09/12/2008, 12:20pm, EDT
Friday, September 12thWindows 7 Beta delayed until mid-December
A blog entry by Mary-Jo Foley posted on Thursday suggests Microsoft will not make the Beta version of its Windows 7 operating system available to testers at either its October Professional Developers Conference or November’s Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, as expected by many in the industry. While the software giant is likely to unveil new information about the new operating system that is to be Vista’s successor, the actual Beta 1 versions aren’t likely to be released until the middle of December, Foley claims, citing industry sources familiar with the schedule who do not want to be named.
Foley goes on to say small groups of testers who are sworn to secrecy got M-designated (for Milestone) builds and interim updates, and the Windows team is working on an M3 build as well. There are no indications of a pre-beta version, such as a Community Technology Preview build, and instead Foley's sources suggest a wider distribution of Windows 7 bits aren’t likely until the OS is nearly complete with features.
What the delay means is that Microsoft will have less than one year if its promises of a late 2009 release for the final Windows 7 release are accurate, which may be too short a time to get all the bugs worked out, but are not unprecedented in the history of the Office team, Foley suggests.
Back in September, Microsoft promised to release the Windows 7 beta via its usual method, via the Connect site.
The delay suggests a small amount of initial trouble for Microsoft's replacement for Windows Vista, which itself was delayed by three years after security worries pushed the company to effectively restart development of the OS from scratch in 2004. Microsoft officially doesn't expect to launch Windows 7 until sometime in 2010.
Filed under: computers, industry, software, developer
Other story tags: Microsoft, Windows 7, beta
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What year?
2009? 2010?
third verse
same as the first. Microsoft continually promises deadlines it cannot meet, finally rushes out a still-in-beta OS which isn't useable until Service Pack 2 is released, vows to do things better next time while insisting there is nothing worng with the current OS.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
And So It Begins
We could start a betting pool on which of the features gets dropped first. What's the over-under on hitting 2009?
lol
Since the retail versions of windows actually qualifies as failed edition BETA windows, this such release of Windows might be better named as pre-alpha pre-fail edition.
It's really simple...
Just release a beta version and call it final. That's par for the course.
Where have we heard this
Where have we heard this before? Hmmmm.... sure sounds a lot like Vista development. Let the next 7 year countdown begin shall we.
Re: third verse
Microsoft continually promises deadlines it cannot meet,
Except I've seen nothing that says MS was going to be delivering Win7 at either event. As the article states as expected by many in the industry.
And lest we forget to blast the 'sources' that we blast when they come out with crappy Apple news.
Here we go again
So what features are dropping off this time? Ha!
It must REALLY really suck not to release the beta. I mean come on. How bad was Vista and it was supposed to have been finished? Bad enough that few people upgraded.
Why wait? - get a Mac today and leave the MS muddle behind.
Wasn't Vista a Beta?
Wasn't Vista a beta? Sure behaved like it. Anyone who buys into that snakepit of an OS deserves every virus, driver problem and BSD they get. All karmic punishment.
And this is a surprise?
And this is a surprise to anyone because....?
Give me a break. If Micro$oft EVER made a OS deadline, half the people in the world would have a massive coronary.