OMG! Windows 7 release date canceled! (Not.)

Despite what some bloggers are saying, the Windows 7 release date hasn't been canceled by Microsoft. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers get spun up about (gasp) a bug in Windows 7 RTM code.

By Richi Jennings. July 6, 2009.

Your humble blogwatcher has selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment. Not to mention recycling jolly old cellphones...

Jordan M. Jacob rants and raves:

A critical show stopper bug has been found in the Final Windows 7 RTM 7600.16385 and in the updated 7600.16399 builds on both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) installs! ... The issue is related to the "chkdsk /r" command on a NTFS drive other than the system drive (Issue not present for FAT32 Drives). For example if you have drive C: and drive D: with C: being Windows 7. If you open "cmd" and run "chkdsk /r D:" on "Stage 4" of chkdsk it will have a very critical memory leak and max out the system memory then BSOD due to lack of memory available. .
...
This is a very critical bug that Microsoft should have caught before sending 7600.16385 to OEMs. Sadly, now Microsoft will have to fix this and then re-distribute RTM code to OEMs or patch it. I would not doubt myself when Microsoft gets word of this Show Stopper bug if the TechNet/MSDN releases on Thursday the 6th get pushed back to re-implement new code into the RTM build.

Randall C. Kennedy says it risks derailing the launch:

Oh boy! It appears that Microsoft’s glowing track record with Windows 7 is about to come to an abrupt and unceremonious end. ... I tested for the bug ... when it entered the fourth stage (a read test), the chkdsk.exe utility's memory consumption started to climb rapidly until several gigabytes had been allocated to its process and the test systems in question began to run out of memory.
...
I did not succeed in causing the systems to “blue screen” as others have reported. However, I did observe chkdsk.exe consume up to 90 percent of the available physical memory. ... This is clearly a Microsoft bug –- and the fact that it manifests itself via the chkdsk.exe utility makes me wonder if it isn’t something intrinsic to the Windows 7 version of the New Technology File System (NTFS) driver stack.

Uh, hang on, says Gavin Clarke:

Microsoft has gotten personal in responding to reports of a "show stopper" bug in Windows 7 capable of delaying the planned roll-out, which starts Thursday. The company has blamed a chip-set controller issue rather than a critical bug in the Windows 7 chkdsk /r tool.
...
He appeared to take particular issue, however, with descriptions of a "critical bug" and "showstopper" in Windows 7. ... "While we appreciate the drama of 'critical bug' and then the pickup of 'showstopper' that I’ve seen, we might take a step back and realize that this might not have that defcon level," he said.

Harry McCracken thinks about it:

Assuming that this is a real Win 7 issue that Microsoft can fix– but not in time to get it onto the first Windows 7 PCs–I suspect that it’ll roll out a patch that will be ready and waiting for installation by the time Windows 7 arrives on October 22nd. Swatting bugs during the time between finishing RTM code and software actually getting to consumers seems to be standard practice these days; I’ve even talked to industryfolk (not at Microsoft) who cheerfully admit that it’s part of how they make deadlines.
...
Whether the issue Kennedy wrote about is a serious bug, a minor one or (as Sinofsky says) a feature, Windows 7 will be buggy. So will Apple’s Snow Leopard when it ships. So is all software–especially major updates to big, complex applications such as operating system.

The pseudonymous denizens of SevenForums weigh in:

I just tried this, but can't seem to replicate the error.
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Same here.
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I can't replicate it either. I think somebody is trying to drum up some traffic to his blog.......Fail.

Ever the linkbaitmeister, John C. Dvorak muses thuswise:

Why has Windows 7 suddenly fallen off the track with negative publicity? What happened? What changed? This is one of the strangest developments I have ever witnessed—even rivaling the reverse publicity that began to pound OS/2 beginning around 1987, which eventually destroyed that OS as a viable alternative.
...
I do not know what is going to turn the Windows 7 tide back to the rah-rah period. It might take a serious public relations campaign. But with Microsoft seemingly spending all its PR and marketing resources on its Bing search engine, it does not seem likely.

So what's your take?
Get involved: leave a comment.

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 24 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him as @richi on Twitter or richij on FriendFeed, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itblogwatch@richij.com.