Weekend Clamour for Windows 7 Release

Steve Ballmer picked up the baton from Bill Gates last week as he delivered his first keynote speech at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas. Attended by trade and industry professionals, CES is the showcase for all manner of consumer-oriented technology, and this year boasted some 2,700 exhibitors. In his speech, the Microsoft CEO talked about the state of the IT industry and the need for continued innovation. Mr. Ballmer concluded his presentation by informing the audience that the Beta version of Windows 7 – the successor to Windows Vista – would be made available for general public download at the end of the week, and indeed it was… well, kind of.

Microsoft officials initially stated that it would limit the number of Windows 7 Betadownloads to 2.5 million, but after a surge in demand brought Microsoft’s servers to a standstill over the weekend, the company announced that it would offer unlimited downloads of the new operating system until 24 January. The stampede for the Windows 7 Beta clearly caught Microsoft out, but it just goes to show how willing the faithful are to give Microsoft another chance after the disappointment of Windows Vista.

Organisations subscribing to TechNet Plus – Microsoft’s premium resource for IT professionals – have their own route to the Windows 7 Beta code, and so corporate IT departments need not rush to get their hands on the download just yet, but at some point an evaluation must take place.

Microsoft’s current desktop operating system – Windows Vista – became broadly available at the beginning of 2007, and a year later in February 2008 it got its first Service Pack. However, despite improved security, increased manageability, and an enhanced feature-set, large enterprises have, in the main, given Windows Vista a wide berth. But with ‘Mainstream Support’ of Windows XP coming to an end in April 2009 (‘Extended Support’ continues until 2014), IT managers must define some kind of corporate roadmap for their organisation’s end user computing environment, and so 2009 looks like it will be a year of contemplation and consideration for many.

Having downloaded the Beta for myself, I was pleasantly surprised with the installation experience, taking only 25 minutes or so from start to finish. There are even positive reports of users successfully installing the Windows 7 Beta on their MacBook Pros, and so I think we can positively state that Windows 7 looks in good shape for a formal release before year-end.

I’ve not conducted any meaningful testing yet, but I do have one negative comment to make relating to this new operating system, and that has to do with its name. If Microsoft decides to release this offering as Windows 7, then it must change the version number reported by the ‘ver’ command, as currently this returns the value 6.1.7000 (my Windows XP laptop reports 5.1.2600, and my wife’s Vista PC reports 6.0.6001). This must be fixed, as otherwise confusion will ensue.

With the Beta version of Windows 7 now in circulation, my view is that Microsoft will launch its new operating system before the year is out. As Windows 7 is an incremental upgrade, IT managers with responsibility for end user computing environments and applications should give this release serious consideration; evaluating the merits and business value it has to offer the organisation.