AfterDawn: News

Windows 7 coming in 2009

According to Bill Gates, the upcoming Windows 7 operating system will be arriving sooner than previously reported, and as soon as 2009.

During a speech for the Inter-American Development Bank, Gates said, "Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version. [of the Vista OS]"



It is unclear if Gates meant the full commercial rollout of the new OS or just a beta but either way it seems development is moving swiftly. Microsoft has already sent a test version of Windows 7 to the US government. Previously, Microsoft reported that Windows 7 was coming at the earliest in 2010.

Continuing on, Gates talked out about his excitement for the upcoming operating system. "I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways."

There is still no word on what new features will be added, but we will keep you updated.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 8 Apr 2008 17:23

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• 42 comments

• Rudeboi

  Wait...a COMPLETELY new OS or just a pretty big add on to Vista? And is it for personal computers or like a server type OS or something?
  If it's a new OS, what the HELL is wrong with Microsoft?! A new OS already?! They haven't even nearly finished correcting Vista and this one new is supposedly better? Quote:"I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways." Give me a freaking break!

  8.4.2008 17:30 #1

• iluvendo

  Hope it is better than Vista ( or maybe it is Xp repackaged)

  8.4.2008 17:30 #2

• domie

  Is this the one that was codenamed "Vienna" ?
  
  ( cue ultravox music )... this means nothing to me ..ooohhhh Vienna !!!

  8.4.2008 17:54 #3

• 21Q

  Vista was a complete flunk, at least for those who actually know something about computers. Think M$ will be able to win us back?

  8.4.2008 17:55 #4

• domie

  this smells a little like the windows me ( millenium ) fiasco - remember that disastrous o/s came out with bells and all and was swiftly replaced by windows 2000 and then XP 18 months later.

  8.4.2008 18:00 #5

• krj15489

  its not actualy coming out next year. bill gates just made a mistake.
  
  http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/07/windo...ill-gates-just/

  8.4.2008 18:03 #6

• iluvendo

  Originally posted by krj15489: its not actualy coming out next year. Quote:bill gates just made a mistake.
  " target="_blank">http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/07/windo...s-just/
  
  
  What? Bill Gates made a mistake?????

  8.4.2008 18:14 #7

• krj15489

  lol. he seems to have made alot of mistakes in the last few years. cough vista cough

  8.4.2008 18:23 #8

• tripplite

  i wouldn't mind seeing vista trashed:P although hopefully the next OS will be like 98 again.....vista reconfirmed my faith in ubuntu lol

  8.4.2008 18:24 #9

• viny1313

  I bought an iMac and put Kubuntu and Gentoo on my PS3 and laptops :)
  
  Vista is complete trash; slow. full of bugs, and everything is retarded...

  8.4.2008 19:26 #10

• aldan

  vista truly seems to be todays millenium edition.why else would they be coming out with a new o.s.so soon.

  8.4.2008 19:45 #11

• varnull

  Yes.. It looks like the one rumored to be called "vienna"
  It seems to be what vista was supposed to be before M$ decided to bow to hollywood and install lots and lots of spyware.
  
  I think vista is more of an experiment to see how far they can push proprietary lockin and drm before people start turning away. the damage has been done. XP while no great at least respected your rights. Vista is no more than xp tarted up with lots of pretties and a heap of spyware that they don't dare turn on.
  
  Luckily by the time they get a new product to the shelves they will be a name from history. We don't like spyware and drm.. I think now a year later it is starting to dawn on them that people will not be forced to use a product they don't like. Especially when the alternatives are free.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  8.4.2008 19:49 #12

• iluvendo

  Oh No, Vista bites the dust!! (HeHehHeh) Just my bad cough acting up, Sorry
  

  If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck!
  "The flimsier the product,the higher the price"
  Ferengi 82nd rule of aquisition

  8.4.2008 19:56 #13

• core2kid

  Originally posted by krj15489: lol. he seems to have made alot of mistakes in the last few years. cough vista cough
  lmfaoooooooo!!!!!
  I needed a joke.
  BTW, Vista was a failure. History is gonna repeat itself with the ME -> 2000 release. I just put Vista on my secondary HD and it lasted a day. After installing all drivers + updates I had to manually start explorer.exe on startup.

  8.4.2008 21:14 #14

• jony218

  From what I could read it says "they are going to have a new version of the Vista OS". It sound like it's going to be Vista on steroids.
  
  I actually like using Windows ME, it worked like a champ for me. Vista on the other hand, I tried it but it made my computing harder than it had to be. I'll keep using XP into the forseeable future.

  8.4.2008 21:27 #15

• club42

  This might as well be an acknowledgment that vista is crap. As said before it's just like windows me. Rushing to come out with another version before everyone jumps ship just proves it. Making the os "pretty" over functionality is always a mistake.

  8.4.2008 21:36 #16

• H0bbes

  What an IT nightmare! Methinks everyone should switch to Linux... not that I've ever used it past experimenting with a live distro tho. ;-)
  
  My IT director won't touch Vista, and I don't blame him. At least 75% of my job is on-site desktop support (call me a freak, but I actually enjoy it a lot), and most of our staff have just gotten comfortable with XP in the last 2-4 years or so. Trying to teach people in their 50's+ to use Vista, all who are generally annoyed with computers, is a joke! It's exactly like trying to teach old dogs new tricks (no disrespect intended). I'd be so busy with random error messages I'd lose weight! It wouldn't be a such a big problem if it was halfway stable. M$ needs to make up their minds, as well as stop ticking people off by releasing broken products because their worried about their own deadlines.

  8.4.2008 21:40 #17

• skeil909

  I have a system running Vista 64 Ultimate and I have to say I didn't like it all that much at first. I switched back to XP Pro and XP Pro 64 a couple times for comparison.
  I've been back on Vista 64 since December and it's been running fantastic. I finally got it tweaked the way I like and I've had absolutely no problems with it at all.
  Now I can't stand working on XP. My Vista system runs so much smoother and works so much better.
  Back in October I would have said that Vista sucked. Now that I've spent a lot of time with Vista, I think XP sucks and I can work much more efficient within Vista.

  8.4.2008 21:53 #18

• nMIK3

  Windows 7 is still on track for 2010 release as Microsoft issued a statement and officially declined Bill Gates announcement.

  8.4.2008 22:03 #19

• Gradical

  Thank GOD!!!!, now they only have to start up a program similar to the xbox360 3 year warranty and replace any Vista for free for a windows 7 and theyll be on the right track
  
  Vista is just a living MISTAKE, i also work on support and any time anyone comes with their new laptop with Vista on it all i can say is "what would you expect, its got Vista" hahahaha, funny thing no one has ever even once tried to defend vista (as far as the people i work with), there is not 1 person who can say: "thank god i got vista", if ever the only that has tried to praise it was really talking about office 2007, cause they thought it was part of vista hahahaha

  8.4.2008 22:27 #20

• SProdigy

  What really kills Vista is the 3rd party apps and other crap running in the background. Just try to buy a laptop nowadays without a "special" wireless internet monitor, power indicator, volume controls, etc. It doesn't matter who it's from (HP, Sony, Dell) they all have it. Plus there's the crapware like AOL and Vongo that's preinstalled, all while major retailers like Best Buy and Circuit push the $400 Acer with the Celeron and 512mb running Vista "Home."
  
  Please Bill, do it right this time. One flavor of "Windows 7". We don't need "Home", "Basic", "Premium", "Ultimate", "Business", "Professional" or any other taglines just to pad your pockets. Give us a sleak, streamlined package at a decent price, force the vendors off the crapware and make the MS haters go away.

  8.4.2008 22:38 #21

• CNDLG

  Truely a remarkable story. Oh, and for those that don't know Windows 8 will be in about 5 years (give or take a year or so) and windows 9 in maybe 7-8 years, windows 10 in...... Maybe we should hold off on speculating and just wait till we have something real to discuss. (oh and yes, Billy will be very excited about all further money making schemes).

  8.4.2008 22:42 #22

• H08

  really nice MS, if i wanted to buy a new OS every two years i would've sticked to mac osx

  8.4.2008 23:52 #23

• D00mer

  Ubuntu, here I come!

  9.4.2008 00:14 #24

• varnull

  I'm waiting for skeil909 to get his first encounter with vundo or stormworm variant. When he can't remove it because it has higher than administrator rights and restore attempt leads to BSOD os recovery failure screen on boot he will be ever so sick.
  
  muahahahaha.. I install pirated xp and let the customers deal with borg-v5.. A far better OS for people who insist on M$ (though I can't understand why when Mandriva works so well on celeron laptops)
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  9.4.2008 00:22 #25

• snowlock

  this almost sounds like they're abandoning vista.
  which wouldn't be that bad if i hadn't JUST bought a laptop.
  of course it has vista, which uses ~50mb of ram to do NOTHING.
  luckily i knew this, so i got one with enough memory.
  
  if this goes down and the new one is better, i'll probably be breaking ms' copyrights.

  9.4.2008 00:25 #26

• varnull

  Articles like this http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/0...00-tests_1.html don't help them any.
  
  Add to that the stupid license problems, and all the cracked ones now circulating.. plus the general unreliability and you can see why M$ are very probably calling time on a failure. It isn't the first time they screwed up big time, but it may just be the last as business is moving away from commercial (and expensive) things that don't actually do anything that they see as a benefit to them. Constant loss of productivity because of a broken OS is why business hasn't adopted vista. The ones that have are regretting it more and more with each passing day. The only IT companies that install full vista networks and machines into businesses are normally ripoff artists selling discontinued retail machines which retailers are quietly dumping into bulk auctions. ( I see home basic and home premium a lot in small new office setups.. why is that otherwise?)
  costs vs performance. Vista fails on both counts if you are a business using it in a work environment. the number of times I get called out to hack past an administrator account on a vista printer server because it has yet again lost it's drivers and the person with the password is at the other end of the country are incredible.
  It's becoming my bread and butter trade.. and I'm a unix mainframe and process control server engineer, not a domestic (read amateur) pc repairer.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  9.4.2008 00:59 #27

• skeil909

  Originally posted by varnull: I'm waiting for skeil909 to get his first encounter with vundo or stormworm variant. When he can't remove it because it has higher than administrator rights and restore attempt leads to BSOD os recovery failure screen on boot he will be ever so sick.
  You'll be waiting a very, very long time. I haven't had a virus in any of my personal systems in over a decade. I have removed my fair share from customer pc's and corporate networks over the past 16 years though.
  
  I don't endorse or recommend Vista. I simply stated that once it's tweaked it does run very well. Personally, I don't see how anyone can use Vista in it's default state. The UAC is a complete pile of crap and should be disabled asap, along with Windows Defender. All you need is a good 3rd party firewall, descent AV and a little common sense.
  
  I recommend nothing but XP Pro to the companies I work with and don't want any of them switching to Vista anytime soon. I don't have a single customer who has Vista.
  
  Once you've cleaned up Vista it can and does run really smooth though. Well, Vista 64 anyhow, and with a quad-core and 8gb of ram. :)

  9.4.2008 01:08 #28

• varnull

  Fair enough.. the default state for vista around me is "Uninstalled if humanly possible"
  
  Still it shouldn't need tweaking and fixing just to get the basic promised functionality to work should it?
  
  some vista stupidity
  Quote:Once Firefox is installed, there are two icons on my Desktop I'd like to remove: The Setup application itself and a shortcut to Firefox. So I select both icons and drag them to the Recycle Bin. Simple, right?
  
  Wrong. Here's what you have to go through to actually delete those files in Windows Vista. First, you get a File Access Denied dialog (Figure) explaining that you don't, in fact, have permission to delete a ... shortcut?? To an application you just installed??? Seriously?
  
  You can just see Apple's ad's for Leopard
  
  "On Leopard you can even delete your own shortcuts without an admin password!"
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

  9.4.2008 01:13 #29

• Iconaw1

  Ya i like the way vista looks but i do find myself tweaking all the settings, it is somewhat slow though, I wouldn't mind a Vista lite version.

  9.4.2008 10:28 #30

• core2kid

  Vista Live CD on HD!
  LMFAO!

  9.4.2008 15:45 #31

• DieMPAA

  Vista = Windows Me 2
  
  Windows 7 will hopefully be a worthwhile one.

  9.4.2008 17:06 #32

• susieqbbb

  microsoft releasing another crap os oh great.
  
  Vista sucks to much memory to many pieces of spyware and malware.
  
  Windows XP gives users malware and spyware even with a virus scanner installed.
  
  Windows 2000 gave users the ntsf partition faliure.
  
  Windows ME is known in hacker circles as Windows With Many Errors
  
  Windows 98 nice system but a little underpowered
  
  Windows 95 great operating system microsoft should have kept supporting this os not 98
  
  
  Anyone see a pattern here.
  
  This is why i went to apple
  
  no viruses no spyware lots of free applications and free games and no product activation.

  9.4.2008 18:48 #33

• core2kid

  Only part I agree in with you is Windows Me. Vista is bad if you have a slow computer but is decent if you have a very powerful computer. it's not an OS that I would use everyday. XP is amazing. When installed yourself and kept in good condition, it works like a charm. I haven't had a virus in 2 years, or a reinstall or XP.
  2000 was pretty stable, NTFS errors came from a corrupted file system that could be prevented by proper shutdowns. 98 and 98SE was awesome. Very stable. Integrating true plug and play like ME would have helped though. Windows 95 was a great lightweight fast OS for everyday work, not for gaming/multimedia though.
  About all the Virus and Spyware stuff, If you get virus's and spyware on your computer that badly, It's just the sites you go on or the things you do that gets it for you. I have had 1 virus attack in the last 3 years that almost took out my OS but with patience and XP's safe mode, I was able to completely recover my computer.

  9.4.2008 19:09 #34

• H0bbes

  Originally posted by core2kid: About all the Virus and Spyware stuff, If you get virus's and spyware on your computer that badly, It's just the sites you go on or the things you do that gets it for you.I couldn't agree more. These are exactly the type of problems that keep me in business. A parent calls me because their 16-year old idiot son has crashed their PC. Imagine the looks on their faces when I'm able to show them their kid's browsing history! ;-)

  9.4.2008 23:30 #35

• susieqbbb

  not true in fact some sites that are being posted as legit sites and legal downloads contain spyware like did you know that all of the internet explorer toolbar add-ons contain tracking spyware that is blocked from being searched by your virus scanners the only scanners i have found that find this happen to be avg which i find is surprising that a virus scanner designed by hackers for hackers found a virus and a piece of malware that mcafee and norton both miss and on the subject of keeping windows xp in working order when you have to run disk defragmenter every week thanks to the install of service pack 2 and you have to keep installing updates that dont delete the temp files used to install them and store these temp files in your windows directory and bog down your machine even more. no thank you

  10.4.2008 06:26 #36

• SProdigy

  In defense of Microsoft, considering most of us here are complaining about the OS vendor they are MOST LIKELY using...
  
  - Vista is bloated. It runs well on proper hardware, but stupid things like UAC and copying/moving files to another drive/network or unzipping archives is just nerve-racking. Why on Earth wasn't this debugged prior to release?
  
  - XP is a VERY stable system, especially with SP2. Keep it patched with the proper AV/Spyware/Firewall software and you're set. (As long as you stay away from the porn/warez sites.)
  
  - If you were a hacker, would you produce malware for a system with 2% penetration into the market? I doubt it. So I wish people would stop squabbling about Mac OS and Linux. No one cares about those, including hackers. It shows when you have trouble finding software on those systems outside of web browsing and email.
  
  I don't take pleasure in dropping a couple hundred dollars for an OS upgrade (ie. Leopard) when MS patches their system for free (see SP2.) I also like to build and repair my own system, and shouldn't have a company (Apple) dictate what I can and cannot have in it hardware-wise.
  
  - Windows ME was indeed garbage. MS forced this out, but was clearly focused on 2000, the predecessor to XP.
  
  - Windows 98SE was great for it's time. It still surprises me how many people say they love this OS and how it's the best, blah, blah. I think some of us are still running 10 year old systems and are too afraid to let go.
  
  - Windows 95 was revolutionary, but honestly, PLUG AND PLAY? Even 98SE didn't get this straight. I bet most noobs on PC's would be lost trying to get modem or sound card drivers to work on 95/98/ME systems because we've been spoiled by XP.
  
  There I said what's on my mind. Notice I didn't just go on a rant about Windows being crap. Take care of the house you live in, and all will be okay.

  10.4.2008 09:01 #37

• spydah

  I don't know how many people will agree with this. But I think a lot of the issues in M$ OS's are them dumb windows updates. They come in flawed. I think they create more issues then they patch or open you up to more issues. I have not installed any windows updates to my XP since its been out. I never get viruses. But all you need to be is smart about what you do and anyone can avoid them. As for them creating a new OS. If they abandon the DRM era they will probably have some success with it. Its stupid to restrict people's PC's after they paid their hard earned money on it. I think its all bogus marketing that political people support.

  10.4.2008 15:50 #38

• core2kid

  Originally posted by spydah: I don't know how many people will agree with this. But I think a lot of the issues in M$ OS's are them dumb windows updates. They come in flawed. I think they create more issues then they patch or open you up to more issues. I have not installed any windows updates to my XP since its been out. I never get viruses. But all you need to be is smart about what you do and anyone can avoid them. As for them creating a new OS. If they abandon the DRM era they will probably have some success with it. Its stupid to restrict people's PC's after they paid their hard earned money on it. I think its all bogus marketing that political people support.
  I've never had windows update screw up my PC beyond repair until Vista updated my sound card drivers. If a device is installed and there is an update to the driver, Windows update will not automatically install that, it will ask you ONLY when you go to update.microsoft.com. It only installes the security updates and service packs by default. Remember that when a new service pack comes out it's bound to have problems, remember everyone complaining about SP2? After some time new updates come to patch SP2 to make it extremely stable. I'm running the Beta of SP3 on my computer and have not had any problems. I am running vista on a Q6600/6800GT/200GB SATA/4GB RAM and I am rated a 5. Not had any problems yet.
  

  My PC: Core2Quad Q6600 @ 3.07GHz|Asus P5K-E Wifi AP Edition|4GB RAM @ 817MHz|6800GT 350MHz/900MHz|200GB SATA1 Primary|250GB Secondary SATA2|
  My Game Systems(Order of Release): Atari 2600|GB Original|PS|GB Pocket|N64|GB Color|Dreamcast|PS2 w/ HD Loader|PS2|XBOX Halo Edition|GBA SP|Slim PS2|DS|PSP @ 3.90M33-3|GB Micro|XBOX 360 HD DVD Player

  10.4.2008 20:50 #39

• FredBun

  if it will be a fraction of vista, they can stick it up thier gege

  12.4.2008 16:00 #40

• avoidz

  XP is still great, seven years later. Vista is a pretty demo sitting on store shelves, but that's it.

  13.4.2008 10:04 #41

• LSUnum1

  As crappy as Vista is, I have to thank Microsoft for the increased Mac sales we are having at work, I have sold at least 5 eMacs and notebooks in the last month or so.
  
  THANKS MICROSOFT!!

  13.4.2008 10:40 #42