Windows 7 to be revealed tonight by Gates and Ballmer, we'll be there

Gates and Ballmer are down at the WSJ's All Things Digital conference to talk tech with Mossberg and Swisher, and it looks like tonight they'll be unveiling the first (official) glimpses of Vista's successor, currently known as Windows 7. We'll be posting live from the event, so be sure to check back at 6:15pm PT (9:15 Eastern) as things kick off.

[Ryan @ May 27th 2008 8:46PM]

Exciting stuff, hopefully it doesn't look exactly like Vista like in the screens we've seen thus far.

[Jonathan Keim @ May 27th 2008 8:47PM]

My guess is that it will be Vista with the new filesystem and the 'shortcommings' removed... the problem is that Vista has horrible consumer branding right now, so they need to get a replacement in there.

[Aguiluz @ May 27th 2008 8:49PM]

Don't forget the videos!!!

[Matt Keller @ May 27th 2008 8:51PM]

Pretty much all early builds of new OSes look like their predecessors. It'll have its own distinct look by the time it's released.

Hopefully it'll be less bloated than Vista is, way too much code.

[Flashpoint @ May 27th 2008 8:56PM]

If I were Gates, I'd take a billion and use it to build a NanoSuit like in CRYSIS.

I'd wear it to meetings.

[JuggleNuts @ May 27th 2008 9:05PM]

Anything short of a Minority Report interface and I'll consider it a fail.

[Usagimaru @ May 27th 2008 9:07PM]

Is the nano suit going to be used to fend off the eggs, if Windows 7 is as bad as Vista?

[Unknown @ May 27th 2008 10:49PM]

Look & feel is usually one of the last things they address for a Windows launch-- or at least, one of the last things unveiled.

[OneLove @ May 28th 2008 11:12AM]

Balmer looks like a big douche retard in that picture. lol.

[iB3nji @ May 27th 2008 8:46PM]

I will be watching :)

[Richard Lai @ May 27th 2008 9:07PM]

I'll be watching too, and someone better get their camera ready in case another crazy dude tries to chuck eggs or pies at them.

[happy_penguin @ May 28th 2008 1:35AM]

I'll believe 2010 when I see it. But, I do expect it to be good when it finally does come out.

[Blackstar @ May 28th 2008 1:33PM]

I'll be yawning.

[Nik @ May 27th 2008 8:47PM]

Wow, even though Vista hasn't been the greatest, I thought it would at least hold out a few more years.

[Bbar86 @ May 27th 2008 8:50PM]

they are simply 'announcing' Windows 7, it still wont come out til 2010

[roflercopterer @ May 27th 2008 8:57PM]

2010 is still pretty quick...and didn't someone at microsoft say late 2009 as a possibility?

[r3loaded @ May 27th 2008 9:06PM]

Sinofsky's in charge of Windows now, so we're looking at regular 3-year releases of Windows. From what's known, Windows 7 will keep Vista's architectural changes so we will have zero compatibility problems (or very few anyway).

[Richie @ May 27th 2008 8:49PM]

Hell ya!

Looking forward to the coverage.

[fourthletter @ May 27th 2008 8:50PM]

Hmmm demoed this early ? Out next year I think, heavily based on XP with a light weight kernel and new flashier faster GUI.

Dear God Bill sure ain't a looker but sitting next to Big Steve he looks like a supermodel.

[David @ May 28th 2008 6:36AM]

wdf you talking about Balls is HOT!

[JR007 @ May 27th 2008 8:50PM]

@Nik - I agree with you bro. I guess we'll see though.

[Big Ed @ May 27th 2008 8:55PM]

Ugh. Balmer is the most annoying person in the world to me. I don't know if it's the stupid things he says or does, or if it's how annoying his voice is.

[Sora267 @ May 27th 2008 8:57PM]

Developers, developers, developers, developers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUN4xNFwFRo

If that song doesn't make you love Ballmer's words and actions, something's wrong with you.

[Haikibutsu @ May 27th 2008 8:56PM]

I am a mac user and I am excited for this event!

[David Z. @ May 27th 2008 9:05PM]

Same here. I can't wait to see where they go with the UI in this version. Hopefully it won't look exactly like Vista.

[mike @ May 27th 2008 9:03PM]

Right, so we have the Developers Conf in about a week, thsi is about the right time for MS to jump in and declare to the world...

"MOST OF YOUR DRIVERS WILL WORK! REJOICE.."





But of course they won't......;)

[zephead @ May 27th 2008 9:14PM]

Hopefully it won't look like Mac OS 10.6, either.

[iEye @ May 27th 2008 8:57PM]

They should lock it up like Apple does with the OSX and sell hardware, no more open PC...

[mcatrage @ May 27th 2008 9:24PM]

I'm hoping that's sarcasm. They'd be sued so fast.

[iEye @ May 27th 2008 9:32PM]

I was trying to piss off people, why did you all rank me up?

FIRST

does it play run Doom?
does it run crysis?

[Das @ May 27th 2008 10:33PM]

Second!

LOL at M$ locking up the OS
as usual they can only copy apple!

[Hex @ May 27th 2008 8:58PM]

Balmer looks like one of the Goomba's from the "Super Mario Bros. The Movie" flick. Just picture him green, in leather, with a harmonica.

[Amdnet @ May 27th 2008 8:58PM]

Don't hold your breath, its probably won't come out until 2012.

[roflercopterer @ May 27th 2008 8:59PM]

It might look like vista but the kernel won't be vista nor will it be xp.

This article says that it will be a from-the-groud-up rebuild of the codebase and will likely NOT be binary-compatible with previous versions of windows:

http://thebetaguy.com/exclusives/?postid=1029344029

[Harry Wagstaff @ May 28th 2008 5:41AM]

I remember another OS that promised a ground up rebuild. I think it's name began with a 'V'...

[roflercopterer @ May 28th 2008 6:01AM]

Nothing on the scale of what that article mentioned was ever described as part of vista.

[Bryan @ May 27th 2008 9:00PM]

If this was an Apple thing, there would have been 200 posts on humors of the announcement in the past 3 months.

I still love you, Engadget, because without you, I wouldn't even know this is happening.

[Jon @ May 27th 2008 9:00PM]

Sign me up .. Give me Vistas look , with more speed (transferring LARGE files, aka Bluray backups to my server) And im there

[Haikibutsu @ May 27th 2008 9:04PM]

People have commented I got a mac because of "how it looks", but honestly Vista has lots of the eyecandy that I don't like the look for some reason.

I prefer the clean look of XP (silver) or the more grey but still colorful look of Leopard.

[C.K. @ May 27th 2008 9:01PM]

Live video feed? 56k preferably...

[John @ May 27th 2008 9:02PM]

They are trying to get away from the XP to Vista forever timescale. Hopefully this will result in cheaper prices.

[oly va ha @ May 27th 2008 9:03PM]

What ive heard is that its based on xps kernel with all the nice stuff vista brough (the clean looks...dont know much about anything else)

i hope windows will wake up and see that more coding piled on top of old OS's is not the key....stop being lazy and redesign it please

[c-attle @ May 27th 2008 9:04PM]

It's amazing how forgiving PC users can be for such a boondoggle like Vista - and you drool whenever Gates/Ballmer "announces" something just like you say Apple fanboys do with Jobs.

[Jon @ May 27th 2008 9:07PM]

just because you get excited for something new doesn't mean your a fanboy, I was excited to hear about leopard but I'm certainly not a mac fanboy...

[shaun @ May 27th 2008 9:10PM]

Definitely. I would say I'm a bit of an apple fanboy but it doesn't stop me looking forward to seeing what Windows 7 is gonna be like

[ryan @ May 27th 2008 9:12PM]

either your statement is extremely overstated and just generally wrong, or my perspective is skewed by my own bias, the latter of which I highly doubt because of how awesome and great I am.

[MeatyPi @ May 27th 2008 9:18PM]

first off, I'm not sure what a "boondoggle" is, but Vista isn't as bad a s people make it out to be. I have been using it for over a year now and have had zero problems, I avoided the driver issue by getting a laptop that was sold with Vista, and is certainly powerful enough to run it. Like previously stated it doesn't make people fanboys to be excited by new products, I get excited each time Apple refreshes the Macbook Pro and others, but I'm no mac fanboy. I don't think anyone drools when Ballmer is around except Ballmer himself.

[shaun @ May 27th 2008 9:06PM]

Can someone confirm if 9.15pm eastern time is 2.15am wednesday morning GMT? As in 10 minutes from now

[Jon @ May 27th 2008 9:07PM]

that is correct

[shaun @ May 27th 2008 9:08PM]

cheers john I just wanted to check...I'm up anyway studying so may as well catch the liveblog