Windows 7 Fact Thread

[mikee]

I dont think any system reqs will be accurate at this time though I would like to know what is needed to run this supposedly not so bloated os with minwin. The way I see it ms is never going to release a not bloated os. It would be nice if they could make it modular.

[Mak213]

There can not even be a guess at this time. From things i am hearing right now the MiniWin Kernel may not be used either. So i have to wait for those rumors to surface out before i can get any confirmation on that one.

The Specs are going to be on par with that of Vista. That is all i can even guess right now.

[gurusan]

Originally Posted by beedubaya

Microsoft would be making a major mistake cutting backwards compatibility from Windows 7. One of the #1 complaints about Vista is its not backwards compatible enough. I think MS should keep some of the things they did right in Vista, like the Aero interface. They should make it more memory efficient, fix the slow IO problems (its better in SP1 but still not perfect), and overall more budget PC friendly. Most people buy cheap $299 desktop bundles or $399 laptops, and Windows needs to scale down to run acceptable on that type of hardware. I think a large reason Vista is bashed so much is because people expect it to run faster than XP on their cheap laptop with 512MB of RAM, but that just isn't the case.

But hardware has changed a bit in the last few years compared to previous years. "cheap $299 desktop bundles" nowadays are a lot more powerful than those a few years ago. An e2180 and 2gb of DDR2 5300 is plenty to run vista just fine....whereas back in the day 256mb ram was never really sufficient for win 2k or XP in my opinion.

[beedubaya]

Originally Posted by Makaveli213

There can not even be a guess at this time. From things i am hearing right now the MiniWin Kernel may not be used either. So i have to wait for those rumors to surface out before i can get any confirmation on that one.

The Specs are going to be on par with that of Vista. That is all i can even guess right now.

I am hoping MS uses MinWin or some form of modular kernel. It would be nice if you could make Windows as bloated or as slim as you wanted it to be on install, like you can with Linux. Heck, even early versions of Windows such as 9x gave you more freedom on what got installed and what didn't.

[Mak213]

Beedub right now the rumor mill has it that they are using a slim Kernel like MiniWin but not actually MiniWin. Like i said this is all rumors and sepcualtion. There is no hard facts to back any o fit up right now other than a few people talking about the difference in some articles and how it is interprited.

I do hope that the Kernel gets slimed down and that the OS isnt as bloated. It will only benefit the users in the end.

[TheOtis]

It'd be great if the requirments for 7 end up being around Vista's. By then it'll be a lot easier to run. Even though we're about 2-3 years off from getting it. By then DDR3 is going to be the standard, and hopefully we'll see 4GB of whatever DDR standard is for DDR3 by then (DDR3-1600?), for under $250 or so. That may be dreaming, but it'd be great.

Vista 64-bit runs like a dream on 4GB.

[Osiris]

Microsoft is very reserved about Windows 7 in an effort to avoid damaging Windows Vista sales. The testers that already have copies of Windows 7, the new Microsoft operating system, are not that reserved and it is because of them that we see all those screenshots, videos and information popping up about the new Microsoft operating system. It is definitely in an early development stage and one should not get to excited - or disappointed - by the looks and features that have been revealed as of now.
Windows 7 News is reporting that a Chinese blogger revealed new information about the latest Windows 7 release publishing screenshots, a video and a large article on his website. The article has been pulled after only a few hours and it is unclear why it was pulled.
Thanks to Internet Caches though it was possible to reconstruct the article. The new release is displaying several new functions and layouts that have not been implemented in previous releases of Windows 7.
While most changes are marginal some might really improve the operating system. Windows Vista users won’t be happy to hear that the UAC, the User Account Control, is still in place. A change was implemented though which asks the user if he wants to temporarily disable UAC if more than one action that requires UAC is initiated.
Other changes have been made to the Windows Health Center, the Windows Explorer layout and the search in the Start Menu that is now displaying search results using the full width of the menu. Head over to Windows 7 news to take a look at the screenshots and videos that have been posted on the Chinese website.

Windows 7 News

[TheOtis]

Not sure if you guys have heard or not, but Bill recently talked about extending XP support to 2010 and Windows 7 being out earlier then we thought, as in late next year.

I can supply a linky if I can find it.

[Mak213]

Windows 7 will not hit late next year. I have heard these rumors as well. Such as May29th or around there. They have not even hit Milestone 2 yet. Jsut Milestone 1 refresh. Kinda hard to get a new OS out in a year if htey have not hit beta stages yet. It took Vista almost 2 years. No way they will rush Windows 7 that much.

XP yes. You are right.

Microsoft Gives Windows XP A Limited Reprieve - Yahoo! News

[TheOtis]

I know they're just at milestone one, it's what I read today. But the fact that Bill Gates himself implied that it was going to be out sooner then we though, is why I posted that. If it was some rumour floating around I wouldn't have posted it haha.

With that said, I'm really curious how 7 is going to pan out. This is the first time I've followed a Windows OS from the start and it's sound promising, especially the fact that the core is only 400MB, down from over a gig from Vista (From what I understand that is)

I hope they support it that long. I do a lot of computer work for friends and family and don't want to have to build them a new rig or something and only be able to get Vista.