Windows 7 to be Released in H2, 2009?

By Greg McNevin

January 22, 2008: While Vista is struggling to win over a market sceptical of the benefits of upgrading rumours have surfaced that its successor, Windows 7, may only be a year and a half away.

According to the tech website TG Daily, several industry sources have come forward to confirm that the release of Windows 7, initially code-named Blackcomb Vienna, has been moved forward and that a “Milestone 1” release has already been shipped to some key partners for validation.

While Microsoft originally put the release date for Vista’s successor at 2010, an updated roadmap for the release has moved this date forward to H2 2009. If this is accurate, then the closer release could postpone the migration plans of firms not keen to make the switch to Vista.

Windows 7 details are currently scant, however, it is believed that it will include features such as support for combining multiple graphics cards from different vendors into one formidable graphics system. More interestingly, there are rumours that Windows 7 could be based on a drastically stripped down OS core dubbed MinWin, enabling more widespread use of desktop virtualisation where the OS and applications stay with a user, no matter what machine they log on to.

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