Windows 7 Released Early In UK 194
CNETNate writes "UK customers have been reporting that they received their copies of Windows 7 in the mail today. Currently the British postal service is threatening industrial action over pay, and planned walkouts may result in Windows 7 not being delivered on its release date. It is understood that Microsoft has agreed to let some retailers send out copies early to avoid disappointment, and to make the UK the first country in the world to have Windows 7 in customers' hands."
Already on sale in Israel... (Score:5, Informative)
Not only the U.K.,
Windows 7 is already on sale in Israel.
Re:Already on sale in Israel... (Score:2, Informative)
We were able to order Windows 7 OEM, Retail and Upgrade licenses on the 15th. We received the first ones on the 16th.
This is in no way unusual...
Re:Who'd have thought... (Score:5, Informative)
I'll be honest; I'm not sure why there's so much delay before the general release anyhow. The RTM build was signed off on months ago, and went up for MSDN subscribers (a very small portion of the general public, but often people with very little connection to MS) only a few days later. At my school, through the MSDN Academic Alliance program (free MS software to endingeering students) we've been able to get Win7 for some weeks (and via http://dreamspark.com/ [dreamspark.com] all students with a .edu email address can get Server 2008 R2, the server version of the Win7 release).
So... why so long before boxes hit shelves? It seems very odd to me.
Germany too (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Who'd have thought... (Score:5, Informative)
So... why so long before boxes hit shelves? It seems very odd to me.
Basically: getting enough manufactured to cover initial demand and getting those units shipped to retailers. Many retailers might have had boxed copies in their warehouses weeks ago but they will have signed a deal saying they won't make them available until the official release date in order for the public release to be coordinated in all territories.
As well as accounting for manufacturing processes and regional shipment delays, they will have also allowed extra time for other unexpected extensions to these delays and other issues. There would also be a final test phase of the activation infrastructure to fit in too, to ensure it can cope with the sudden glut of activity on, and shortly after, release day.
There is also co-ordination with OEMs to consider. They would not be happy with retail copies going out before they had chance to update and test their offerings in time for release date - yes MS has them over a barrel to a certain extent so could tell them to go hang if it wanted to, but this isn't the right climate to be annoying major customers in. There are probably other marketing reasons to pick a coordinated date near, but not at, the end of the year too.
Releasing to MSDN subscribers is much easier. Most are download-only subscriptions now so just put the ISOs on subscriptions.msdn.microsoft.com and there is no need for physical anything never mind coordinated physical anything. For subscribers who still get disks that is just a plain DVD (and/or ISO files on a plain DVD) with no fancy hologram label and no box or other additional materials. It is not expected that developers have to wait for coordinated retail release, so there are no OEM concerns to worry about (in fact the OEMs would prefer developers to have early access - it will reduce problems and returns at their end of the market if there is less stuff out there with compatibility issues by release day).
Re:Who'd have thought... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Hopefully they fixed these things from Vista: (Score:3, Informative)
When there's a number of windows, but none have focus, and one uses alt-f4, one immidiately gets a shutdown dialog.
That behaviour has been present in Windows since at least XP - if no window has focus, then the Desktop has focus. Alt-F4 on the Desktop opens the shut down dialogue. There's nothing to fix here, it simply doesn't work the way you think it should.
Not about pay (Score:4, Informative)
Minor correction to the story, the dispute isn't really about pay, it's about changes in working conditions. There are some aspects that cover what counts as overtime so pay is involved, but it's not just "we want more money".
Re:Hopefully they fixed these things from Vista: (Score:5, Informative)
- The absence of a directory up button in the explorer. No I don't want to use alt-up when I'm with my hand on the mouse and don't get me started on the horrifying location bar!
Wait, backspace doesn't work anymore?! (Not using Vista, can't verify.) Yes, the location bar is a pain, but clicking the empty region gets you to the editable path box – directory structure delimited by backslashes, as you wanted.
- When there's a number of windows, but none have focus, and one uses alt-f4, one immidiately gets a shutdown dialog. I just want to close my apps dammit!
Jesus Christ, and hitting "Esc" is too much trouble for you? It's not like this is unexpected or new behavior (as the other responder has pointed out).
You want a close-all hotkey? Never existed. You want it added? That's not a "fix", it's an addition.
- The absence of a 'Don't ask me for permission to confirm system changes until next session' option in UAC.
That's called "turning UAC off", and while discouraged it's entirely possible.
This strike is about more than just pay (Score:3, Informative)
At my place of work we can receive up to 20,000 items of Royal Mail each day. During the last strikes in '07 the Communication Workers Union message was that the manager's "modernisation" plan was really just a massive cut in service whereas RM management claimed they were just trying to eliminate "Spanish practices".
Immediately after the imposition of the managers plan the quality of the service we receive decreased substantially. It used to be the case that we'd receive about 80% of our post by 7:30 with the rest arriving by about 11:00 at the latest. Nowadays we receive anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of our post by around 8:00ish (sometimes a little later) with the rest turning up by about noon. This is because RM have stopped people coming in an hour early to help sort the post (for which they received a small bonus) and also cut down or eliminated the overnight shifts in most sorting offices.
Obviously this makes planning the workflow each day challenging. It used to be the case that we'd have a clear idea of our intake first thing in the morning and so people would know straight away which jobs were going to be busiest and whether or not it'd be possible to use flexi-time to leave early that day; these days we just have to take it as it goes.
This has knock on effects for our customer as essentially we're dealing with a RM "failure" each day meaning we're not in breach of our contract for failing to supply all the post on time to them. The solution we agreed for that was to treat the late post as having come in the next day which, considering the time-sensitive nature of our work and the effect delays could have on the customers our customer serves, is a pretty poor outcome.
Most posties take an enormous amount of pride in their work and they're angry at how Adam Crozier and chums are tearing the service apart. I'm sure the problems we get due to the cuts in RM are being experienced elsewhere too at a cost to UK business, so support the CWU in their campaign to save Royal Mail!
Also, the timing of this strike is the responsibility of RM management. They're the one's who made an unacceptable offer just before Christmas and, because of the way the Trade Union laws in this country work, the CWU had to ballot for strike action now. This is clearly a PR stunt by the RM managers so they can put out a message of "look at the greedy posties trying to ruin Christmas!". It's utterly shameful, don't fall for it.