Uncle Patso says:

John, you _seriously_ need to get those Silicon Spin tapes digitized, whether it’s on DVD, Blu-Ray or even mini-DV, before there are no playback machines to be found. Even VCD would be better than a big stack of tapes with no player. They might as well be on 8-tracks or RCA CED videodisks…

JimD says:

Win7 in a year ??? Yeah, but WHICH YEAR ??? Make them give a number !!!

James Hill says:

Looks like the shock of Vista’s cold reception scared M$ into rushing the next version. Really makes you wonder if they can put out a decent OS ever again.

davidcox says:

Just a guess, but what do you think.

#1 Windows 7 was the original sequel to Windows XP, and not Vista. But Bill n Company decided to try and get a better hold on piracy of Microsoft products by making an operating system that would check for piracy of Microsoft products and report home to mama. I would guess that this was a pet project of Bill Gates (not the Window7 development team) which ran on a platform parallel to the next Windows Operating System, but not actually part of it.

I would guess that the code was developed on top of Windows XP (which was stable and available) while other people worked on the new features of the next operating system separate and apart from the Vista project. They stumbled when they couldn’t integrate the control apparatus of Vista with the new version of Windows 7. That would explain why there was a every 6 months set back of release. So they eventually just couldn’t merge the two products so they dumped all new features of Windows 7 codebase, basically gave the public a warmed over XP with all kinds of slow code (read patched to make it work), and an over abundance of control features which only benefited Microsoft and not the users. MS was probably thinking they had about 2-3 years to get the real next operating system (Windows 7) compatible with the Vista control junk. Because the control stuff has to be dumped, they can just wait a bit and bring out the Windows 7 code without the Vista control stuff and shine as great.

#2 All the time spent since XP was really going into Windows 7, which was placed on hold (as far as putting into the wild) and kept under wraps from public view, and Vista was put out as the “view” (Vista = Spanish for View). Think “I will see into your PC and check it for piracy.”

#3 Windows 7 will have all the new features promised for Vista that Vista didn’t have. Duh, how can they not get it done (they say impossible) with how many years developing Vista, and then get it done for Windows 7 in less than a year? Can you say, “Pull the wool over the consumers’ eyes”? How about a Bill Gates scheme turn fiasco trying to get more money (from stopping piracy) that turned sour on him, so he backs out of day to day operations?

#4 Run up the anti-piracy flag and see if everybody will tolerate this junk like the green junk or other “politically correct” junk. They ran it up the flag pole, people threw rotten tomatoes at it, and didn’t buy it. So we write this stuff off as a bad executive decision, Gates leaves CEO position, and thereafter Balmer or whoever takes over and takes out the real next operating system (Windows 7). This is eaten up fast because it will be extremely stable (they have been working on it 5-7 years, it should be), and it will make Microsoft look great as a company (pump up the stock) and Gates withdraws some of his billions at the highest stock prices Microsoft has ever seen. They screwed up Vista, so now under Balmer they “get their act together” and put out a jam up system after Vista, and under new management. Gates still runs the company, but has a good excuse for withdrawing billions without really affecting the stock value.

#5 Try new pricing schemes to see if those will sell in the marketplace (half a dozen versions/packages of the same operating system with and without features). Likewise a disaster. They will dump this for the basic two (Home and Business) in Windows 7.

What do you think?

The smoothness of the system when it arrives, the presence of features that we never saw in Vista but were promised and promoted, the lack of false starts and Service packs for a long while and other such elements will tell me that they have been cooking this Windows 7 for a longer time than they are wanting to reveal.

Good-bye Vista. Parting is no sorrow. Glad I never bought you!

P.S. Go to Youtube.com and search for Windows 7. How is it they have promos for Windows 7 already flying from Microsoft? Vista has been out for a little over a year and we would suppose that the next system is only in a basic planning stage at this point, but they have videos of Windows 7 operating on a desktop? When did we first get sight of a Vista computer booting up and working? late 2006 within 6 months of release of Vista? Fishy fishy…

The key here is that Windows 7 was finished basically (in Beta code?) in summer of 2007?!?!?! No way?

The bottom line was, buy Vista or buy Vista. XP will be unavailable by January 2008, so you have no choice, and OEMs also have to go to Vista. Linux starts looking like a good possibility, so Microsoft cannot keep the scam up anymore without the possible risk of losing customers to Linux (yea okay, like it would be .5% or something, but Gates is paranoid anyway. He cannot stand anybody getting momentum even if it is insignificant).

Let me see, has all windows versions been of the same quality comparing them one to another? No. Some are dogs and then come the good ones. Guess Vista barks, so Windows 7 ought to soar!(If anything Microsoft can make soars it would surprise me.)

The videos I saw on youTube (they look liked promos from Microsoft “Windows 7 a preview” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78z_cAOKMng) stressed interoperability. Telephone – TV in house – Car dashboard – tablet PC etc.

So ask yourself some questions:
1. When did Gates get crazy about Mac Phone? a couple of years ago. Think he let that pass? No.

2. When did we hear the scoop about Windows in new model cars? 2007.

3. Distributed platform computing across dissimilar devices (Phone-Laptop-desktop etc). Isn’t that the server platform that Microsoft was pushing last year?

4. Searching everywhere via Internet (not Google but MSN without a doubt). Gates moves on Yahoo because MSN doesn’t cut the mustard.

You can’t really tell when MS started working on this stuff, but it does look awful developed considering Microsoft’s slowness as a bureaucracy. They don’t move that fast ever!

zorkor says:

yahoo’s goose is cooked. No matter how much crap hole microsoft is in due to vista, they get what they want and they want yahoo! Jump out of your window and say yahooooo!!!