14 DAY TRIAL // There are only scarce details available about Windows Seven. Microsoft recently talked about the successor of Windows Vista during a sales meeting, in an effort to provide at least some information to its Software Assurance customers tied to the delivery date of the next version of the Windows platform. And the Redmond company presented two pieces of information? the only two pieces of information, as a matter of fact. First off, Windows Seven is planned for 2010, but the three years timetable could be changed in accordance with the development of the platform and the quality standard imposed by Microsoft. And second, Windows Seven will bring to the table both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, much in the same manner as Windows Vista did.
Following the official christening of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn, and Microsoft's last 32-bit server operating system, speculations ensued claiming that Windows Vista was in the same position. Microsoft did not deny the fact that it would kill the 32-bit Windows platform, at the time, and only stated that it simply hadn't decided on the future of the platform. But in the meantime, the Redmond company seems to have changed its tune and reinstated its support for 32-bit platforms. The bottom line is that 32-bit Windows Seven will be dropped in a world where system configurations with 4GB of RAM will not be uncommon. However, a 32-bit operating system comes with inherent limitations, especially when addressing volumes of 4 GB, or even more, of system memory. The 32-bit Windows Vista features the same restrictions.
Only the 64-bit editions of the latest Microsoft platform enable users to streamline the integration of 4+ GB of RAM, up to no less than 128 GB. But Windows Vista also has the role of taking Microsoft to a 1 billion install base worldwide. Unlike Apple, a company that controls both the hardware and the Mac OS X operating system, and which thus already scrapped the 32-bit version of its operating system, Microsoft is intimately connected with approximately 1 billion computers around the world. Sure, by 2010 a part of these machines will be upgraded to 64-bit architectures, but still... Considering that Vista needs at least 2 GB of RAM for a top user experience, and that 32-bit Vista will only address a maximum of approximately 3.5 GB, it is clear that 32bit Windows Seven will be produced not for the system configurations of 2010 but for those of today.