Windows 7 Release Date

This debate has died down somewhat in the last couple weeks, but I think it’s necessary to bring this blog up to speed.

“When will Windows 7 be released?”

It’s a question everyone has been arguing over for months. “Will it be early?” “Will it be late?” Can Microsoft keep to a deadline?”

Now personally I really don’t care. Late 2009, 2010… whatever, it makes little difference to me, but it does matter to the big businesses who run Windows.

Why does it matter?

It matters because Vista, the operating system fresh in everyone’s minds, was plagued by countless delays and setbacks before eventually being released 5 years after Microsoft’s previous major release; Windows XP.

The issue with this is that the large corporations that make up much of Microsoft’s annual revenue have strict upgrade cycles. If Microsoft cannot guarantee OS deadlines then this creates a number of issues for rolling out new systems.

Should companies upgrade now? or wait for the next OS? Will the next OS even be worth upgrading to? These are not questions businesses purchasing millions of dollars worth of computers and software want to be worrying about.

Aside from being late Vista also set a bad precedent for both stability and performance. Vista may have been no buggier then the initial release of Windows XP, but businesses don’t want to rolling out systems they then have to spend more money trying to get running correctly.

So when will it be released?

Microsoft has not made any confirmations or announcements concerning the Windows 7 release date no matter what you have heard.

Bill gates made an offhand comment that Windows would

“Arrive in the next year or so”

Which of course immediately got the tech world buzzing about Windows 7 arriving in 2009 sometime, ahead of schedule. Microsoft’s response was both generic and meaningless:

“We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. As is standard with the release of a new product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its General Availability as a means to gain tester feedback. We’re not sharing additional information at this time.”

In other words Microsoft is following the same development pattern as it does for all its major OS (Vista an exception) and will be releasing early builds… earlier.

However… January 2010 is unlikely to be a potential release date for a number of reasons as outlined by Ed Bott. It makes sense of course, because releasing Windows in January will completely miss the holiday season.

That leaves 2 options… a later release (not a good idea) or an earlier release; in time for the Christmas season. An earlier release however leaves the chance of increased bugginess and compatibility issues, which after Vista Microsoft has to avoid.

Add to this the fact that Vista is not a major OS release like XP and Vista where. Instead it will essentially be a minor upgrade similar to Windows 98. There will be some new features, better performance and none of the compatibility issues that dogged Vista at its release. This means a 2009 release should be quite achievable.

But, really…who knows?