Windows 7 in October? Wow

There's really only one word that can properly describe Microsoft's push on Windows 7: breathtaking.

Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will be available on Oct. 22. That is truly remarkable, given Microsoft's track record of OS release delays (Vista, anyone?) It's also accomplishing another of Microsoft's unstated aims -- making people forget about the aforementioned Vista. Soon, Redmond hopes, Vista will be a dim memory, a pothole on the long Windows road.

It will also, of course, be out in time for the holidays. That surely excites Microsoft, probably even more than the general public. Not in time for back-to-school, but for all those laptops under the Christmas tree.

At the very end of the Windows 7 posting was another announcement that got surprisingly short shrift: "We also expect to be able to make RTM code for Windows Server 2008 R2 available to our partners in this time frame as well." To me, and the virtualization community, that should be just as exciting, because it means Hyper-V with live migration. Can I get an Amen, brothers?!

I'd be willing to bet that the latest versions of Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (expected around the same time) are priorities nearly as high on Microsoft's list. It knows it just can't afford to fall further behind VMware and vSphere, which is threatening to lap the competition with its new features and performance enhancements. This breakneck development of virtualization technologies tells me Microsoft knows the score, and is driven to catch up ASAP.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to Windows 7 and Hyper-V R2? Shoot me an e-mail or respond below.

Posted by Keith Ward on 06/03/2009 at 12:48 PM