Gates: Windows 7 may come 'in the next year'

[LTR]

If at first you don't succeed...


MIAMI--Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Friday indicated that Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, could come within the next year, far ahead of the development schedule previously indicated by the software maker.

In response to a question about Windows Vista, Gates, speaking before the Inter-American Development Bank here, said: "Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version." Referring to Windows 7, the code name for the next full release of Windows client software, Gates said: "I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways."

(snip)

Less than 24 hours ago, a Microsoft representative told CNET News.com that the company expects to ship the successor to Vista roughly three years from Vista's January 2007 debut.

(snip)

Microsoft on Thursday declined to extend a lifeline for Windows XP, saying that only a limited number of specialized machines will be sold with the operating system after June.

The company said it will continue to allow Windows XP Home edition to be sold for a class of computers it calls "ultra-low-cost PCs."

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9911470-56.html

[MilesColtrane]

1. .

[Orsino]

2. You people who didn't buy Vista...

...I point the finger at you and say, "You helped this happen." :evilgrin:

[DarkTirade]

3. Well excuuuuuse me for not buying a buggy as hell, barely tested OS

that would have required me to upgrade my video card just to run the OS, let alone any games on it. :P

[laconicsax]

4. I saw a TV ad that said that you can't play games on a PC

Just do spreadsheets and other boring stuff. All that time, I thought that I had been playing awesome games on my PC, but I must have just been doing spreadsheets.

[Orsino]

7. You can do spreadsheets on a PC?

That's pretty cool.

[DarkTirade]

12. Oh yeah, I just spreadsheeted the SHIT out of some dark jedi a few minutes ago.

And I'm when I get back to it, I'm gonna unleash a word processing fury on some stormtroopers.

[Deja Q]

9. Only 5 years in testing, offshored to the finest because US workers were not smart enough.

:crazy:

Mind you, I've gotten 10 year old 3D rendering apps to work on Vista (32-bit) without any hassle; I don't think it's as bad for app compatibility as originally thought.

64-bit is another story, but the fact it works with 32-bit apps so well should be applauded...

[DarkTirade]

10. They really spent 5 years of testing?

And it STILL turned out as crappy as it did? Wow. I'm impressed. :P That can't be easy.

I keed, I don't think it's THAT bad. I do think it was released before they'd finished making it ready for general use though.

[Deja Q]

13. Yup. Vista is 5 years in the making. In 2005 they dropped the name "Longhorn" too.

Vista did need a few more tweaks and, as usual, SEVERAL features were pulled from release or did not live up to Microsoft's hype. (Microsoft is known for selling "vaporware", which is a product claimed to have this or that and either never comes out, or comes out without the hyped features, or comes out with the hyped features but doesn't live up to the claims.)

I still like Vista, and the 64-bit version rocks, but people were burned on what was promised with DirectX 10.

[DarkTirade]

14. I'm mostly annoyed that they started releasing some good games only for Vista.

I'd love to try out Halo 2, but I have no X-box and Windows XP.

I also don't have a good enough video card, but that's something I'd be willing to upgrade if I had the money. :P

[Deja Q]

15. Assuming those games truly take advantage OF Vista...

I know the current crop of DX10-compatible games are patched DX9 games, though Flight Simulator X was hyped and propped with some really awesome simulated screen shots (that turn out to be phony).

If new DX10-only games really come through the way MS was hyping, they'll be more readily forgiven.

And given the lacklustre sales of Vista Retail editions, I'm not surprised MS is doing the "Vista only" routine. :(

[DarkTirade]

19. I'd be willing to bet that most of them would have run just fine on XP had they been built for it.

And they probably would have lower system reqs because the OS wouldn't be hogging it all. :P

[NJmaverick]

5. Windows Vista- The new Coke of the computer world

[RoyGBiv]

6. In the next year???

Oh, please. They're talking about Windows 7 being an entirely new codebase -- which would be a great thing, actually. I am having trouble imagining that kind of timeline.

[SKKY]

11. Actually, Windows Vista was a whole new code base...

...Here's a pretty interesting article I found while doing research on various SDLC methods for a paper I was working on. I'm going to assume Windows 7 will be done much the same way. But, it bears mentioning that this method seems pretty familiar to me. Kinds sounds similar to the way Linux has been developed all these years. ;)

http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39152715,00.htm

[RoyGBiv]

16. And how long did Vista take?

I mean, seriously. :)

What I meant was they're thinking (or were rumored to be thinking) about dumping the idea of backward compatibility and starting from scratch, or something like scratch. Backward compatibility would then be achieved through what is essentially virtualization.

Actually, now that I think of it, that might speed up the process.

Still ... this sounds a bit like the beginning of every vaporware story I've ever heard.

[Deja Q]

17. Virtualization is typically slower.

Unless one has a multi-core processor (usually more than two)

Even then, accessing APIs directly is still the best; virtualization isn't a panacea...

64-bit OSes also do thunking (a 32<->64 -bit translation process to let 32-bit apps run on a 64-bit system. This slows down said apps as well... )

[RoyGBiv]

18. I know, but ...

That's kinda the point MS is trying to make, I think ... if this is true. Who knows what's true when it comes to news out of Redmond anymore.

Many of the problems with performance in Vista are due to, in part, to backwards compatibility issues. Seems to me the point they're trying to make is that if new code is compiled specifically to run on Win 7, it'll work just fine and outperform its predecessors. If you're running an XP app on the new Win 7, you'll be doing it through what amounts to virtualization, and "there's your problem right there." It's not a problem with the operating system; it's a problem trying to run software not made for that operating system.

Makes some level of sense, actually. Backward compatibility is a PITA for developers and leads to inefficiency in the code.

But, of course, all this is mostly rumor at this point, and we're at the phase now where Longhorn was years ago before it got turned into something else entirely.

Whatever the case, I think it's pretty safe to assume that this time next year, we won't be seeing systems shipped with Win 7 on them.

[Deja Q]

8. Will it come with all the features promised for Vista and XP?

If not, we'll wait. WinFS sounded cool at the time...