With the top Microsoft people already seeming to abandon the Vista shipwreck, this makes that operating system even MORE of an orphan, and even less likely to be accepted by IT level decision makers.

Don't fret about Vista. It has all the stub-outs necessary to be converted over to an XML enabled operating system.

By the time Windows 7 comes along there will be an ecology built around a combination of Vista with Windows 7 outreach and interoperability.

Microsoft is finally beginning to talk to the world after declaring Vista crippled in 2006. Tick Tick Tick...

Since Dimdows 7 is essentially going to be a warmed-over Vista, why should those who've rejected Vista suddenly develop new enthusiasm for Dimdows 7?

Yes... um... I can't wait to hear about all the great juicy details of Windows7............YAWN!

Well... on the bright side of things.... Windows Server 2008 got rave reviews (as a operating system) in the Ubuntu Forums / Windows section. Supposedly this is Vista without the bloat, but its expensive at $469. What was surprising the review was someone from the Ubuntu Forum Staff!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=889367

So.... if I go onto all the computer forums and promote Vista (cough,cough)....will MSFT send me a free Windows Server 2008, a couple of XP licenses and a free laptop? Where does one apply?
Shills-4-Hire@MSN.com ???? lol

On a brighter note, Ubuntu 8.10 will be out in some two months and a new version of a Debian based Freespire is due the later part of this year.

Wait for Windows 7 if XP is working fine for you now. There is no sense in upgrading with 7 around the corner. Chances are, you will need new hardware for 7 anyway. I am interested to see the real hardware requirements for 7 and if it is the same or more than vista. I think it will be more, but MS can always have Dell through a 7 capable sticker on new Vista machines.

Great post Joe, good information. For those of us already testing Win 7 in alpha this will be a great resource.

Cheers.

The site looks interesting, but I sit here wondering if they can't talk about "concrete" features as they say; will they actually have something to talk about other then what we've already heard?

BTW ... Just a note. If windows 7 is as simple, clean, and usable as that blog, then I'll buy three copies in advance :)

New releases of Windows are always inevitable, I was aware of Longhorn from June of 2001, a couple months before XP RTMed when Paul Thurrott confirmed it. In fact, we were aware of Windows 7 when it was called Blackcomb in 2000. So anyone in 'IT' who covers Windows will likely be aware of future releases of Windows. Upgrading to new versions of Windows should be about how do we increase productivity now, reduce TCO now, achieve new experiences and a better way of doing things on our PCs and Network today. I am sure many businesses will realize that today with Vista and continue to invest in the Windows platform as the final release of Windows 7 approaches in the future. Windows 7 is in 'development' literally, its a moving target, subject to change, it won't reach a concrete level of consumer and business interest until BETA 2, RCs.

"it won't reach a concrete level of consumer and business interest until BETA 2, RCs"

Sure you don't mean SP1 or SP2 there?
Or perhaps Windows 8? Or Midori?

^_-

@Andre;

TheBorg agrees, most of us in the IT business that are productive and successful in searching for information and understanding rather than being another useless "Anti-MS Shill" have found in measure, the beginnings of Blackcomb.

In 2001, John C. Dvorak questioned leaders at Redmond specifically on Blackcomb. He (Dvorak) suggested in his premature conclusion that Blackcomb was the successor in-line after XP. Regardless, the answers to these questions were denied from him.

Dvorak also assumed in his ignorance that it, Blackcomb may be the successor to the X-BOX (first generation) successor of it's current operating system.

TheBorg also found FUD infestation within the Microsoft Watch's comment sections on where there was mention of (his accusation of) said Vaporware.

A statement from a prejudice comment or an "A.MS. Shill" who seems of being incapable of completing his own research but rather assume, rant, and ultimately misinform as fact(s).

To his discredit of undermining his own (fleeting)intelligence and "comment proliferation" in the realm of said (deminishing) credibility.

TheBorg has decided to add these facts listed below from our own research so all may benefit from what others such as yourself know.

Windows 7, (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and later Vienna) is the working name for the next major version of Microsoft Windows as the successor to Windows Vista.

Microsoft has announced that it is "scoping Windows 7 development to a three-year time frame", and that "the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar."

Windows 7 is expected to be released late 2009 or near January 2010. The client versions of Windows 7 will ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. A server variant, codenamed Windows Server 7, is also under development.

Microsoft is maintaining a policy of silence concerning discussion of plans and aspirations for Windows 7 as it focuses on the release and marketing of Windows Vista, though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged.

As a result, little is known about the feature set, though public presentations from company officials have disseminated information about some features.

Leaked information from people to whom Milestone 1(M1) of Windows 7 was shipped also provides some insight into the feature set.

In about 2000 Microsoft started the planning to follow up Windows XP and its server counterpart Windows Server 2003 (both codenamed Whistler) with a major new release of Windows that was codenamed Blackcomb (both code names refer to the Whistler-Blackcomb resort).

This new version was at that time scheduled for a 2005 release.

Major features were planned for Blackcomb, including an emphasis on searching and querying data and an advanced storage system named WinFS to enable such scenarios.

In this context, a feature mentioned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for Blackcomb was "a pervasive typing line that will recognize the sentence that [the user is] typing in."

Later Blackcomb was delayed and an interim minor release, codenamed "Longhorn", was announced for a 2003 release.

By the middle of 2003, however, Longhorn had acquired some of the features originally intended for Blackcomb, including WinFS, the Desktop Window Manager, and new versions of system components built on the .NET Framework.

After the 2003 "Summer of Worms", where three major viruses − Blaster, Sobig, and Welchia − exploited flaws in Windows operating systems within a short time period, Microsoft changed its development priorities, putting some of Longhorn's major development work on hold in order to develop new service packs for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that included a number of new security and safety features.

Development of Longhorn was also "reset" in September 2004 (see Mid-2004 to Mid-2005: Development "reset") as a result of concerns about the quality of code that was being introduced to the operating system.

The eventual result of this was that WinFS, the Next Generation Secure Computing Base, and other features seen in Longhorn builds were deemed "not ready" for wide release, and as such did not appear in Longhorn, when it was released as Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

As major feature work on Windows Vista wound down in early 2006, Blackcomb was renamed Vienna.

However, following the release of Windows Vista, it was confirmed by Microsoft on July 20, 2007 that "the internal name for the next version of the Windows Client OS" is Windows 7, a name that had been reported by some sources months before.

Microsoft's Ben Fathi stated on February 9, 2007 that the focus on the operating system was still being worked out, and could merely hint at some possibilities:

“We're going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe it's hypervisors. I don't know what it is" [...] "Maybe it's a new user interface paradigm for consumers. ”

Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek, suggested that the next version of Windows would "be more user-centric."

When asked to clarify what he meant, Gates said:

“That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you've got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one.

Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services to know what you're interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else's PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things.

So that's kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable. [Also,] in Vista, things got a lot better with [digital] ink and speech, but by the next release there will be a much bigger bet.

Students won't need textbooks; they can just use these tablet devices. Parallel computing is pretty important for the next release.

We'll make it so that a lot of the high-level graphics will be just built into the operating system. So we've got a pretty good outline. ”

Later, Gates also said that Windows 7 will also focus on performance improvements:

“We're hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I'm very excited about the work being done there.

The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don't have a lot of work to move that data back and forth. ”

Bill Veghte stated that Windows 7 will not have the kind of compatibility issues with Vista that Vista has with previous versions:

“You've let us know you don't want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista.

As a result, our approach with Windows 7 is to build off the same core architecture as Windows Vista so the investments you and our partners have made in Windows Vista will continue to pay off with Windows 7.

Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward.

The first known build of Windows 7 was identified as a "Milestone 1 (M1) code drop" according to TG Daily with a version number of 6.1.6519.1.

It was sent to key Microsoft partners by January 2008 in both x86 and x86-64 versions. Though not yet commented on by Microsoft, reviews and screen shots have been published by various sources.

The M1 code drop installation comes as either a standalone install or one which requires Windows Vista with Service Pack 1, and creates a dual-boot system.

On April 20, 2008, screen shots and videos of a second build of M1 were leaked with a version number of 6.1.6574.1. This build included changes to Windows Explorer as well as a new Windows Health Center.

A standalone copy of build 6519 was leaked initially to private FTPs by BETAArchive on June 10, 2008, which quickly spread to many torrent trackers.

According to TG Daily article of January 16, 2008, the Milestone 2 (M2) code drop was at that time scheduled for April or May 2008. User interface appearance changes are expected to appear in later builds of Windows 7.

Milestone 3 (M3) is listed as coming in the third quarter, and although the release dates of beta versions and release candidates are currently "to be determined", the release to manufacturing of Windows 7 has been alternately confirmed for the second half of 2009 or the first half of 2010 depending on who was speaking at the time.

Bill Gates commented in a press conference in April 2008 that a new version [of Windows] would come "in the next year or so."

According to additional clarification by Microsoft, he was only referring to availability of alpha or beta versions of Windows 7.

The Windows 7 user interface was demonstrated for the first time at the D6 conference during which Steve Ballmer acknowledged a projected release date of late 2009.

The build of Windows 7 that was on display had a different task bar than found in Windows Vista, with, among other features, sections divided into different colors.

The host declined to comment on it, stating "I'm not supposed to talk about it now today."

Windows 7 has reached the Milestone 1 (M1) stage and has been made available to key partners.

According to reports sent to TG Daily, the build adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards and a new version of Windows Media Center.

New features in Milestone 1 also reportedly include Gadgets being integrated into Windows Explorer, a Gadget for Windows Media Center, the ability to visually pin and unpin items from the Start Menu and Recycle Bin, improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack being integrated, and a multi line Calculator featuring Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion.

Reports indicate that a feedback tool included in Milestone 1 lists some coming features:

The ability to store Internet Explorer settings on a Windows Live account, updated versions of Paint and WordPad, and a 10 minute install process.

In addition, improved network connection tools might be included.

Device center, display, recovery center, and windows sensors had been added to control panel.

In build 6574, the Windows Security Center has been renamed the Windows Health Center, and focuses on monitoring the complete health status of the computer in a central location.

In the demonstration of Windows 7 at D6, the operating system featured multi-touch, including a virtual piano program, a mapping and directions program and a touch-aware version of Paint.

A minimalistic variation of the Windows API and core libraries, known as MinWin, was developed as part of the Windows 7 architecture.

The MinWin development efforts were aimed towards componentizing the Windows libraries and reducing their dependencies, with a view to carving out the minimal set of components required to build a self-contained system.

MinWin takes up about 25 MB on disk and has a working set (memory usage) of 40 MB. It lacks a graphical user interface and is interfaced using a full-screen command line interface. It includes the I/O and networking subsystems.

MinWin was first publicly demonstrated on October 13, 2007 by Eric Traut. The demo system included an OS image, made up of about 100 files, on which a basic HTTP server was running.

Incidentally, the name MinWin was also used earlier to refer to what is currently known as Server Core in Windows Server 2008.

Both efforts are intended to consolidate and modularize the core of Windows; however, the two are quite different in implementation.

With Server Core, the functionality of the OS is constrained according to server roles, and unneeded components (which will never be used as the role isn't supported) are removed from the binary image.

However, the dependencies still exist in code, and the code cannot compile without the components.

In contrast, with MinWin, the dependencies are consolidated into MinWin and what is not needed is removed at the code level itself.

As a result, the code compiles even without any extraneous components and builds a stripped-down self-contained OS image. Contrary to widely publicized rumors MinWin is based on the same NT kernel as the rest of the Windows family.

In an interview with Ina Fried of Cnet's News.com, Steven Sinofsky described the Windows 7 kernel as a further evolution of the Windows Server 2008 kernel, itself an evolution of the Windows Vista kernel.

On December 11, 2007, Hilton Locke, who worked on the Tablet PC team at Microsoft reported that Windows 7 will have new touch features.

An overview of the touch capabilities was demonstrated at the All Things Digital Conference on May 27, 2008. A video demonstrating the multi-touch capabilities was later made available on the web on the same day.

Also, Bill Gates has said that Windows 7 is also "a big step forward" for speech technology and handwriting recognition.

On May 21, 2008, Microsoft posted a job opening for Windows 7 regarding work to implement VHD support, i.e. support for single-file containers that represent an entire hard drive including partitions, and transparently performing I/O operations on this as a typical hard drive, including boot support.

“In Windows 7, our team will be responsible for creating, mounting, performing I/O on, and dismounting VHDs (virtual hard disks) natively.

Imagine being able to mount a VHD on any Windows machine, do some offline servicing and then boot from that same VHD. Or perhaps, taking an existing VHD you currently use within Virtual Server and boost performance by booting natively from it.

The development of Windows 7 has already attracted the attention of the antitrust regulators who oversee Microsoft's operations following the 2001 United States Microsoft antitrust case settlement.

According to status reports filed, the three-member panel began assessing the prototypes of the new operating system in February 2008.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research said that, "[Microsoft's] challenge for Windows 7 will be how can they continue to add features that consumers will want that also don't run afoul of regulators."

_________________________________________________

Restance is Futile -- Ignorance is Deadly

So will Windows 7, based on Vista, be as relevant as past windows versions?

Dell, Intel give users what they want: to turn Windows off

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9112732

Quotes: "Dell, Intel and their partners announced this week new technologies that represent major leaps forward for mobility. The companies seem to have discovered the secret to making such bold leaps: Cut Microsoft out of the deal.

One technology involves enabling users to gain instant access to a laptop's e-mail, browser and other basic functionality -- without booting Windows at all.

The second technology enables an Internet-based message to wake a Windows PC from sleep mode. It's useful both for VoIP applications and for anyone away from their PC who wants remote access.

Dell announced this week a new feature called Latitude ON that enables the use of e-mail, Web surfing, basic PIM functionality and document reading -- all without booting Windows. The idea is to enable basic use without having to wait for the main OS to boot, and also to extend battery life.

A more accurate name than "Latitude ON" would have been "Windows OFF.

What Dell is really doing here is building the equivalent of a secondary ASUS Eee PC into a full-featured, full-size laptop. The Latitude ON feature uses a low-power Intel Arm processor (just like the new Eee PCs), flash storage and Linux (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10) separate from the laptop's main CPU, hard drive and Windows OS. But unlike a subnotebook, the Latitude ON system won't allow you to install applications. It's essentially a "cloud computing" device that depends on the Internet for much of its functionality."
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At what point would be the next step, ship the computer without the secondary OS, Windows?

How Adobe can stop Microsoft

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid={AE3FB7A4-EE47-436B-ADF0-0C45AC172F8C}&siteid=rss

quotes: "Silverlight is a direct attack on Adobe Systems Inc. Now we have this Silverlight situation, and Adobe has to do something other than run away from Microsoft. It should attack Microsoft with a Linux initiative.

Adobe could port its Creative Suite to Linux as a shot across Redmond's bow."
----------------------------------------------------
Its already possible to run most Adobe software with Wine in Linux. Wine in Linux might actually run more XP software than Vista, or the future Seven based on Vista will.

Since we are discussing Windows Seven:

Windows 7 has one new feature

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/08/15/windows-feature

Quotes: "The 'new' program delivers one thing, a new GDI. Yes, you can extend the 'power' of pretty to all the apps on your desktop, with 3D widgets and the like, but it will also likely break compatibility with older apps."
----------------------------------------------------
As if Vista did not break enough older Windows programs, it seems that MS cannot wait to break even more with Seven.

...ummm, so with Microsoft indirectly abandoning Vista, do Vista users get a free upgrade? Refund? Something?

...oh yeah, with Windows 7, is Microsoft going to finally break free from the curse of the even number?

I miss the old name for Vista: Longhorn
Because it was fun to use the derogatory nickname: Shorthorn
For all the cut features

@ just-a-drone:

Only a few things did not make it into Vista and not even Linux or OS X are able to achieve those problems that Microsoft was trying to resolve.

- WinFS: Windows Future Storage was focused on resolving the discrepancy between user and data, providing a natural relationship about how information relates to a persons life providing relevancy and accuracy, it was not about searching for information in the traditional sense of Google or Live Search, but just making the information all make sense and providing a data store for third party developers to tie their services and applications into that frame work. A lot of relevant aspects in WinFS still live on in Vista today including the powerful Instant Search technology built into the Start menu, and Windows Explorer, the ability to do Saved searches and criterion based searches.

PC Syncing: Its not there then again, Microsoft is working on it and you can get it now through Windows Live Mesh and its gonna be even more powerful than its initial design and intention.

Castles: or Domain for Homes, Microsoft is working on this I still believe for Windows 7, (just speculating now), but its possibly called Home Group, then again, with the Windows Live platform and services like Windows Live Mesh, you can pretty much experience that today.

Vector Based GUI: Not even Apple has achieved this and are imploring on developers to get it right for either Leopard or the next release Snow Leopard. With Vista's improved DPI scaling, its not a problem for the Windows UI scaling to large resolutions.

So there you have it, 3 simple little things and you can still have it and even better.

Maybe MSFT better hurry up with Windows 7.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/17594/one-third-vista-pcs-downgrade-to-xp

Data from the exo.performance.network purports to show that 35 percent of PCs that shipped with Vista have been downgraded to Windows XP.

New data collected from the exo.performance.network suggests that over a third of PCs that ship with Microsoft Windows Vista are being downgraded to Windows XP—a percentage that, if generalizable to the wider world of Windows users—paints a far grimmer picture of Vista adoption than a large Redmond-based software company would have the world believe.

@Andre, my dear one of six. I congratulate you on this your most recent spin. Somehow you managed to portray something that is not yet here today as a benefit to Windows users.

WinFS, correctly named "Future Storage" has and seems to remain something of a feature in the future. We'll get all hype about it when it matures to WinPS "Windows Present Storage". In the mean time it is irrelevant since it is not usable. And given it has been promised since the Win95 days I'm hardly inclined to hold my breath over it.

More so, the features you say still live in Vista (like Instant Search) do seem more like a Google Search of your hard drive than a WinFS experience. The search result is returned as a list of files and not even cleanly organized as Mac's search.

In regards to the graphics comment on vector GUIs. You should be informed that as of KDE 4 Linux supports SVG art through the Oxygen project. I understand Gnome also supports SVG themes through the librsvg, but I don't use Gnome so maybe someone with more experience can fill in for me. So as you see vector based GUIs are a very real and present day usable features of Linux desktops.

I won't even waste time on PC sync. Features like rsync have been in Posix based systems since just about the beginning of times. It is Windows who is the newcomer here.

Once again, please do your research before posting.

PS, I was using transparent windows and thumb previews of applications with KDE back when Vista was still Longhorn.

(56% are putting XP on Vista Machines!)

Microsoft's Vista push probed by Fair Trade Commission

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/18/microsoft_vista_push/

The Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission is investigating a complaint against Microsoft made by the Taiwanese Consumer Foundation, which claims the company is effectively using its monopoly to force sales of Vista.

The Foundation claims its research shows 56 per cent of people buying new machines, with Vista on, would later put XP on their new box and that 67 per cent thought Microsoft should continue to offer XP. XP is still available in Taiwan on some new, lower-spec machines.

@ Ralph :
(56% are putting XP on Vista Machines!)
----------------------------------------------------
That figure seems closer to the true figure to me than the 35% one. But to be fair, the 35% figure is just for some who use downgrade rights of Vista business or ultimate, I believe, as Vista Basic and Home Premium, do not have those options. You just know many will use the Format C: option and install something else than Vista. Businesses may actually buy computers even with Vista Basic on them, format them and image XP on it. Its faster than downgrading.

I wanted to research this subject and write a paper. Your post what a thousand words would not. Nice job.