NOW READ THIS
("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0463 Microsoft Windows 7 May Come Sooner Than Later:
Microsoft has dropped two strong hints in the past two days that the next version of its Windows
operating system may arrive in 2009, shaving up to a year off previous expectations. It could also
be a signal that Microsoft intends to cut its losses with Windows VISTA, which has been poorly
received or shunned by customers, especially large companies. Microsoft has long said it wants
to release Windows 7 about three years after VISTA, which was released to manufacturing in Nov2006
but not officially launched until Jan2007. Given Microsoft's recent track record - VISTA arrived
more than 5 years after XP - most outsiders had pegged some time in 2010 as a safe bet for Windows 7
arrival. But News.com reported Friday 04APR that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates answered a question
at a business meeting in Miami about Windows VISTA by saying "Sometime in the next year or so we will
have a new version." And during its announcement Thursday that it would extend the availability of
Windows XP HOME for low-cost laptops, Microsoft said it would retire the operating system only after
30JUN2010, or one year after the release of Windows 7, whichever comes later. Microsoft has also
divulged a few things about Windows 7. REsponding to criticism that Windows has become unnecessarily
bloated, the company has 200 engineers developing a slimmed-down kernel called MinWin that uses
100 files and 25MB, compared to VISTA's 5,000 files and 4GB core, and is so small it lacks a
graphical subsystem. Microsoft has also confirmed that the operating system will come in consumer
and business versions and in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. Screenshots of early betas of Windows 7
are also appearing. A blogger recently put up screenshots from build 6519 of Windows 7 released
in December, which he said looks like "a slightly enhanced version of Windows
VISTA."
(IDG News Service 04APR08)