“Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ words are being parsed for hidden meanings. According to my News.com colleague Ina Fried, Gates said this week during a speech before the Inter-American Development Bank: ‘Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new (Windows) version,’ Mary Jo Foley blogs for ZDNet.
“Microsoft officials are insisting nothing has changed: Windows 7 is due out roughly three years after Windows Vista’s consumer launch (which was January 2007), meaning in early 2010,” Foley reports.
MacDailyNews Take: So, Gates said “2009” last week, but now it’s already slipped to “2010.” Please see related article: Microsoft figurehead Bill Gates sees next version of Windows ‘sometime in the next year or so’ – April 04, 2008
In an earlier report from last July, Foley explained, “Microsoft officials told MGX attendees that the company is currently internally planning Windows Seven. So far, the company has determined Windows Seven will come in both 32- and 64-bit flavors.”
MacDailyNews Take: It’s amazing (and sad) that Microsoft still won’t be able to figure out how to do 64-bit right by 2011. Please see related articles:
• Apple does 64-bit right, Microsoft… not so much – August 03, 2007
• Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Also, from that earler report, Foley continues, “Microsoft officials confirmed the veracity of this Windows Seven information… Short answer: Yes, it is going to take us at least three years to release Windows Seven. Longer if it’s buggy and doesn’t hit the ‘quality bar.'”
It’s a good thing for Microsoft that Windows has slipped, according to Foley, “If Windows 7 were to hit in mid-2009, a number of users (especially corporate ones) would likely just wait for the next Windows release, hoping that the driver and application incompatibilities that plagued Vista might get ironed out and that changes that might introduce new problems would be kept to a minimum.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Beverly M” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: When you drop the “quality bar” on the floor, as Microsoft does, how difficult is it to hit, much less clear? Maybe that’s the problem. Perhaps Microsoft’s spaghetti coders are slipping and sliding (like Windows release dates) on those “quality bars” rolling around, then crashing over backwards and cracking their heads on the floor?
[UPDATE: 1:10pm EDT: Updated article with excerpts from Foley’s April 4, 2008 posting and fixed headline to reflect 2010 is the current target year for “Windows 7.”]
To Scot Murphy:
(Anyone that tried to dash off downloads of ASCII porn knew it was his asterisk.)
@The Dude
Thanks for the time travel ASCII art. Had forgotten about that.
Thanks, Buster. And your take on the Door OS means that “Strange days have found us, strange days have tracked us down.”
Scot Murphy said “@Ampar:
As always, you are a font of joy.“
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Would that be Microsoft’s Comic Sans ?
It’s interesting how many have just stepped right past the notices that the article in question is half a year old. And how many believe Foley is waiting for ‘7’ with bated breath. AND that MDN has declined to correct the FUD of its headline. If we are going to hammer the forces of the Dark Side about such things, we ought to be above them, ourselves!
But, that’s just my opinion.
Oceans 11, and possibly its sequels.
Can’t wait!
Maybe the lucky year 2013?
Well, they obviously need more time to make it suckier!
@Ampar
“Or they could just be honest and call it Windows Never, charge the saps a hefty annual subscription to keep Ballmer happy in his cage with a plate of ribs and a stack of jelly doughnuts and then occasionally throw the soiled masses a Service Pack bone to shut them up. It’s not much different from their business plan today.”
Except for the number of ribs.
There is nothing that most of us want than for Microsoft to be cool again and come out with a kick ass OS..it raises the bar and makes the PC fun again but somewhere along the way MS has become a big bloated company that just can’t do anything with speed or spending billions of dollars. Too bad because Apple is cashing in on their weaknesses
“Except for the number of ribs.”
I’m sure MS’s crafty CFO can find a way to amortize thousands of livestock along with several tankers of rib sauce over the next few years.
Quality bar? Isn’t that what Bill Murrey retrieved from the swimming pool in Caddyshack?
Windows(R)
“Promises you can see through”
But the guys from MS claim this is what they do to meet their release dates. I guess we all need a little fortification sometimes.
The MS guys hit the bars looking for fortification.
The rest of us hit the bars looking for fornication.
Perhaps that’s MS’s real problem….?
MW: personal. Indeed.
To another TMF:
Thanks for keeping the Twisted Mac Freak alive. Good times.
Holy shit! Am I reading double?!?!
they only have the 1 quality bar
mw: below
What the hell does this have anything to do with Mac? Huh? “MacDailyNews is your source for daily news about Apple, Mac OS and the Macintosh platform. MacDailyNews features news, links, tips, and opinions” This is your moniker, seems to me you guys cant keep even your own house in order. Never mind the the hate mongering you spew with each post, the arrogance flows out of this place like puss from a septic wound.
Get real, Windows is a good OS, like it or leave it. And look to improve your own OS.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/leopard-osx-problems,review-1028.html try this discussion
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9806005-37.html oh oh another one
Oh it just works hmmmmm http://guides.macrumors.com/List_of_Applications_Not_Compatible_with_Leopard give me a break
or you can peruse the search yourself http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GFRC_enUS220US220&q=mac+leopard+problems&btnG=Search
have a blast with these. more to follow
@Crash
Post all you want. Do the same for Windows XP and Vista. You’ll get 100x more with that piece of crap. Not just because the monopoly has given it 95% market. The number of crap it causes are in the billions of dollars and user issues not proportional to its monopolized market. Crash on that Ballmer Lover.
oh and one for you that believe the falacy that is Mac security….. http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9914753-37.html Man keep your priority straight. lol
@Crash
Why are you still posting useless links? I told you for each one you do, there are several hundreds if not thousands to reflect you POS XP/Vista? Your continued post are laughable at this point. But hey whatever makes you happy. Go on and keep posting those useless links.
@Jubei
And that is why I post this here. Your arrogance reflects most venom spewing garbage coming from this place. You just dont get it. Following the party line of der Fuerher Jobs is going to fail, This has happened before. Remember why Jobs left the first time? He couldnt get that consumers dont buy the most beautiful things on a regular basis. Witness the domination of Windows as an example. As you say a horrible abomination on the face of the earth. And yet the largest OS/Browser/Office Suite and for a while the number one selling game console in the industry. Think about that.