Windows 7 To Be Released Next Year? 561
KrispySausage writes "A recently-released roadmap for the next major Window release — Windows 7 — indicates that Microsoft is planning to release the new operating system in the second half of 2009, rather than the anticipated release date of some time in 2010. This quickly-approaching release date would seem to be at least partially verified by news of a milestone build available for review by an anonymous third party." We've previously discussed the upcoming new OS version, as well as its danger to Vista.
Microsoft roadmaps (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah. Right.
And same goes for the feature list. I haven't been arsed to check but do they have the new filesystem there once more? Someone has been working on the new Windows filesystem for about 14 years now (since chicago). Must be really rewarding to have it axed time after time.
an ME situation would be my guess (Score:3, Interesting)
Good news for Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
What new technologies can we except? (Score:4, Interesting)
Then later I read about how the new file system (WinFS) was based on something called 'Cairo' and about how that too had been scrapped.
At that stage I was using Mandrake Linux (I switched to Ubuntu at the start of 2007), and wanted something better.
Anyway, so this chain of thought ends in, well now I am using Ubuntu, it does keep getting better all the time. I don't use MS Windows really at all now on my computers. Why do I care?
Meh, lets try and get back to where I stared. Can we expect a new file system? Can we expect radical 'new' technologies? Perhaps even voice commands? (Computer: open http colon slash slash slash dot dot org)
Why is it.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I just got a copy of OSX 10.5 for my really old and outdated mac. Specifically to get a working copy of dashcode as I write OSX widgets for Crestron control. I was expecting the worst as installing the latest OS on a old PC never is a good thing.
10.5 makes my machine faster. I kind of looked at it skeptically but it actually boots faster and has a more responsive feel, even NeoOffice opens faster as well as Final Cut.
Why is Apple able to deliver an OS that is faster instead of slower? It's got as much eye candy as vista.
Maybe microsoft needs to have all their programmers re-trained?
FYI: Single processor G4 with only 784 meg of ram, and a crappy laptop video card.
Re:Low memory requirements from ms... (Score:4, Interesting)
So it might be interesting where they draw the line between the kernel at 40 MB and 'the system' with 480 MB of memory. It sounds like mainly applications running that you could probably parse down.
A move in the right direction at least.
Re:if only... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Low memory requirements from ms... (Score:5, Interesting)
From TFA:
"The system is very responsive, using barely 480MB of memory after boot."
I've obviously been in *nix land for too long, I'm still of the impression that 256 Mb is pretty much all one needs for most tasks. Even EMACS!
Bloat is relative. Compared to Vista, 480MB is freaking Calista Flockhart-level of skinny.
Re:This is fake, mod article down (*sigh*) (Score:2, Interesting)
Cherry Coke (Score:2, Interesting)
Expect to see 'XP Classic' being released before long.
Re:Good news for Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
As a primarily Linux user, who uses Gentoo for frequent rolling minor updates rather than infrequent major updates, I keep a constant backup of the working kernel and configuration files by use of a cronjob shell script such that if a similar thing happened to me, if I couldn't fix it myself quickly, I would just do a rollback.
What I'm trying to say is that no-one denies that an update to *ANY* operating system can, potentially, screw the system up - but the fact is that preparing for such an eventuality is of primary importance.
I don't use Ubuntu but I would suspect if a Ubuntu update caused lots of people to have baulked machines, then, like Microsoft, Ubuntu would publish a fix on their web site to help get you out of it and it would be up to the user to go find and follow those instructions to get their machines back. But I suspect most Windows users would never bother even checking the MS web site, rather they'd just reinstall their machines or give it to an expert to fix.
In your particular case, it might be a wierd combination of hardware that has caused you, and maybe a handful of other people, to have a problem with an update that most other people didn't suffer. But the chances are that someone else more knowledgeable than you would have seen the problem, fixed it and put it up on the web somewhere - all it would take from you is a little clever Googling to find that out.
Ultimately, this issue has nothing to do with problems caused by whoever created the update, but about you making some effort to analyse what the problem is, look for a fix, and if there isn't one, post some polite messages in appropriate places asking for someone's help - whether it's Windows or Linux, someone will always jump to your assistance if you demonstrate that you can provide as much information as possible as to what the problem is.
Unlike Windows, where you have an expert on "every street corner", Linux requires that you take some responsibility for your own machines and learn as much as you can about how it works - if you're not prepared to do that, then you should find or pay for someone to do that for you or, even better, stay away from Linux.
Unfortunately, there are far too many people out there lost in the "cool factor" of using Linux because it's different to what most other people run who don't think about the ramifications of doing so. Linux is *ONLY* a replacement for Windows if you spend as much time becoming accustomed to it as you did with Windows (albeit you learnt to use computers and Windows pretty transparently) and switching to Linux is not a decision to be taken lightly if you are pretty new to it.
Re:Marketing Slogan (Score:4, Interesting)
has anyone ever.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Vista's missing features (Score:1, Interesting)
All in all, this sounds like a surprisingly smart move on their part.
Sorry, but as long as Microsoft is selling software which they own the power to disable at any moment, software which you have paid for yet still must call and beg for permission to run, they are NOT surprisingly smart, only surprisingly GREEDY!
I was reasonably happy with Win2K Pro. It worked well enough. What's more, when I bought it, it stayed bought.
Quit giving M$ your money. There is no longer any reason to do so. Even my kids can do system administration on Ubuntu.
Just say "NO!"
Re:windows7 (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd say Windows releases are more like Batman movies, each ones sucks more than the one before until it gets "re-imagined" into a new series (Win2k), which starts the process over (XP, Vista).
Or maybe like Bond movies, where they're all pretty much the same, only the plots get less believable and you're left longing for the "classic" Bond who didn't need insane gizmos to get the job done. Yes, I like that analogy better.
Re:Why is it.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:windows7 (Score:5, Interesting)
i am also glad that they updated the documentation from nt4 to w2k under defragment.. i will never forget reading that in the nt4 manual.. the recomended procedure for disk defragmentation was to back up the drive to tape.. format the drive and restore from tape.. just sadly funny for a server OS..
personaly i like w2k and still use it on my laptop.. i don't need the bells and wisles that xp and vista have - and with the lesser over head it makes my old p3 laptop run perfect
Re:windows7 (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the probably features of Windows 7 include MinWin, which is a much lighter kernel (25MB footprint on disk, 40MB footprint in RAM). Another is the likelyhood of MS's heirarchical filesystem that was pulled in the Vista release.
There are other features being discussed such as extensive touch interface ability, etc...
Re:windows7 (Score:4, Interesting)
I liked windows 2k a lot, I learned Delphi programming on 2k box. These days I don't code on windows except for ports of my software, but XP is ok for games, and I still like and use MSoffice.
Unfashionable I know, but what can I say, I'm OS Neutral.
Re:windows7 (Score:2, Interesting)
No, the sad thing is that their server OS has a filesystem where regular defragmentation is a necessity. Over time, ext3 can fragment too, but just not that fast. Further, keeping file size and lifetime (write frequency) in mind when you partition improves fragmentation resistance.
Re:Such optimism? (Score:2, Interesting)
You know, I work in the on-site computer services industry, and I've obviously been getting more and more jobs with Vista. I hear this complaint all the damn time, from clients and from coworkers/other professionals, and I just don't bloody understand it. The really obnoxious "Cancel/Allow", "Continue?", "Are you sure?", "I really don't think you should do that..." boxes are really only a consideration if you're using the administrator account. you know, that thing that Unix/Linux advocates have ridiculed Windows users for for (at least) a decade?
I'd say one of the things I actually LIKE about Vista is that they've finally fixed the crap that made Limited User Accounts in XP completely unusable, and made the admin account so obnoxious i thought it would virtually guarantee Standard account usage..apparantly i was wrong.
As for the other half of the sentence, it's about f-ing time they started enforcing directory and file-structure policies on users! have you ever tried to recover files on a dying hdd for a windows user?
"ok, where are the files we need to recover?"
"what do you mean?"
"well, the files that are important to you. what folders are they in?"
"i don't know."
"ok, what programs do you use regularly?"
"Office and pictures"
So you grab the user folder, then it turns out that they also use quicken/quickbooks (which stores data files in the Program Files folder, for some ungodly reason), and all their pictures are in a folder called "important stuff" buried in the windows root directory...
EVERY time I set up a Vista machine for a client I create a limited user account, explain the benefits over the admin account, and install some piece of software so I can show them the dialog box that comes up when you need to elevate privs. I do the same if I'm restoring a Vista machine that's hosed..
I used to be a pretty emphatic Linux user, and I switched to macs at home for day to day use when the 2nd gen mac mini came out, but I work on Windows machines all day at work. There are some pretty annoying things about Vista (Point taken on Start Menu scrolling and performance. as dumb as it sounds, I really miss the Desktop Cleanup Wizard from XP. handy for those people who have 50k icons on their desktop that they've NEVER clicked on.. Anyone know if they just moved it in Vista?), but UAC (when Standard Accounts are being utilized) and strict file structure policies really aren't in that group, AFAIC.
Defragmentation, Windows 2000 (Score:4, Interesting)
Step one: Disable Windows firewall, Themes.
Step two: Pretend it says "2000" instead of "XP"
ps. They didn't just "update the documentation" for defrag NTFS on NT4 to Windows 2000. There was no NTFS Defragment tool in NT4. The idea was that NTFS is much less susceptible to fragmentation (it is) that it would not be necessary. Unfortunately, this is untrue in the long-term - even NTFS can't avoid the fact that sometimes there will not be enough continuous blocks free for a file.
Generally speaking, you don't need to run defragmentation tools on servers anyways. It's just not a big enough problem. For a busy file server, perhaps, but back in NT4 land a file server didn't have 1TB of word documents like a medium-large sized company today does.
They added an NTFS defrag to Windows 2000.
ps. There's no built-in defrag tools for Linux ext2/3/etc or MacOS even still. Because, it's just not a huge problem with modern filesystems. But it would be nice to have these tools available for those times when heavy fragmentation has occured.
Re:Defragmentation, Windows 2000 (Score:1, Interesting)
Step one: Disable Windows firewall, Themes.
Step two: Pretend it says "2000" instead of "XP"
Step three: Reformat drive and install REAL Windows 2000 to avoid 'Product Activation' and all the other DRM-related stuff Microsoft put into XP and beyond to appease the media cartels....
That's why I'm staying on Windows 2000: Just say no to DRM and Product Activation....