OK, after the PDC this week and looking at all the news about Win7, it's my opinion that you are going to be fine skipping Vista and upgrade to Win7 when it comes out, or even after Win7 SP1 has been released.
There has been a LOT of information released this week, since the pre-beta is now available and the main features have surfaced. Some people claim though that Win7 really is putting lipstick on a pig, and they say performance at the moment seems to be the same as Vista, and it's just as consumer focused (and sometimes confusing) as Vista.
Others claim that Win7 is tighter and leaner, has better device integration and has a bunch of IT-friendly features. A change like the elimination of in-memory double buffering of window contents, will make a huge difference in the memory footprint and overall demand.
I think that Redmond has learned some lessons and that the wait for Win7 will be worth it.
Expect general availability in Q1 2010 if the operating system remains on schedule.
Should also be aware that we are seeing a “paradigm-shift” coming from the Microsoft teams when it comes to 32-bit vs. 64-bit, many of the new Server Applications, like Exchange 2007 and Office Communications Server are going to require 64-bit platforms to run. Although Windows7 Beta 1 does have a 32-bit version, it might behoove you to think about having a 64-bit capable system in the near future.
Thanks for the update Jim. I am old enough to remember Windows 3.11, which in my circle of friends was regarded as the first “decent” version of Windows. Ditto for Internet Explorer version 3. (Wow, I am starting to feel old!) Sometimes it takes Microsoft three versions to get the bugs out of a program. Your feedback gives me hope that the next version of Windows will be an improvement over what we have available now.
Just a quick update, as many of you know I have been beta testing Windows7 for quite some time now, and I have to admit, I have been very happy with it. It looks to me like Redmond really did listen to the IT Community. Apart from having a GUI that looks much like Vista, the features themselves take Vista to the next level. My personal favorite is the robust firewall, if you are familiar with Windows Server 2008, then you will be happy to know that Windows7 comes with the same functionality when it comes to security.
It’s now available as a public beta, so if you want to try it, you should check out http://www.microsoft.com/windows7.
That’s it for now, promise more on this up and coming OS shortly.
Thanks for the comment Leland. The real joke is the Windows Mojave commercials, I mean who in their right mind could think that a commercial which is geared toward the everyday user is going to change the hearts and minds of the IT industry, which has given Vista such a bad name. I have customers who have catastrophic hardware failures on their systems and are willing to pay us more to have us replace the motherboard, RAM and even the case just so they can keep Windows XP, than to buy a brand new computer for much less for fear it will have Vista on it [:)]
I wish I had the buying power of The Defense Department when someone told Microsoft’s head GSA liason (or what ever the title is) XP Pro or Linux, you choose.