14 DAY TRIAL // What is this? Microsoft is now pointing to 2011 for the availability Windows 7, the next iteration of the Windows operating system and the successor of Windows Vista? Whatever happened to 2009? Has Microsoft all of a sudden changed its tune when it comes to the deadline for the serving of the next version of the Windows platform? Well, not exactly. But since the Redmond company is ignoring the Windows 7 subject almost entirely, the little that it is saying is up for interpreting. And this is why reports began emerging, pointing to the fact that the release date for Windows 7 slipped from 2009 all the way to 2011, and that there is no escaping Windows Vista.
The confusion was generated by the scarce details that Microsoft did reveal about Windows 7 to the Win Vista Club: "we are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and expect it will take approximately 3 years to develop. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release."
This statement was interpreted as if the Windows team had just sat down before a blank board with only the words Windows 7 written at the top, and Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, had said: " all right, besides becoming perfectly translucent, what are we going to do next?"
Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact that 2008+3=2011 is irrelevant. Microsoft has not just debuted planning for Windows 7, and as such it will not take another three years to drop the next version of Windows. The Redmond company is actually dogfooding early development milestones of Windows 7, which basically means that it is using the operating system internally. Furthermore, Windows 7 Milestone 1 has already shipped outside of Redmond to key company partners, and there are leaked screenshots and videos proving just that.
But Microsoft pointing to a timeframe of three years for the development of Windows 7 is nothing new. The company has been saying that since 2007, when Windows 7 was reported for 2010. At the same time, the recent Windows 7 M1 came with additional info revealing that Microsoft is working toward a release date ahead of the 2009 holiday season. If 2010 sounded just right, 2011 is way off. And it's a repeat of the gap between Windows XP and Windows Vista, a move that Microsoft top executives, such as Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, said would never happen again.
And all things aside 2009 actually make a world of sense, as Windows Vista was released to manufacturing and to businesses in 2006. Even early 2010 cannot be excluded, considering Vista's 2007 consumer launch. But 2011 is simply stretching it.