Microsoft: We'll ship Windows 7 in 2009
- TAGS:windows 7 rc1, windows 7 release date
- IT TOPICS:Applications, Operating Systems, Windows
As I've been saying for a long time, Windows 7 will ship in 2009, not 2010, most likely by the holiday season. Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte, the honcho in charge of Microsoft's Windows business, all but confirmed that in a statement.
On the Windows IT Pro site, Paul Thurrott quotes Veghte as saying "A holiday release is accomplishable." In Micro-speak that's all but a confirmation that Windows 7 will be available on consumer PCs by then.
In fact, you should expect it to be available even sooner. As I say in my review of Windows 7 Release Candidate 1, this operating system is clearly ready for prime time. At this point, the interface is essentially complete. Performance is on target. There's not a lot left to do, other than some bug-killing, performance-tweaking, and ensuring that it runs well on the widest range of hardware possible.
I did find one surprise when I reviewed it -- Windows 7 RC1 didn't recognize my Dell Inspiron E1505's video card, which was a surprise because the beta found it without any problems. Installing the driver manually fixed the problem. I would assume that minor bug will be fixed in the final release.
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