What's the latest on the New Windows, 7 is it?

While I'm happy being a Mac user for the time being, I think a little healthy competition to spur on innovation is a good thing. Microsoft, while still steaming down the track with plenty of passengers aboard, is showing signs of a pending derailment.... in fact, I think it is already in progress. Maybe it's time to pull a line from the OS9 to OSX playbook and come up with something radically different... and, now, wholly 21 century.

In this day and age of digital security threats, I think backward compatibility is highly overrated. A nimble, secure OS incorporating the latest in software design and concept is what we need. Offer a software abstraction layer to emulate Windows Xp/Vista for users not ready or able to upgrade their needed programs. Make the security and performance gains of the new platform so enticing that programmer and end user alike flock to it in droves... putting a quick end to the cobbled mess known as XP/Vista.

I'm really not sure what is hampering Redmond. They have the resources, clout, and vender relationships to reinvent computing as we know it. Vista should have been a giant leap forward. Little Apple Inc. and the litany of open source geeks should have had an "Oh " moment... instead, poor Vista barely kept pace. And from what I've been reading, the next Windows seems content on giving us a repeat performance.

Maybe Linux and OS X really are our future. Too bad. What we need is more OS diversity, not less.

Windows 7 will be an evolution of Vista. It will not have a new kernel, will not be a radical change, and will not spew magical fairies and unicorns.

What really ruined it was that they chose not to use the MinWin kernel in Windows 7. If they had used it, Windows 7 could have run on a 60MHz processor and if it can run on that, imagine the speed increases and stability for us dual core and quad core users!

Yes it will! It will be the next generation of...Wait...

No unicorns?
...



NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMMIT!!!!!!!!! DAMMIT ALL TO HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT THE UNICORNS!!!!!!!!!

No, but Windows 7 is just suppose to be a recap of what Vista was, but better management. As well as DX11, basically the same thing as DX10, but a lot more stable, and such. It'll work on any DX10 card too.

MS are focusing a lot on virtualization, so maybe they are seeing this as an eventual solution to legacy apps rather than having the os support them. But I guess from the sounds of things we won't see anything like this in 7. Apple were able to make the clean break with OS X by having the classic environment, and did it again with the Intel move using Rosetta.

windows 7 will have a new kernal (well, sort of). It will use the minwin kernal, the one found on the vista recovery disk. its supposed to reduce loading times greatly. unfortunatly, it supposed to be the final evolution of windows. windows will retire in 2012

No actually. MS decided NOT to use the MinWin kernel and instead use the same NT kernel found in Vista.

i wonder why? it was supposed to be a major feature in Windows 7.

And look at the major features Vista was supposed to have. MS always end up backtracking on the "revolutionary" stuff they talk about. I guess they're at the mercy of backwards compatibility. Can't scare off big business with the newfangled sorta stuff Apple can get away with.

Windows will retire? By their own choice or by pure stupidity. Windows was never my favorite, but it's going down the tubes faster than I could have ever expected.

i dont understand why. they are scared by apple and linux, and have taken that kind of approach towards "midori" (the new operating system)

well hate to tell ya the MinWin Kernal is infact still being tosed in the air.

how ever bealive it or not windows 7 is to vista like windows 98SE waz to windows 98

how ever touch screen and multitouch screen is the bigest feture for windows 7 and DX 11

also there cutting a lot of crap out of windows 7. like movie makers and rumor has it that paint, Write, Cal, and a bunch of other programs swill be removed from core install and will be a option add on if the user whats to install it form a second DVD

OFF TOPIC: It's called a kernel people, KERNEL! Jeez.

Thanks for the heads up on Singularity/Midori. Yeah, for those in the know, they are old news... but not for me.

whatever u guys say about WINDOS and MIKROZOFT, the FACT of the matter is that LINUX and MAC won,t gain dekstop/laptop PC market share mainly because lack of HARDARE+SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY+USERS UNWILLINGNESS TO TRY NEW STUFF.

Hi all !

Actually Minwin is in Vista too. It is not a new kernel type or anything else. It is something like chopping the kernel into pieces, making it modular for special things. Ms built "layers" on it, created special compartments, they are working together ,but "independently". Like u have the driver framework in "user" mode now, and u can restart the services without logging out or restarting the system. And Ms can update these things side by side, that is the reason u could download special version updates for your Vista so , if u want to get the sp1, u only need to download the parts fits only for u. As u were using XP ,u needed to get the whole service pack to update windows.

Sorry for my bad English.

You could get more info about Minwin from Paul Thurrott's Supersite for instance.

Where've you been the past years? Both have constantly gained marketshare for years

Yes, even though they have gained market share for "years" (notably since the Intel processors have been used allowing users to run Windows), I have to say it is not significant enough for Microsoft to be worried about going down in a ball of flames anytime soon.

I just find that the universe uses Windows for the most part. I find myself wanting a MacBook, but am constantly reminded by everyone that the programs I need to use for things like work, school, and recreation run only on Windows natively.

With that said, about 50% of laptops I see at school (University of Central Florida) are Macs. There is a major influx of business because of my generation. Due mainly to the iPod and the "I have a Mac" factor. (Tangent: And don't tell me this doesn't exist, because I see it everyday. People look at my Windows laptop and tell me how inferior it is to their Mac. That is, of course, right after I am done helping them connect their Mac to the Wifi at school. Yet they don't realize that my laptop cost almost $1,000 less and has the same hardware as their Mac. And if I wanted to, I could run OS X. Sometimes, ignorance is not bliss. It is just ignorance and people should not talk things that they have absolutely no clue of. \End Tangent)

So in 10 or 15 years, I think there may be a little more parody in the personal computer operating systems market. But that is a long time off and by then the personal computer may be an obsolete piece of hardware...

Just my opinion though...

For instance Linux became my main OS in 2003, when I decided that SUSE 9.0 had surpassed Win XP.

all parties (MS, intel, AMD) should completely abandon x86, new OS should take advantage of virtualization and allow users to run x86 applications at native speeds, while allowing an transition easy to the new architecture, x86 is like an anchor holding back microprocessor innovations

...what do you suggest if we all don't use x86? PPC? :/

Absolutely right.