Windows 7 next year?

[Agent]

Gates: Windows 7 may come 'in the next year' | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com

Would that make Vista the quickest OS to be superseded if it happened?

[Dreaming]

I'm not sure... 2-5 years is normal for Windows isn't it? XP to Vista was just unusually long.

1995 - 95
1998 - 98
1999 - 98se
2000 - ME
2000 - 2000
2001 - XP.

I would say ME was made redundant the fastest! Vista was released at the end of 2006, so to 2009 is what two and a half years probably?

edit: it says 'within the next year' which hints at a 2008 release? So that would give it one and a half to two years.

[Agent]

There were no major changes in the OS really though going from Windows 95 to ME when you compared it to the jump of ME to XP. That was an entire overhaul of the OS.

Windows 7 was supposed to be a the same kind of overhaul.....however it with all the changes it had in development (WP does a pretty good job of covering it), who knows if it'll end up as another major overhaul or a simple revision?

[Funkstar]

Dreaming's timeline is a bit off if you ask me. There are two architectures there this would be a better example:

Windows NT 4.0 - July 29, 1996
Windows 2000 - February 17, 2000
Windows XP - October 25, 2001
Windows Vista - November 30, 2006

Almost 4 years between NT4 and 2K, about 18 months onto XP, 5 years until Vista, and I would say at least 2 years between Vista and Windows 7.

For a complete and definative timeline see here:
History of Microsoft Windows - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So no, Windows 7 would have to be released right now for Vista to have the shortest lifespan

[mediaboy]

Lol... Every single OS on that list I have got..

I'm sitting on a NT4 that used to be my parent's old work computer.

I have a win2K upstairs for word processing, a windows 98 for a little bit of gaming, and a XP and a ME for LAN gaming. Talk about variety.


Oh - and I've also got Vista sitting in my bedroom waiting for the rest of my computer parts to be brought and delivered from Scan

[Bleak]

Windows 7 is going to be a huge release for MS when it comes around. If it flops as much as Vista did and people 'upgrade' to XP again then it'd be interesting to see what happens.

[Jay]

XP is very much 2000 with extra features, Windows 7 is going to be to Vista what Vista is to XP.

[AndrewJ]

I just hope Windows Seven Comes with WINFS for example and the other features which was planned and canned for Vista.

[Hunain]

Whats going to happen to people who bought Vista ultimate?

[AndrewJ]

Whats going to happen to people who bought Vista ultimate?

Probally offered some trade up deal by Microsoft.

[-iceblade^]

Vista ultimate retail IMO is way too expensive... no real benefits afforded there...

[slypie]

I think ME was just kinda a special edition of 98.

I think if MS did release Windows 7 then it would have a backlash from people who paid a lot (over the odds) for Vista only for it to be surpassed in a couple of years. Not what I'd call getting your monies worth. To me it would also say that MS didn't have much confidence in Vista and wanted to sweep it under the carpet asap. It may also have the effect of pushing people towards Linux which may or may not be good depaending on your point of view.

[b0redom]

Linux won't grab a big domestic market share for the forseeable future, as it's just not dummy proof.

There is no way I'd let my folks, or anyone else I would need to support install Linux as the overhead would just be way too big especially when you factor in the number of distributions.

Linux is fine for geeks and servers, but in the short/medium term, it's just not going to happen.

[SiM]

Microsoft Clears Gates-Induced Confusion about Windows 7

[directhex]

Linux won't grab a big domestic market share for the forseeable future, as it's just not dummy proof.

There is no way I'd let my folks, or anyone else I would need to support install Linux as the overhead would just be way too big especially when you factor in the number of distributions.

Linux is fine for geeks and servers, but in the short/medium term, it's just not going to happen.

hmm, depends. for someone with no preconceptions about computing, any UI requires learning - and the harder it is for them to break, the less support hassles

of course, if they break linux, it's somewhat more involved to get it going again than the usual "reformat and reinstall" approach on windows. but clicking a web browser icon is the same on any os, so is sending email

[TheAnimus]

hmm, depends. for someone with no preconceptions about computing, any UI requires learning - and the harder it is for them to break, the less support hassles

of course, if they break linux, it's somewhat more involved to get it going again than the usual "reformat and reinstall" approach on windows. but clicking a web browser icon is the same on any os, so is sending email

The Eee demonstrates this quite well.

Linux is really quite close to windows in terms of coherient user interface, something that was really not true even 2 years ago.

The XOrg team are making waves in performance, it no longer feals like your having to navigate rapids using a pig with a brush stuck up its anus.

The problems of configuration will not go away over night, but for the off the shelf mass market, its not a problem, the only people its a problem for are the small build companies who can't afford to customise their builds. Linux still has too many different ideas for doing the same simple thing like configuration. I'm not saying win is perfect (is it an MMC snap in, Registry key, or confing file), but its a hell of a lot better.