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Redmond has refused to spike speculation that it is racing to pump out its successor to Vista – Windows 7 – earlier than originally expected.
Windows 7 (AKA Blackcomb then Vienna) had initially been rumoured to hit the market in 2010, but expectations are rising that it will make a crash landing in the second half of 2009.
Australia's APC magazine even claims to have seen Redmond's roadmap for the new OS which marks three so-called "milestone" builds for the product's planned release.
The software giant, for its part, has stayed tight-lipped on the matter, offering a wishy-washy statement in which it insists that Microsoft remains upbeat about its current, unloved operating system.
A Microsoft spokesman said: "We're continuing to work with our customers and partners on the development of Windows 7, the next version of the client operating system. We're not sharing additional information at this time; instead, we're focused on helping customers today get the most value from their PCs using Windows Vista, and we're encouraged by the response and adoption so far."
Meanwhile, APC claimed one milestone build has already reached a number of key partners who are busy validating code, while the follow-up builds will arrive later in the year, APC said.
It reckoned the roadmap didn't reveal any tasty information about further builds, including beta and release candidates. But APC claims Microsoft does spill the beans about the updated RTM (release to manufacturing) release date of Windows 7, pinning it down to H2 2009.
Of course, Vista itself hit manufacturers, then business customers in 2006, but did not reach the mass market until 2007.
Pulling such a major release forward would be out of character for Microsoft. Could this be MS execs having Vista panic attacks behind closed doors? It's hard to know for certain, but it's fair to say that customers aren't exactly rising from their feet to applaud the firm's current OS.
Some are waiting for service pack one to right a few wrongs with Vista, while other punters might be relieved to discover that they will soon be able to escape through the virtual door. ®
COMMENTS
Missing the point???
Perhaps all this bloatware that people talk about is really DRM that does nothing to help the OS and really just kills it. Gates gave in to Universal and paid them $1 for every Zune sold cause --?-- Zunes steal music????
Then you have all these DRM issues with HD cause --- Windows people steal movies???
I appreciate the problem, but I think the solution direction was stupid, bloated, poorly programmed. etc.
Does Microsoft want Windows to move foreward or just make them more money???
What do you think?
en
Ubuntu != Linux
Just to be a whinging old git, but Ubuntu IS NOT another name for Linux. There are many, many, many Linux distributions, and being a bit of and old enterprise fart I hate Ubuntu and love Red Hat EL (or Fedora). Would everyone please, and that includes El Reg, stop using Ubuntu when they mean Linux.
BTW, I'm not dissing Ubuntu, it's just personal preference that I prefer Red Hat-based distros
@Walter Brown
> i have more trouble networking Mac's, especially to a Windows server...
Judging by the ranty tone of your post I doubt you've ever considered that this might *just possibly* happen because it's the Windows server causing the problem. FWIW, I've networked a Mac onto my LAN with a handful of mouse clicks and waddya know - it.just.worked.
Mind you, this was onto a LAN which wasn't under the control of some proprietary garbage - this may help give you a clue.

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