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Fuzzy Logic MS Tech Ed 2009 – Windows 7, 8, 9 and the future
Fuzzy Logic MS Tech Ed 2009 – Windows 7, 8, 9 and the future | MS Tech Ed 2009 – Windows 7, 8, 9 and the future |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Friday, 11 September 2009 | |
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Page 1 of 3   
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One of the pre-announced surprises of the event was the fact that every fully paid attendee would receive an HP MiniNote 2140 netbook, with around 2500 units needing to be imaged with Windows 7 Ultimate RTM, the Office 2010 Technical Preview, Visual Studio and a host of marketing materials and info, along with an XPS file of the Tech Ed guide. Attendees who weren’t full paying customers, such as technology journalists, or attendees whose company policies prohibited them from accepting gifts, could still also receive HP loaner netbooks if they wanted to try the Windows 7 netbook experience. Naturally, these loan units needed to be signed for and must be returned, with returned units to be donated to charities. This safeguard neatly sidesteps any repeat of the Vista laptop loan scandal that engulfed some journalists, bloggers and Microsoft itself a couple of years ago, while allowing Microsoft to offer its boldest extra incentive ever for full paying attendees to come along to Tech Ed, and from what I’ve seen, it’s been a resounding success. It seems like virtually everyone has left their regular notebooks in their hotel rooms and is happily using the HP netbooks to take notes, check emails, surf the web, test out Windows 7, Office 2010 and more, being connected to a free Microsoft-provided Wi-Fi network that has held up pretty well - despite being hammered by so many simultaneous users. The imaging and deployment of the 2500 or so netbooks was also an interesting learning experience for Microsoft, and again, it has proved to be a very successful initiative. It also demonstrated Windows 7’s strong performance on netbooks, which with the RTM version is as fast and as smooth as promised. Microsoft keeping its promises – can you imagine it? Thank goodness that, this time, it’s true. Regular readers might remember my May 25th article earlier this year, where I noted my disappointment with the performance of the Windows 7 Release Candidate as compared to the earlier Windows 7 beta, but thankfully Windows 7 RTM has erased the slowness. The only sad part of the netbook equation is that many upcoming netbook owners will be lumbered with the older Windows XP or the Windows 7 Starter Edition, and not the Windows 7 Ultimate version on the netbooks we’re all using at the conference, but unlike many in the world of open source, Microsoft actually needs to make money, so I don’t think too many people are surprised. So, what’s all this about Windows 9 already, who did I speak to about that – and what else is in store for Microsoft’s future?! Continued on page 2, please read on. |
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