Microsoft to let consumers test Windows 7 on Friday

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp plans to let consumers test the next generation of its computer operating system, Windows 7, starting on Friday and said the new software is "absolutely on track."

Wall Street has identified the timely launch of retail sales of Windows 7 as one of the critical challenges for Microsoft this year, after Windows Vista debuted 12 to 15 months late in January 2007.

Windows 7 is "absolutely on track," Robbie Bach, president of entertainment & devices at Microsoft, told Reuters in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

He declined to give a specific release date beyond the beta testing on January 9, though he reiterated Microsoft's pledge to deliver Windows 7 around three years after Vista.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5070JW20090108

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. So anybody tried it yet?

Just wondering if they actually did the impossible and made it suck worse than Vista?

[IndyOp]

2. I really wonder what kind of basement-dwelling idiot would VOLUNTEER to be the first to use

a Microsoft product...

:shrug:

:puke:

[subsuelo]

20. lol

[TEmperorHasNoClothes]

30. i guess I'm that basem,ent dwelling-- although I take issue with the word idiot

:D

[stopbush]

3. Oh boy! That means at least a whole new year of bug-ridden

freeze-ups and crashes, plus innumerable patches to fix the latest version of MS crapola.

Early adoption in never an option with MS.

[kestrel91316]

5. I can't seem to win. I am the worst of late adopters. I just went from

Windows ME (yeah, I had THAT one) to XP 2 1/2 yrs ago. Then they discontinued XP (but not before I got it on my desktop AND laptop). I could live with it FOREVER. Seriously.

Vista sounds like Windows ME 2.0. If I have to move on from XP, please God let there be an alternative to Vista.

[Mnpaul]

7. They haven't discontinued XP

in fact they recently extended the life of it due to popular demand.

[nolabels]

10. Vista might seem like it's on the same trajectory as Windows M.E. but...........

Vista is so much worse as to make even the first release of M.E. seem good. Vista just plain sucks, period, end of story

[CatholicEdHead]

27. No, ME is still worse than Vista

ME was so bad you could not do anything. ME would not even recognize a generic USB Mouse on my laptop that had it on. ME also crashed left and right. I am using Vista HP and Ultimate on two different machines. While Vista is slow and bloated it rarely crashes. XP is still better for the hardware I have (T5250 and 3600+ chips) but Vista is usable, ME was never usable.

As with any beta tests from any vendor, you will have lots of bugs and crashes. I have no urge (or spare machine) to test Windows 7. Even a Virtual Machine installation will probably not go very well.

[TrogL]

29. Vista is a disaster - it's constantly locking up and doing other wierd stuff

While I'm no fan of XP at least I haven't had those problems.

[DJ13]

16. You think you're a late adopter

Im still using Windows 2000!

[proud progressive]

19. took awhile but........oh, yeah! try win98!

[unkachuck]

33. running Wndows'98 as we speak....god, I need a new computer....n/t

[spartan61]

4. Unfortunately I purchased a new computer with Vista

only a few days after Vista was released. Nothing but problems with it!! From now on I will only buy a new operating system after all the bugs have been worked out. Vista was so bad at first that I couldn't use my Microsoft Works or new 3 in 1 printer because there were no drivers for them at the time of purchase.

[Morning Dew]

6. I got a new computer loaded with Vista in July '08

and much to my surprise, it's been pretty much bug free. Annoying to get used to, but all in all, I'm not unhappy with it.

Still, I'm saving my pennies for a Mac.

[Bigmack]

8. Use a Mac... you'll never go back! nt

[WriteDown]

13. Perfect Mac?

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary?utm_source=embedded_video

[jhrobbins]

26. I started my computing career with a Mac and I loved it-while it worked.

However, I went through 3 Macs in the same amount of time I have had my Dell. (Fixing my Macs was a VERY expensive option)

[onehandle]

9. Snow Leopard will be out soon. MS-DOS... I mean Windows 7 has stolen a lot over the years.

Which has improved it greatly, but I'll stick with the real thing.

[WriteDown]

12. You should get this laptop....

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary?utm_source=embedded_video

[IndyOp]

14. .

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry:

Oh, my - I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while... and I LOVE my Mac products.

[WriteDown]

15. Now everything on your computer is just a few 100...

clicks away. :rofl:

[IndyOp]

18. This happy Mac fan

just spent 45-minutes typing an email to a friend.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[WriteDown]

25. Another

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29587

[slampoet]

11. Microsoft ALWAYS has the public test their software FOR THEM!

It is insulting that they try to make this the norm.

[radfringe]

17. oh boy... blue screen of death in 3...2...1... n/t

[scytherius]

21. VISTA/MS finally convinced me to replace our 7 PCs with MACs. n.t

nt

[Kittycat]

22. Microsoft is slated to issue security warnings to Windows 7 users on Monday

Notifying them that all their bank account are belong to us.

[MindPilot]

23. In other news, MAC sales spike sharply on Saturday.

As a Microsoft support professional I see nothing but job security ahead... :smoke:

[HopeHoops]

24. Sorry, I don't have a spare computer (with enough horse power) to subject to crashing every 2 mins.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

28. This news scares me.

What this means is that once this public beta is released, legions of M$ fanboys and M$ journalist suckups will download it, put it on their machines and sing hosannas about it, all the while ignoring the multiple problems, crashes, blue screens of death, driverless hardware and other problems, as they dream of crawling through 5 miles of bullets and barbed wire to listen to Bill Gates fart over a walkie-talkie.

Something tells me this just won't turn out well at all.

[Neshanic]

31. Now I know this is a stupid question for the masterminds of Microsoft, but

do the drivers for Hp printers, scanners and everything that froze up for Vista work on W7? What about Autocad? Adobe products? Or will this be another incremental information clusterfuck as you get told there are no drivers, patches or any solutions for W7 like in the Vista release.

[nebenaube]

34. HP can't write a stable driver to save their life... n/t

[slackmaster]

32. I think I'll try installing it on a virtual machine

So it can't do any real damage if it KABOOMs.

[Systematic Chaos]

35. In other news, anyone with a Logitech peripheral will most likely once again

be told - albeit politely - to "stuff it" when requesting beta drivers or utility software for any of their peripherals, being gently reminded that they're just plug-n-play anyways, and you don't need the customization software and fancy features on the box to run a keyboard, mouse or webcam.

:eyes:

And I say this as a former tech support agent for Logitech who took a lot of verbal abuse over lack of Windows XP Media Center webcam drivers, and complete lack of beta drivers for Vista (and some gold drivers until a couple months after the actual release of Vista, and many not-so-old legacy products for which no drivers were developed at all....)