A senior Microsoft wonk has hinted that Windows 7 could hit the shelves in time for Christmas.

MS veep Bill Veghte said in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this week that “a holiday release is accomplishable.” However, he declined to comment on whether Vista’s successor could in fact go on sale any earlier.

Meanwhile, a release candidate version of Windows 7 will be made available to Technet and MSDN subscribers tomorrow, while the masses can get their hands on it next Tuesday, 5 May.

Microsoft has also created a new website named TalkingAboutWindows.com in an effort to get developers and sys admins, who haven’t already grabbed a copy of various leaked builds of the OS via a BitTorrent tracker site, to learn more about Windows 7.

"IT professionals can listen as our engineers discuss why certain product decisions and feature trade-offs were made in Windows 7," wrote Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc on Monday. ®

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