Ballmer's buzz on Windows 7

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 19 October 2008 13:22

Opinion and Analysis

That’d be a pretty good “ultimate extra” for long suffering Windows Vista Ultimate users.

If a lot of Windows Vista computers are supposed to be powerful enough to run Windows 7, a free copy of Windows 7 strictly for ultimate users would undoubtedly make many Ultimate users very happy – although we’ll just have to see if that, or something like it, comes true.

The next few days should bring forth a lot more information about Windows 7, with the coming weeks and months set to see betas, release candidates, a Vista SP2 and then finally a Windows 7 launch.

There’s also been talk very recently of an “instant on” Windows 7 mode that, like the Asus  ExpressGate feature that is running a cut down version of Linux to run Firefox, Skype and other basic software for an instant-on appliance type of experience.

While Microsoft is not yet offering this feature, the idea is being investigated, so I can only hope they do it, or face the instant boot market ceded to Linux.

What happens between now and the launch dictates just how much of a wow Windows 7 will be, and how much of the “ow” of Vista’s original launch there isn’t, although so far, Windows 7 is looking pretty good.  

That last link takes you to Paul Thurrott’s excellent Windows 7 FAQ, with plenty of interesting screenshots, and I’m sure that the PDC will deliver plenty more, giving added hope that Windows 7 upon launch will actually be heaven, compared with Windows Vista’s launch, which was, for many, a lot closer to hell.

That said, a string of updates and performance enhancements leading up to Vista SP1 and beyond have transformed Vista today into what it should have been at launch, and if Windows 7 promises even better improvements, Windows 7 should prove a very interesting new OS indeed.