Windows 7 release date is Oct 22 says Microsoft (download sooner?)

The Windows 7 release date is October 22, says Microsoft. In IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers react to the news (and notes that the date is as previously rumored). The 7 bits will be baked in July, so perhaps the download will be in August? Not to mention real-life Jenga...

Austin Modine has a date:

Windows 7 will hit store shelves on October 22, Microsoft confirmed today. ... [It] was originally slated for a 2010 roll-out, but last month, Redmond admitted that the OS would arrive in time for the crucial holiday shopping season.
...
Microsoft will ship six versions of Windows 7; Starter Edition, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate, and Home Basic for developing markets. Prices haven't yet been set.

Harry McCracken cheers for the industry and for users:

It’s cheery news for a PC industry that’s presumably already worrying about the holiday sales period and looking for incentives it can give consumers to buy, buy, buy. ... There’s plenty of evidence that a Windows 7 machine will be more pleasing than the same hardware loaded with Windows Vista (or for that matter, Windows XP).
...
[But I] ... am going to remain a tad uneasy about the launch until we know more about whether the typical Windows 7 machine that’s sold to a consumer is so larded up with demoware, adware, and pointlessware that you can’t appreciate Win 7’s subdued, less annoying personality.

JR Raphael asks what happens before then:

Another step in the Windows 7 release process will be the transition into the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) phase of development. That's the final phase before the software becomes available to consumers, and -- as its name suggests -- entails Microsoft sending the Windows 7 code to PC manufacturers so they can start preparing new systems for the October 22 release.

Vitaliy N. Katsenelson seeks a meme simile: [Seeks a whatnow? -Ed.]

If Susan Boyle was a stock, I’d call her a deep value stock with very low expectations, and thus a great margin of safety, selling at a discount to its fair value.
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Microsoft ... doesn’t have the luster it once had. It's seen as middle-aged, overweight and slow, and it is believed by many that creativity retired with Bill Gates. The sentiment is so horrible that there is almost universal expectation that it will not come up with another good product, ever. ... But the ugly duckling is about to sing, and it will be a Susan Boyle-like performance.

But Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols pleads with you not to buy Windows 7:

Microsoft doesn't dare compete on quality, so it pressures OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and retailers to keep people from even realizing that there are other, never-mind better, choices. So, if you want to see Linux netbooks, now is the time to let your vendors and retailers know that you want real choice. That, you want to see ARM netbooks with Android, and other Linux choices. That you want to see Intel Atom netbooks with Moblin and other Linuxes. Many PC makers, like Acer, are releasing Linux netbooks, we need to support them and let their sales partners know that we want their products.

If we don't… Well, don't blame me if in 2010, your only netbook choices are crippleware Windows 7 netbooks or $500+ netbook/laptops with Windows 7 Home Premium.

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

And finally...

• Real-life Jenga
  

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• MAYDAY! Windows 7 is here
• Project Natal: amazing Xbox 360 controller-free gaming at E3
• New iPhone 3 / 3G / 2009 leaks: autofocus, compass, MMS...
• Google Wave: who, what, where, why, when?
• Steve Jobs is healthy, says famous dancer Woz
• Android to dethrone iPhone?

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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 on Twitter or FriendFeed, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: contact Richi.