Vista's successor now known as "7," due out within three years

Although Vista still seems fresh as a daisy, that hasn't stopped Microsoft from planning their next major OS release, and it looks like a part of the plan is changing the internal codename from Vienna to "7." The switch was disclosed at at a Microsoft sales training conference in Orlando this past week as part of the company's new "iterative" information-sharing plan, which aims to provide customers and partners with more and more info as part of a predictable release schedule. Microsoft also confirmed that 7 is scheduled to be in development for three years, which we kinda-sorta already knew. No word on when we might ever see Vista SP1, of course, but we bet all those customers and partners are still pretty psyched to know the new codename for a product that's three years out.

[Blah @ Jul 21st 2007 12:59PM]

@Tanner

Q6600 OC'd to 3.2GHz, 4 gig of 1066 DDR2, and the slimmest install of Vista i could conjure up. I dont use norton because its a disaster of a software package and i really dont need it (Vista 64-bit and all). Im beta testing Live One Care 2.0, which adds nothing to bootup, and plan to remove once the beta is up. Other than that, there is nothing loading up, so its pretty damn easy to get under 20 seconds. Maybe i will video tape it and post it, but then again i dont have to prove shit to anyone.

My mac is a G4 iBook, the DVD drive stopped working after a year (just after warranty), the WIFI cuts out (My WinPC laptop doesnt), the trackpad, on occasion, causes the mouse pointer to jump all over the place. My other laptop, which is a toshiba portege, has a 700mhz P3, 512 MB of ram, and with it running XP with very little installed, is much faster than my G4 on bootup. The external cd-drive that came with it still reads cd's to this day. The trackpad isnt f**ked up. I used to use it as a 24 hour torrent server so i can put my main pc to standby (never full shutdown, mainly because i dont want dust in it). Now my mac sits on the floor of my room taking over its job (the toshiba was given away to family). Thats really all its good for now.

[mike @ Jul 21st 2007 1:20AM]

I have news for you all that say "MICROSOFT STEELS IDEAS"...
Lets go back to the dawn of time... Well computer time [not the creation of the world..]. There once was a company called Xerox who the R&D team came up with the idea of a GUI and a mouse. Well Xerox big boys said "Fu*k this who needs that, get rid of it". Steve Jobs had heard about this [thats the leader of apple btw], and convinced Xerox to give it to him. SO steve stole the idea there, then Bill over at microsoft got the idea, lets get them to show us like xerox showed them. Steve had no problem doing so [kinda stupid on his part, but yeah hey oh wait off subject].
Then Bill and a few people go over there and look at it. Then they started asking questions, and getting answers. Went back to their "office" and started writing. Boom Microsoft Windows was born. Err Well i think DosShell might've come first...

So moral of the story: EVERYBODY "BORROWS" from EVERYBODY. As long as all the code isnt verbatim (word for word) your fine. But 2 programs cant have
if ("fireFoxWindow.Main != Window.Closed")
goDoSomething();
Yes just an example and i know there is no firefoxwindow.main variable GET OVER IT.

[Skunk @ Jul 21st 2007 2:05AM]

IT MEANS IT WILL COME IN 7 YEARS, JUST AS MICROSOFT PROMISED
lol it'll be crap

[nick @ Jul 21st 2007 2:42PM]

Hey you guys most be a bunch of idiots for questioning why 7? or is it just that you guys don't use windows. Cause if you were to check windows version under the command prompt you would find that xp is 5 and Vista is 6, therefore 7 would be plain 7. So reason for 7 being 7 is because it's 7!!! On the side a side note i can say OSX is pretty nice it's a good OS but crash proof it's definitely not. I remember i friend of mine that used to claim MAC OSX didn't crash. Yet when he was using it in front of me it plainly crashed. Now many people say that MS should fix Vista bugs, first of all most software are bound to have bugs regardless of how careful a programmer may be. Second I don't find Vista crashing on me like some people that most likely have never really used the os Claim it to be. The PROBLEM WITH VISTA IS THAT MOST HARDWARE MANUFACTURER AND PRINTER MANUFACTURER have not bothered to create new drivers for it or have taken a long time for the manufacturer to come up with new drivers compatible with Vista. I for one have no problems with my system and it's a breeze to run applications. so please stop the hate!!! then again resume windows bashing!!!

[Jedi Smurf @ Jul 21st 2007 3:13AM]

Michael...

Tsk... Tsk... Tsk... You're sounding like an MS fanboi there... ANY Apple/Mac geek/fanboy/aficionado and many PC people alike can tell you that "finder" has been around for decades in the bios or very low level of the Mac OS - not even talking OS/X or "latter" OS releases like 7, 8, or 9, each of which was a serious improvement over the previous one.

I'm not saying Apple has everything "all original" and they've created everything they've integrated, or at least that not every idea that's been implemented is OS exclusive. Not in the least. But please, if you're going to make accusations, be realistic and know your facts before pointing fingers.

There's a lot of things about PC OSs of the last decade that I can appreciate over Mac OSs of the same time frame - like application and game compatibility, the ability to use any old "off the shelf" hardware without adapters between brands, and the fact that there are LOTS of ways to build your own PC as opposed to Mac computers using everyday off the shelf parts.

There are, however, things I like about the Mac OS. Like the simple elegance and super ease of use. If I hadn't been using an MS GUI OS or an MS GUI DOS CLI overlay (windows 3.x) for the past decade and a half, if I had to transition from Mac to PC now - or any time in the past - it would have been a nightmare figuring things out. For instance, I was a bit apprehensive the other day trying to help set up a friend's network after they got DSL service at their apartment. They run Mac equipment exclusively over there, and I've been on PCs for a decade and a half. I thought I was going to have problems navigating and dealing with the OS and trying to get the software to interface with the hardware and everything else.

Lo and behold, it was EASIER than I could have expected! Navigation was smooth as silk, figuring out the networking environment was so much easier than a Windows 2000 (or later) network configuration, and the only problem I really had was forgetting there was no "right click" - one mouse button!!! I would have had the LAN interfaced with the WAN in no time, except that the DSL signal was not coming through from the phone junction box outside... nothing to do with the OS or the internal hardware.

To Mr. President...

Oh, I loved your comment I quoted below! Although, instead of google, you should have pointed out Bit Torrent - since that's where most "freeware" is pulled from nowadays!

"Pizza Master"


michael @ Jul 20th 2007 10:47PM
Microsoft doesn't necessarily copy right off of OS X. More than anything, they've enhanced what was availiable before. Like with widgets (which Apple copied off of Konfabulator), Microsoft made gadgets. And gadgets are better in a way, that they're cross platform (desktop, web, sideshow, etc.)and still also have a nice look and little function. Finder could be say to have been copied off of Vista. Microsoft introduced Desktop Search in some Longhorn demo in 2005, and it seems right after that, Tiger came with Finder, and Google brought out Google Desktop. There's like other stuff that Vista somewhat enhanced out of OS X.

Mr President @ Jul 20th 2007 11:41PM

Windows XP = $0
Windows Vista = $0
MS Office 2007 = $0

The look on Bill Gates' face when he realizes the power of the internet: Priceless

Theres just some things money can't buy, for everything else theres Google.

[John @ Jul 22nd 2007 11:43PM]

just so you know, "latter" is a word, not a misspelling of later. You wouldn't want to embarrass yourself whilst trolling, I'm sure

[Jedi Smurf @ Jul 23rd 2007 12:21AM]

@ John...

READ THE SENTENCE:
"...the bios or very low level of the Mac OS - not even talking OS/X or "latter" OS releases like 7, 8, or 9, each of which was a serious improvement over the previous one."

Granted, through my extreme sleep-deprived state, and being ridden with grief over my niece's death and funeral I'd been to earlier in the day, I accidentally replaced the word "prior" with "latter." Don't nitpick - you don't know me, you don't need to criticize me. Just take the context like everyone else who's read this error, corrected it for themselves, and kept going.

How many other people have you taken the time today to correct, who may have tragedies to deal with?

Think before you blog. Oh, but that would be Thinking Different. Hmmm, yet another thing Apple users know all about!

[Megan @ Jul 21st 2007 3:15AM]

Maybe this means that Vista will be like Millennium and not last long?
That would be great.

[TheBugMan @ Jul 21st 2007 5:23AM]

YOU ALL ARE FREAKIN IDIOTS!

Seven refers to the founders. The Decepticons will use the power of the Allspark to take over the world!
Autobots transform and roll out!!!

[Kevin @ Jul 25th 2007 12:16PM]

What about Energon?

[John @ Jul 21st 2007 6:37AM]

In a surprise move, Microsoft then went on to copyright the number 7 and all derivative numbers.

[Scott Bradford @ Jul 21st 2007 8:57AM]

I'm confused... 7? If all Windows releases to-date had regular version numbers instead of the name-hodgepodge, it we would be at 8 or 9 (depending on if you follow the Windows NT scheme or the 'consumer' Windows scheme).

Consumer line: Windows 3, Windows 95 (4), Windows 98 (5), Windows 98SE (5.5), Windows ME (6), Windows XP (7), Windows Vista (8), so the next would be 9.

Professional line: Windows NT 4, Windows 2000 (5), Windows XP (6), Windows Vista (7), so the next would be 8.

Unless, of course, Microsoft admits that XP was nothing but a candy-colored sheen on Windows 2000, but that doesn't seem like them. Only if we called XP v5.5 instead of a full number iteration does this add up.

[Zarniwoop @ Jul 21st 2007 11:27AM]

Totally agree with Blah here. I've had my G4 ibook for almost 2 years now, and whilst it's good for the odd bit of web browsing, it's simply no patch on my PC. It certainly crashes a great deal more as well. In fact, my current PC (which I've had for about 10 months now) has NEVER crashed to my recollection. Nor have I had the BSOD on any PC for /several years/.

6 months after I bought the mac, it wouldn't load. Every time I switched it on, it just came up with a message telling me to restart it. There was no way for me to tell what was wrong with it. Entering verbose mode gave no clues, even after typing the last few lines into google. Simply searching on mac forums was ever less help. In the end, I took it to a nearby mac centre to get it fixed. It was found that the Hard-Drive was corrupted. That was it. They then proceeded to charge me £50 for all the software they'd recovered, even though I had backups of everything on there. With a pc, it'd have been obvious within 5 minutes that my hard-disc was at fault, and I could've had it fixed myself /for free/ before the day was out.

So my problem with macs is this: Regardless of whether you happen to be one or not, MACS ARE DESIGNED FOR MORONS.

Yes, the interface is /quite/ pretty, and yes, it's very easy to get used to. But it's designed for someone without the slightest inclination of how to do anything for themselves except run basic programs like Word and Safari. At least Windows credits me with /some/ level of intelligence- such as by allowing me fiddle around in the BIOS, as well as various other config options which mac users can only dream of. Macs are designed for people who'll pay someone to fix their computer for them instead of spending a little time to work out how it all works a bit and fix it themselves.

But since this is about the newest form of Windows, here's some things I really could use them fixing:

1. MAKE THE THEMES CUSTOMISABLE. I mean seriously, with such an enormous user-base as PCs have, you would've thought they'd at least try to harness that in some way, wouldn't you? I don't particularly like any of the standard windows interfaces, so make it so that I don't have to resort to a home-brew patch or 3rd-party app to change it. Please.

2. Streamline the interface for people who know what everything does. I don't need a button with 'start' written on it. I know perfectly well what it does. Most people who work in an office will use Windows for every day of their working life. So make it as easy as possible for them to do the things they do every single day. Perhaps this could be done by selecting an 'Advanced User' option when installing it. And get rid of those pop-up balloons, for crying out loud.

3. Get rid of the graphical effects that come with Vista. They're totally unnecessary and a bit of a cop-out, since OS X and Linux both have pretty interfaces without any need for a new graphics card.

[Carlton @ Jul 21st 2007 4:47PM]

Us Linux users might be inclined to say that Windows was designed for morons too! ;) Have very little (comparatively) freedom of choice and control over your PC.

[ed @ Jul 21st 2007 11:33AM]

HAHAHAHA!!!! Another Windows that will be worst then Vista and ME combined lol.

[atomic_t @ Jul 21st 2007 11:47AM]

Who gives a shit what Microsoft calls their next version. And believe me, they don't give a shit about Apple OS X.

92% market share for Windows vs. 3.5% market share for Apple. Go figure. All the MS bashers out there are just jealous of the overwhelming success of Windows. But, that's to be expected, of course.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2

[Carlton @ Jul 21st 2007 4:49PM]

Yeah, and all atheists are just jealous of Christianity's popularity. Please.

[lnx8 @ Nov 13th 2007 3:05AM]

Since when was Win 3.1 the first mainstream version of Windows?

[Richard John @ Jul 21st 2007 2:06PM]

Hang on.

Windows 1.x
Windows 2.x
Windows 3.x
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows 2000/Me
Windows XP
Windows Vista

I count Windows 9.

[Carlton @ Jul 21st 2007 4:51PM]

1.x and 2.x don't really count at all. So, 7.

[Wwhat @ Jul 21st 2007 2:12PM]

SCOOP: windows '7' replacement out in 6 to 7 years.

[Cueil @ Jul 21st 2007 3:36PM]

The best thing Microsoft ever did was creat DirectX and made all the hardware companies not screw the consumers... as long as something is DX compatible it'll usually work depending on the drivers. What I think Microsoft needs to do is severly downscale their OS... it's much to big and takes way to many resources they also need to look into that new solid state ram... that stuff looks intersting... autoboot from ram that doesn't lose it's data without electricity.

[Johan S @ Jul 21st 2007 3:46PM]

I wonder what features will be cut from this OS. I remember the talk of pillars of Windows Longhorn (Vista) like WinFS. But, umm, apparently it was possible to remove a few pillars without the thing falling. Then again maybe it wasn't.

[walter newsome @ Jul 21st 2007 3:46PM]

d_schrute @ Jul 20th 2007 10:40PM
Name 5 things wrong with Vista? Have you used it?

1. Built-in Browser
2. DRM draconian features. BAD VISTA, just because MS is Pro-Media/Hollywood/RIAA, Doesn't mean we are, and WE are the ones shelling out the bucks for PC.
3. WGA-I hate the fact I can't disable WGA-Validator on this OEM HP computer.If a system came WITH the OS, it should let you delete the pirated version WGA-Notify crap and still get updates without hacking OS.
4.Too many OS flavors and price structures.
5.Vista EULA

[oomba @ Jul 21st 2007 3:49PM]

"7" means 7 more years to come up with next WindOS.

[Jon @ Jul 21st 2007 5:29PM]

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
'Nuf said.

[Bill McCarter @ Jul 21st 2007 5:45PM]

Vista is broken, Network discovery is so bad as to be useless. I have struggled with this OS for six months now on clients networks. The solution I have found is to UPGRADE to XP.

[BSW @ Jul 21st 2007 6:56PM]

"but we bet all those customers and partners are still pretty psyched to know the new codename for a product that's three years out."

I absolutely agree that this is barely news.

It's not as if Stephen Colbert bought an iPhone or anything.

[pade @ Jul 21st 2007 7:09PM]

Vista II or VII=7. Logical when you think about it.

[Doug H @ Jul 21st 2007 7:29PM]

BFD The company simply does not get it. Steve, find something else to do. Spin off Windows into a separate company & bring in Scott Cook, Intuit's founder. Do something different(!!) before Windows becomes irrelevant.
A Shareholder

[A-Town @ Jul 21st 2007 8:13PM]

Maybe they changed it to 7 because they know your going to need 7 gigs of ram?

[Wwhat @ Jul 21st 2007 8:50PM]

Or it will have 7 times more DRM.

[J. Fryman @ Jul 21st 2007 8:24PM]

I use Vista quite extensively on my customer's computers, and I really can't find anything wrong with it. I would rather work with XP or 2000, but that is because I am used to them, just like I was back when it was NT to 2000.

Vista sucks because it is shiny and new. People hate change, get over it.

[Wwhat @ Jul 22nd 2007 10:39PM]

Glad I'm not using your services.

[J. Fryman @ Jul 23rd 2007 6:14PM]

I would never install Vista on someone's computer. That's just wrong. I will, however, leave it alone if a customer declines a downgrade. There's not really anything wrong with it, it's just the way Vista does things. A lot of good ideas (stolen or not) went into Vista, but the implementations are a bit shaky. UAC could definitely use an overhaul, and the bloat could be done away with. Windows was never meant for the "power-user", so it falters where power-users need it. Normal day-to-day activities such as email, word processing, and web browsing do fine. Not spectacular, but fine. If I wanted to serve up webpages or host a database, I wouldn't use Windows, and kill me and piss on my grave if I even thought about using Vista for that. I would use an OS that was meant for something like that, like (insert linux distro here).

[Hay Soup @ Jul 21st 2007 8:32PM]

I like Vista. I like hitting myself, too. That's why I use XP. When XP came out, I heard the same rash of comments about it, too. And I thought, "Damn, and I'm going to hear comments and messages saying the same thing." And behold. Vista is XP on Prozac. It's shiny this and that. I like it. I heard someone saying Mac people LIKE Vista. So? Now both computer OSs are exactly the same. We should be celebrating this.

I don't like the open source stuff. That's hitting yourself with a feather. Fine, but after doing that for a while, you want to hit yourself with some Jack Daniels. I haven't tried Ubuntu. I loaded it once and the copy I had had been modified by some space alien from up my buttcrack or something. I don't want anything on my computer called "Ubuntu". It's too damned gay. "7" is about the best name Microsoft ever came out with. It pretty much is expressive of Bill Gates' IQ.

I tried the open source route, and it's great if you're a grandmother playing cards with yourself on the Web, as they say. If you're a programmer, and you write code for a living, sure. But me, I like to gulp Jack Daniels.

My girlfriend's son has an iPhone. Don't get me started. Steve Jobs should use a payphone or something. He should get a real phone. They should write THE BEST music in the world and show some butt jockey using a payphone. Doo doo doo, see Grandmother Sally getting out of her Honda and using the new AT&T payphone. Doo doo dah, see? 1-800-bleep, bleep, bleep. Doo doo dah. Would make a killer commercial. Show all a payphone's features, and everything. Write it in Linux. What the hell am I talking about? Oh, it's like the last 50 messages. Okay. Breathing again. I don't like arguing on a computer. Computers should be for going to femjoy.com Not you kids, though. Get iPhones. Like my girlfriend's son. I'll use a REAL payphone.

I tend to avoid looking at these comments. My eyes self-cross.

The above was written by some idiot. Don't listen to him. He doesn't know what he's talking about.
Go out and buy iPhones. Buy Mac Mini Wingdings. Maybe I want a damn iPhone, iPhone don't know. I could use a good i.

I've got this ATRAC mini music thing, and it's fine for me. It's made by Sony. I found it near a payphone. You'll notice I'm not saying "He said this" and "he said that". I read fifteen messages and decided to leap into the fray and get the hell out before XP crashed or something.

I put Google Desktop on a machine, and it accessed itself to death. Well, it nearly did, I removed it before the computer went into a coma. I think we should encourage more of this, we should encourage those guys to make us OSs. Maybe Kurzweill. That's the ticket.

[Zach @ Jul 21st 2007 10:19PM]

You are a complete and utter imbecile. Why Must you waste my time with your useless comments. Would you mind telling me how it is that open-source will "Ruin America"? I have no doubt that you where dropped on your head when you where born. Idiot.

[Vava Ubuntu @ Jul 21st 2007 11:25PM]

Viva Ubuntu, the one Linux distro to rule them all.

[Mario @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:12AM]

Seriously, Microsoft needs to take a page from Apple. With all its money, MS should form a SkunkWorks type unit, and it should develop a brand new Unix-based OS, without any legacy Windows Vista code. Come up with a brand new GUI, not just some Macintosh ripoff with a start button. Add some Windows APIs to make programs backwards-compatible. All the while, MS should keep all this quiet it's truly ready. And by the way, it should NOT be called Windows.

[Stephen @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:56AM]

"No word on when we might ever see Vista SP1, of course, but we bet all those customers and partners are still pretty psyched to know the new codename for a product that's three years out"

Ammm. That's some good reporting there. A few days ago MS announced SP1 Beta this month, and SP1 in Novemeber. Don't let the facts get in the way of your little joke though.

[db26 @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:55AM]

7... Seven Costanza?

[Jeff P. @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:22AM]

"but this windows goes to 11......."

Now THAT'S an obscure reference...funny, but obscure.

[SuperD @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:09AM]

Agree with Joey from a previous comment, Vista definitely seems like ME.

[Filipe @ Jul 22nd 2007 9:28AM]

Agree with Neebs from a previous comment, Vista seems like ME to (ignorant) people who have never used Vista for more than 5 minutes (or simply know nothing about it, I add).

[Filipe @ Jul 22nd 2007 9:28AM]

"No word on when we might ever see Vista SP1, of course, but we bet all those customers and partners are still pretty psyched to know the new codename for a product that's three years out."

Microsoft doesn't disclosure any details about Windows development = idiots, they should let costumers know.

Microsoft disclosures details about Windows development = idiots, who cares about that?


Microsoft bashing at its finest.

[Wwhat @ Jul 22nd 2007 10:41PM]

Nobody can bash MS as MS can, just you wait till you see windows 7 :)

[Steve @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:06PM]

OK, you're right, Microsoft alone is holding up the economy.... right... no. Linux has done nothing but cause competition.. and thats what this market is about.. so one decides to make it free, that can actually help other companies by providing them with opportunities that would have otherwise cost them.

oh and Macs are for people who are too lazy, and/or stupid, to learn how to use and manipulate real software and hardware. Get a life..

[jere @ Jul 22nd 2007 2:23PM]

Steve, "Macs are for people who are too lazy, and/or stupid, to learn how to use and manipulate real software and hardware."?? Are you serious? Just because the interface isn't as counterintuitive as windows doesn't mean it's for lazy people. For example, when removing a device from a windows computer, I was forced to go through so many stupid steps (clicking on the icon in the corner, choosing to remove it, choosing the device, and the confirming it). On my mac all I have to do is drag it. Not because I'm lazy, I just dislike pointlessly complex software.

[Roger Zhang @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:38PM]

I just got Vista because Halo 2 and Gears are coming out on the PC. God dam do i hate consoles!!!


Plus it's new and shiny.

[Richie @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:36PM]

I cannot stand mac fanboys... seriously OSX is just as good as linux is, if not worse. Apple is a gross company that overprices their shit out of the roof and people who buy into it are fricking ridicules.