Microsoft revealed that it was happy with the way Windows 7 was received at the Professional Developers Conference 2008 in Los Angeles, at the end of October. The software giant applauded the good reception of Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 bits at the event, which gathered more than 6,500 developers to the Staples Center. PDC 2008 was synonymous with the first broad taste of Windows 7, with Microsoft delivering Milestone 3 of the operating system. According to the company, the pre-Beta Build 6801 bits were received with enthusiasm by attendees, despite some inherent caveats.

“Things like mounting virtual hard drives – we were just drooling over that,” stated Tim Huckaby, CEO of Interknowlogy. Microsoft indicated that the new features showcased for Windows 7 indeed managed to impress developers, in addition to the speed of the platform.

“I installed the pre-beta (the third build, handed out at PDC) and was surprised at how stable it is. And it seems very, very fast. And I like a lot of the UI stuff, the multi-monitor support, and the DirectX improvements,” revealed Dan Rigby, lead software engineer at Interactive Intelligence.

Still, at PDC 2008, Microsoft demonstrated Builds of Windows 7 superseding Build 6801, which was actually delivered to participants. In fact, some demonstrations featured Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6933, and, in this respect, the Milestone 3 version that was handed out was a few features short, especially in regard to the graphical user interface.

The main concern that developers have with Windows 7 is Microsoft repeating the Windows Vista episode. “When we saw Vista, no one wondered whether it would be a functional OS with great features,” one PDC participant told the company. “But what we found is that it wasn’t fast or stable enough. If Windows 7 is stable, then we should be in good shape.”