In this issue:
Microsoft Talks About Windows 7
by Arie Slob
Hello Windows users,
Microsoft has been very closed-lipped about Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista. Microsoft has indicated that a release date for Windows 7 has been set for 2010, but that's about all. Most pundits point to the changeover from Jim Allchin to Steven Sinofsky at the top of the Windows development team. Sinofsky is known as a close-lipped and calculating VP (he previously oversaw the development of the Microsoft Office system of programs, servers and services), but this week Sinofsky offered a brief peek at Windows 7 for the first time in an interview with CNET's Ina Fried.
Not that anything much was revealed that we didn't already know. After reading the CNet interview I'm left with a feeling that Microsoft is in danger of making the same mistake with Windows 7 as it did with Vista: release it on a time driven schedule. Back in 2004 - during the heat of Longhorn's development problems - Bill Gates tried to reassure everyone that the Longhorn release would not become date-driven. In the end it became just that, and Vista shipped before it was ready.
Microsoft seems to think that it is more important to please its Software Assurance customers with a timely release than it is to make sure the new release is rock solid. Microsoft lost quite a bit of respect in the community, and most of it on account of Vista. If Microsoft wants to win back the respect of its users, it needs to make sure the next Windows release will be ready & rock solid when released.
A quick view of some of the things that were mentioned about Windows 7:
- Windows 7 will run on the same hardware as Vista.
- Windows 7 will support the same applications and devices as Vista. Windows 7 will ship in both 32 and 64-bit.
- There's no complete kernel re-write. Windows 7 will build on the Windows Server 2008 kernel in the same way that kernel was an evolution of the Vista kernel.
- Windows 7 isn't just Windows Vista SP2, but will build on some of Vista's foundations. Memory management, networking, process management, all of the security hardening, will carry forth into Windows 7.
Earlier this week Bill Gates did show off (see video half way down the page) one of Windows 7's unique features; Pervasive Multi-Touch, a feature that will allow users of the upcoming system to control touch screen-based PCs with your fingers. A simpler version of this feature actually exists in Windows Vista today, but Windows 7 will take this functionality to the next level by providing multi-touch capabilities that will work everywhere in the system.
We'll probably learn some more specifics of Windows 7 as time goes on, but information will be much more limited than the information released early in Vista's development process. Microsoft doesn't want to make the same mistake by over-promising and then being unable to deliver.
Windows Updates
Microsoft issued a number of updates for Windows Vista & Windows XP in the past weeks:
Windows Vista:
- KB943170 - Update to resolve a possible issue when a SATA hard disk drive uses Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) mode on a system running Windows Vista.
- KB950194 - Update to resolve the issue in which a user cannot write to a BD-RE disc or to a DVD-RAM disc even after disabling the write-protection feature.
Windows XP:
- KB951830 - Update to resolve the issue in which a client cannot resolve DNS after the network adapter is connectoed/disconnected or disabled/enabled, on a system running Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Windows Newsletter Schedule
In two weeks time I will be traveling back to my home country, I will try to publish the newsletter on June 12, but it is quite likely the next newsletter will be a week late - June 21 - instead.
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