Windows 7 to be Released in October?

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
From our front-page news:
According to a post over at Slashdot, the Windows 7 launch date has been leaked, although it's hard to say right now whether anyone should hold any credence in it. The date mentioned is October 23 of this year, a date that was carelessly thrown out by an Acer executive in Europe. I won't get into the whole story on things, but Oct 23 does seem like a reasonable date, but there's so much more to consider in the big picture.

Looking at things right now, Windows 7 is really shaping up to have a clean launch, and there doesn't seem to be a real hitch holding back its development. After all, the Release Candidate has just been released, and should become available to regular consumers to test out soon. That's a good sign. Plus, it's been speculated that the RC/RTM phase could last about three months, and if true, that would place us at an August release date.

So where does that leave October 23? It's hard to say. If Windows 7 seems really stable right now, is Microsoft simply playing it safe, and are deliberately holding back a launch for a few months in order to make sure every possible important bug is ironed out? After all, the last thing Microsoft wants to see is another Vista launch. Heck, even the consumers don't want to see that (unless you are a Mac or Linux user maybe, you twisted freaks!).

Oct 23 sounds credible, but this is an OS after all... anything can happen.

windows_7_user_interface_102908.jpg

Asked whether this confirmed the Windows 7 release date as September 2009, he coyly remarked that 'when it's in store it won't have Windows 7 pre-loaded.' Microsoft would probably prefer that he had stopped there, but he added: 'We won't be actually selling [Windows 7] a day before the 23rd October.' Then, Acer's Managing Director for the UK helpfully clarified that while their product will ship with Windows Vista at launch, because it is on sale less than 30 days before the Windows 7 release date, it will be eligible for the 'upgrade program' to get a free upgrade to the new OS."


Source: Slashdot
 

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
I would say sooner the better but really, I have been happy with Vista since SP1 came out and remedied a lot of the issues I had with the OS.

Vista got a bad wrap at the beginning (and mostly it was deserved) but I think the thing that hurt Vista sales the most was the idea of "why upgrade?" There was little need to upgrade for most users and while I could never go back to XP, so many others are of the exact opposite mind set.

Many people want 7 because its new and that reason alone. I am excited to use it but am not waiting with baited breath for the OS to drop.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
I am definitely waiting with baited breath as it were. Have y'all read this entry yet? http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/25/engineering-windows-7-for-graphics-performance.aspx

That's just one of many changes that should've been done in Vista but never actually were, but are now being made in W7.

I'm just wondering about ASUS... their Xonar driver situation is appallingly bad and their latest drivers are of course "beta". They are also one of the few Vista drivers I have seen that don't work on Windows 7... I have yet to use the RC build so I'm going to be crossing my fingers they will at least work better on the release candidate. Considering ASUS only updates their Xonar drivers once every six months and always with "beta" drivers, Windows 7 might actually launch before they release fixed or W7 capable drivers.
 

madstork91

The One, The Only...
I am an XP freak. I have not upgraded to Vista, nor will I ever. I called Vista a windows ME back when it was first released.

Windows 7 however... I am looking forward to all of it so far. Because it actually got better for once.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
What part of the interface are you referring to? KDE 3.x got most of their ideas from Windows, not vice versa. KDE 4 on the other hand, is a true piece of junk (imo, of course). As soon as I lose support for KDE 3.x and feel the need to upgrade, I'm going to have to suck it up and move over to GNOME. I don't like GNOME either, but I like it a heck of a lot more than KDE 4.
 
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