Windows 7 is more lipstick on the pig named Vista.

[Mark_Anderson]

@The_Decider

Can you change your name to 'The_Clueless' please. it would be far more representative and would help people to avoid reading your posts?

[junderdo]

@Mark_Anderson

Well spoken. Although I haven't heard much about WinFS lately. I hope that we're not going to see that fall through yet another iteration of windows

[Renegade Knight]

@ The_Decider

Good summary. They kept the core of Vista which is what has caused my problems for 7. They are fixing the eye candy for 7. The only saving grace for 7 is if they also fix the problems with the underpinnings. They aren't saying they are, but we can hope. Alas I will not jump on the 7 bandwagon like I did the Vista Bandwagon. Much as I enjoy the Vista interface it's been a PITA.

Right now the Vista Fanboys just don't seem to get that there have been real and ongoing problems with Vista for more than a few people. Worse they don't seem to question why MS spends all it's time on 7 and not fixing Vista. Will we get the same service with 7. "Ok we fumbled 7, but 8 will be worth it.

[Mark_Anderson]

I guess it's because Vista doesn't actually need fixing, Renegade Knight.

Of course they are releasing SP2 to improve it though which I guess their engineers must have coded for free because MS spent all the money on advertising, right?

Here's a suggestion: Tell me what current issues Vista has for the average user and then we'll discuss how much of an issue they are, how we can resolve them and if they really are that much of a problem to begin with. That way we can be clear as to what MS needs to fix.

How about it?

[DrtyDogg]

@junderdo: MS has said that WinfFS is done. The project as a whole was ended, though parts of it remain in several MS technologies, SQL Server, ADO.NET, probably more, you are also most likely seeing some of it in Windows 7 as "libraries"

[sroussey]

When will computer makers make the POST part of the bootup process *fast*. And are we ever going to shed BIOS for EFI or similar??

[ferretboy88]

Windows 7 is on my shopping list for 2009. I buy all the new os's. Have to keep up with things.

[The_Decider]

"Keep up"?

MS is years behind the leaders.

[Y2K Blackout]

Ignore him. Windows 7 is a great OS; I've been using it for over a year now and have already activated my retail copy of Professional. You won't regret it.

As for "The_Decider," MS is the leader with 95% marketshare. Eat it.

[The_Decider]

Isn't getting a Windows OS for Christmas like getting coal in your stocking?

[Y2K Blackout]

No.

[AppleSuxLeo]

7 is much further along than Mr Softie is letting us know. The experts say MSFT is going to under-promise and OVER-deliver...in time for Holiday `09 ;)

[Renegade Knight]

Given they haven't promissed anything about fixing the Vista underpinnings that 7 is built on...lets hope they overdeliver.

[Mr. Dee]

This is a quality release, the stability of build 6801 is a testament to that. With Microsoft having a feature complete beta by early 2009, I am not surprised to see this on shelves and new PC's by September 2009.

[toosday]

According to what users of the per-beta release have been saying, Windows 7 is already at Beta 2 status. Interesting, that it's so feature-rich at this point in the game.

[ajnauron]

It's not at beta 2, but it is as STABLE as beta 2. Performance isn't too terrible either, but slightly faster than vista, even though it isn't as fast as XP. Yet. I'm hoping MS doesn't mess up another release, but something tells me this will be much, much better than vista, or even XP. I'm just hoping MS has learned its lessons from spending five years developing vista, only to find it's a bloated XP with a new paint job. MS can't stand another terrible release. If W7 ends up being another vista, nobody will ever have confidence in them anymore. Who would make these gargantuan mistakes only to repeat them?

[Waam]

Seriously not considering upgrading my XP system and just getting another Mac as my main desktop system. I got a Macbook to compliment my Dell XPS earlier this year, and I think that has completely changed my mind about how a next gen OS should be.

[bcas400e]

"Who would make these gargantuan mistakes only to repeat them?"

Answer = Microsoft

[ppgreat]

I was listening to TWIT this past week and even the Windows fanboys on the panel could only generate tepid praise for Windows 7. I suppose it might look appealing if you're just going to stay with Windows for the rest of your life, but I think you do yourself (company, enterprise) a disservice by not examining OS X and Ubuntu as alternatives in the next 12-18 months.

[ddesy]

Since when has Microsoft been able to meet their self imposed deadlines? If they say 2009, I call either 2010 or 2011 regardless of how far along the pre-releases seem to be.

I have used Vista and have not been impressed. Between the speed (which isn't quite as bad as some say but still doesn't match XP) and issues that the system has due to things like an overabundance of DRM, it just doesn't cut it. From what I have been hearing I have some hope that Windows 7 might fix at least some of the issues. Maybe by the time it is released there will also be a better selection of hardware with well written 64-bit drivers.

Until then, I am happy to keep using Mac OS X and Windows XP with the occasional dash of Linux.

[Mark_Anderson]

Can I ask a question here?

If you OSX/Linux fanboys are so happy in your Unix based worlds then what the hell are you doing in a blog topic about Windows?

Apart from trolling obviously.

[Zarland]

It's sad to see how some people with 1gb ram computer complain how slow Vista compare to XP. When Windows XP just came out, a 512 mb memory stick would have cost close to $100. Today, you can get 4gb of ram for under $80. Something goes on for other parts of a computer. Unless you shelved out over ten grants for a semi super computer eight years ago, it's time to upgrade.

[DrtyDogg]

or not, keep your old computer. Just don't try and put Vista on it.

[awilliams1701]

Whoever said that 7 is lipstick on a pig is wrong. I've been using 7 pre-beta for a week now on a laptop that chokes on vista with a crappy celeron processor and 1gb of ram. Yet with 7 installed, it runs as good if not better than windows xp even with aero enabled. Without a domain setup it boots to the desktop in about 30 secs or so. With a domain login (and ignoring the time it takes to type your password) its about 40 secs. Windows 7 is definately what vista should have been in the first place. Not to meantion its actually a lot easier to use with the way its organized than vista or XP. We've been holding off on vista with a few exceptions at work, but we are already commmited to switch to 7 on all systems when it comes out.

[forever4now]

Windows 7 is Microsoft's Chevy Volt. They need to make it happen...or else. Doubtful they can do it though. All the talk in the press at this point seems merely to try to pacify current Windows users, so they don't jump ship to the Mac or Linux. One question I have is, assuming they do make it, how much time will they take for a release AFTER Windows 7?

Comparing OS Releases Cycles:

Windows XP to Windows 7 ----> 8 years
OS X ----> roughly one new release every year
Ubuntu ----> a new release every 6 months

[Y2K Blackout]

I, for one, think it's a good thing that MS doesn't release a new OS so frequently. These "new" operating systems you speak of for Macs and Linux computers are mainly just service packs... and Apple charges you for their product. MS offers these for free. Just because they don't release a new OS right away doesn't mean that they aren't improving their existing one. And charging for said improvements is stupid.

[RTFT]

I've installed the PDC version of Windows 7 on an ancient HP Pentium II 266Mhz with 640 Meg RAM old desktop and I was quite impressed that it automatically found the drivers for all my old devices - Lexmark printer, Canon camera, usb multimedia flash reader, Agfascan scanner.!
I had it dual boot so I can keep my old Windows 2000 partition just in case. Boots up to the logon screen 3 seconds slower than W2000 but it probably saved me quite a bit of time looking for drivers - thankyou.
Aero does not work on the old video card but the response is not noticeable using Office 2003 - Word, Powerpoint, Access and Excel.
I might get the newer NVIDIA video card that supports aero for $100 or perhaps buy a barebone system with2 gig of ram, AMD 64 X2 2.2 GHZ 250G HD, Nvidia GEFORCE 6100 wit hcase and powersupply for $285 CDN.

Time to contribute to recycling.

[vettexl]

Windows 7 is a very good operating system.