Microsoft warns hardware makers to begin Windows 7 testing ASAP

It may not even have a firm release date just yet, but it looks like Microsoft is already taking a pretty hard line on Windows 7, with it reportedly now warning hardware makers to begin testing their devices on the OS as soon as the first beta becomes available or risk not qualifying for its certified compatibility program. As Information Week points out, that move is likely being done in order to avoid the mess stirred up when so-called Vista-capable systems went on sale in advance of Vista's release, many of which, as we all know, turned out to be anything but.

[VAMtastic @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:24PM]

Anybody else notice that Bill Gates' sweater is about two sizes too large, or about the same size as the sweater Ballmer is wearing? Coincidence?

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:30PM]

i think he borrowed it from Steve Balmer ;)

[Sean @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:37PM]

he admires Jay-Z you know...

[jollyllama @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:40PM]

Yeah, that picture is really wierd. What are the odds they both were in seperate dressing rooms thinking about what to put on and happened to choose the *exact* same thing? Wierdos.

[farfisa @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:58PM]

@jollyllama
Who said anything about separate dressing rooms?

"Then they called us to the stage and we were, like, mid pillow fight, and I accidentally put on Stevie B's extra sweater. Man I'm going to miss this!"

[Mikeweezer @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:09PM]

I think Bill Gates stole my grandmother's sweater...

Richest man in the world and he can't make it past the bargain bin at JCPenny's.

[zomg0t @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:08PM]

I definitely wouldn't want to be in a pillow fight with Steve Ballmer, although I suppose it would be better than a chair fight...

[Ignatius @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:16PM]

Just because you're rich doesn't mean you're not frugal.

[Jon Doe. @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:32PM]

Doubtful. There are no permanent armpit stains.
Little known fact Ballmer burns whatever shirt he is wearing once he is done with it for the day due to an contractual agreement with the Center for Disease Control.

[Draaaainage! @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:58PM]

@Mikeweezer

You don't get right by writing a lot of checks

[iEye @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:08PM]

This is why Apple does not allow just any hardware to run OSX, in the end it is the consumers that will have to put with shoddy software and hardware integration.

[helloUser @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:12PM]

iEye:

What?

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:59PM]

WTF iEye

[OneLove @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:25PM]

Balmer still has that retard come douche-bag look on his face.

[ThreeDee912 @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:53PM]

iEye is a fake apple-fanboy troll. He's been trolling around every non-apple related article posting random pro-apple crap.

I'm a Mac user and I find it annoying.

[TIMMAH! @ Jun 2nd 2008 7:15PM]

It's a Windows 7 sweater... one size, fits all...

[Shipey @ Jun 3rd 2008 3:31PM]

No Timmah,
Seven sizes, fits no one.

[Shadowise @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:25PM]

Well, I guess this will lead to less compatability issues for older hardware/software by the time Windows 7 finally shows up. I hear so many people complaining about how Vista isn't compatibile with anything, yet I have no problems with it.

[JMMGoalster @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:26PM]

me neither

[eggothewaffle @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:31PM]

Me neither.

[Anthony @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:36PM]

I never had any problems with Vista being compatible with anything at all.

I find a lot of people complain about Vista, but every time I ask what's wrong with it they always say compatibility... yet they are never able to say what isn't compatible.

Now I'm not saying Vista is perfect, but I think it's gotten an unfair reputation.

[Homeboy @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:43PM]

Those that do have problems with Vista are laymen who are too lazy to download drivers for their hardware and expect the OS to do all the magic by itself. I upgraded my Pavilion 9074ea from XP and as I got my hands on better drivers with each month my machine's performance improved. It's way smoother than my house mates' brand new Vista machines who are poorly maintained. I have absolute zero to complain about, super fetch does an amazing job and the same goes for indexing.

[andy @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:00PM]

I have an all in one printer: Lexmark X83. It won't even work with the XP drivers. In fact, they hosed my VISTA install.

I have an nForce2 chipset. All of the drivers are cobbled together, and the system frequently hangs when resuming from sleep.



I realize these aren't MSFT's problems, but at the same time, they are. With XP, I've pretty much tossed all driver discs in the trash. With Vista, I've been digging for driver discs, looking on developer forums, trying drivers for other devices, and basically doing everything I can to get it to work.


Vista has compatability issues. The best thing about vista is being able to dual boot it with XP.

I do like media center though with my 360 extender.

[Gatica @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:08PM]

I have been using Vista since it was in beta and have had only minor issues which every time it was because I purchased cheap hardware. It seems to me that people do not like change, and vista was a big change in the UI people all the time tell me how they can't stand vista because they can't find anything. So buy good hardware and get used to it because the next version of windows is going to require good hardware as well and the UI will not be going back to the old style.

[kal326 @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:09PM]

Brother 2070N Network laser printer when used as a network printer has an issue where the port is sporadically reported as in use, issue does not occur in Windows XP. Does not occur when used with USB only. Pretty annoying issue and I have already reported the issue to Brother. They have yet to provide an updated driver. The issue does not occur with my MFC9420CN by Brother which is a color network multifunction.

So yes compatability issues do exist, but probably not as many as people complain about.

[Kurian @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:13PM]

@Andy
nForce 2?? On Vista??

And I though my computer was old...

Your computer is the problem.

[[ W ] @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:18PM]

@ Anthony
Same thing here. I personally don't like Vista, and use OS X most of the time (Only use Vista when I need Quartus II or something that don't run on OS X). But to be honest, I don't think Vista is that bad. Most of the people I talk to that hate Vista cannot answer my questions when I ask them why. Most of the people don't know $hit about it, and they are just saying that because other people say so, and I'm so tired of that! If you want to hate Vista, at least you should know why you hate it, and not just because other people say it sucks.

[rlynd3 @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:28PM]

@Homeboy

Too True!

My favorite is when i hear...
Friend: "Man Vista sucks!!"
Me: "Why?"
Friend: "I cant figure out how to do... Oh and i heard that people are switching back to XP and Vista is not compatible with anything."
Me: *sarcastically* "Hmm, can't figure out how to use Vista, Then you should get a Mac!"


...................................................................................................
Warning: above comment uses words like Vista and Mac. Reader discretion is advised!

[Blaine Oliver @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:33PM]

Why is it everyone who says vista is bad are usually people who have never tried it, i have to tell literally 10s of people a day that its fine, and that you have to TRY it yourself, not idly follow the journalists opinions, so its slower at some tasks, mine loads faster than XP and has stayed faster.

[Dude Krush @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:38PM]

Vista blows on many levels. Thats a fact. People who say that things work for them have such low standards on their expectations or simply do not understand what their hardware is capable of. Try installing an alternate OS - any brand/flavor and check the responsiveness of the system. Maybe even turn on all the eye candy that you can imagine with compiz-beryl on linux based OS flavors and check the responsiveness of the system. Whats the excuse for Vista to be such a resource hog and still be so slow compared to its own previous versions?

[Jon Doe. @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:37PM]

Ditto. Zero hardware problems and 1 app issue with One Touch's BG meter software that doen't work at all on Vista....Which is where a free copy of VMWare Server comes into play. Its free on their site. Load up XP and away I go.
People bitch too much about Vista. With SP1 its a perfectly fine OS. It still has its glitches but so does 10.5 and pretty much every version of Linux on the planet.

[jon @ Sep 20th 2008 1:02AM]

The other problem is people not reinstalling the OS and leaving what the manufacture puts on the computer (depending on who you buy from). On my machine though vista will detect and download all the rights drivers.

[Razor @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:48PM]

I think people in the thread have hit the nail on the head. I think it has become increasingly fashionable for many to simply bash Vista. In my last job, doing computer training, one question I had to ask during the course was what OS my students were using. Of course, as soon as one person (or myself) mention the use of Vista, there would be snide comments abound. And yet when I pressed for more detail, the majority of those making poor remarks of Vista either hadn't used it or simply chimed in because of what someone else told. And they couldn't give me concrete answers when it came to compatibility issues.

I'm not saying they don't exist, but I think alot is overblown. Apple's FUD tactics are working very well, too.

With every new version of Windows there have been those that adopted them immediately, and those that waited. Early adopters deal with the technical issues of a new OS before anyone else. This isn't a big deal if you have the technical skill to handle that (for example, you've been through a few OS launches before).

The worst part of the Vista launch really did come down to the drivers. It's hard to fault Microsoft on this because they did give vendors ample time and warning to get their shit together. Being blunt, some vendors were purely lazy when it came to getting drivers out. This is where buying cheap hardware from half-ass vendors bit some people in the ass, because at the end they got no support from those companies.

[Neal @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:47PM]

Win7 uses the exact same driver model. This means that everything that works for Vista will work for Win7 (think back if you are old enough, to how you didn't have to change drivers between 98 and Me - if you were dumb enough to use Me).

This should make compatability a non-issue, so if anything I would reason that the push for OEM's to test against it is more for Perf benchmarkings and such. Who wants another "Vista Ready" fiasco? Not to mention one of THE biggest complaints was driver support (even though this burden is on the OEM) and performance/resources. Sticking to the same driver model tackles point 1, and you can focus more on point 2.

[Mark @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:58PM]

@Dude Krush: you mean like on Ubuntu Hardy Heron which for me flickers whenever I run anything using opengl if I have any of the compiz effects enabled while in Vista it runs Crysis smoothly with all settings on high(with aero running)? Don't get me wrong, I love Ubuntu and Linux in general and it's probably a better OS but don't pretend like it's perfect and Vista is beyond terrible in comparison.

[John @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:04PM]

When I installed Vista on my laptop, my CD burner driver, mouse trackpad, and my audio drivers were unsupported. Not only that, but my computer became agonizingly slow, even without the eye candy. It's really easy to fix problems with a desktop computer, because at worst, you can buy a new piece of hardware and replace it. Laptops are expensive to upgrade, and a laptop that requires an external mouse to even work is more-or-less useless. In the end, I reformatted my hard drive, installed Ubuntu server, turned that laptop into part of a home media center, and bought a MacBook Pro.

Three of the best decisions I've ever made.

[Tony @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:26PM]

Since you are all so concerned about speed, I suggest moving to Windows 98. I hear it's even FASTER THAN XP!!!

As software advances, so must your hardware.

[lizaoreo @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:12PM]

No problems with Vista here. Have a friend who doesn't like that it uses too much resources, but I've not had a problem with that either, in fact... FF uses more resources half the time with my many tabs.

[Stranger @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:04PM]

Tell that to my Netgear wireless card (WG311v3). Sure, Vista found the card and installed the drivers from the DVD but it still didn't worked. I had to use hacked drivers which luckily turn the card back to life. Once connected new drivers was found on Windows update which when installed once again killed the card.. Awsome..

I'm not saying that Vista sucks, far from it. But it does have all these nagging behaviors which makes it less pleasant to use.

What I hope will happen with Windows 7 is that MS keep the kernel (it's a modern kernel running neck to neck with everything else out there, no need for any major changes) but rework the GUI.

The GUI used worked very well with Windows 95 but since then large numbers of features have been added and with that clutter. Let's face it, how many different ways do we need for say changing the resolution? I'm able to to it in at least eight different ways while I would be perfectly happy with only one (or two counting the command promt). And it's like this more or less all the time, features and shortcuts are redundant in absurdum. Give me one place to change my ip-address, one place to change drivers, one place to remove programs, and so far..

[andy @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:52PM]

I apologize for offending everyone with my apparently sickly 2.5GHz processor and 4GB of RAM.


You guys are twisted if you think that you need quad core @3GHz and 8GB RAM on a 64 bit platform to run Office 2007 and surf the internet.


I got vista on an old 650 MHz slot A athlon. It runs. It works. The original point by the original poster was that there are no Vista issues. That is not true.

NVIDIA, LEXMARK, AND CREATIVE FAILED THEIR CUSTOMERS ON DRIVER ISSUES (and other vendors did too I'm sure). That is a significant issue no matter how good you think Vista is.

When they no longer want to support something, they should at least throw it open for others to write drivers.

[kccboy2004 @ Jun 2nd 2008 7:43PM]

Honestly, what the heck has Apple software got to do with Microsoft. They are not even in the same market.

Windows: serious software that we use for business, on serious laptops, serious desktops, non serious laptops, non serious desktops.

Unix: serious business software, that stays largely at work

Linux: A variation on the above, that we give credit for bringing Unix to the house in a sensible package.

Apple osx: hmm, good for my daughter's computing needs. She still really loves that lovely clear plastic CRT monitor they made for it. Works like a charm for surfing the net. Also good for graphic designers.

[sjdurfey @ Jun 2nd 2008 10:36PM]

@Mark

"compiz effects enabled while in Vista it runs Crysis smoothly".

wtf are you talking about? compiz is a linux window manager.

[loosely_coupled @ Jun 3rd 2008 2:42AM]

"I hear so many people complaining about how Vista isn't compatibile with anything, yet I have no problems with it."

Amazing! One person doesn't have problems with Vista.. Everyone else MUST BE LYING THEN!

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:28PM]

i say give us XP2

[helloUser @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:30PM]

Exactly. If it isnt broken, why fix it? Just improve on it. Thats basically how OS X has been, constantly evolving. This complete overhaul of windows is ridiculous.

[eggothewaffle @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:32PM]

Yeah, because OSX has never had a complete overhaul or anything.

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:34PM]

yeah...just give XP a visual upgrade...Vista front-end XP back-end...perfect combo

[wickedpheonix @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:35PM]

But with OS 9 - OS X there's a few differences: 1) Apple didn't need to make sure that all the OEMs developed compatible hardware/drivers because, duh, it's the only one that made (and makes) Macs and 2) It got all the Apple developers on board with Cocoa or whatever, easy because back then the developer community was rather small.

[Aeqelae @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:36PM]

That honestly is one of the most uneducated comments I have read in a while.

[JMMGoalster @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:35PM]

Yea..well XP contains outdated APIs that shouldnt be used in the transition from 32 bit to 64 bit. Plus, developers were able to do things Microsoft said they shouldn't do, which created system instability. The Vista OS is fine, its developers who don't follow guidelines who mess it up.