why focus on features that only a fraction of 1 percent will ever use? make it solid, tight, and dont rush it.

This just in from Microsoft: Windows N+1 will be much better than Windows N. It will wash your car and polish your shoes, and run on angel farts with 110% efficiency.

I predict that in five years time when this actually comes out, everyone will complain about it and say "Vista is much better, why would I upgrade?" just like they said "XP is much better, why would I upgrade?"

All this bragging about what the next version of Windows will do just serves to keep the business customers from switching to something else (Linux).

Posted from my WinXP laptop, through my Linux gateway.

So their new plan is not "Deliver what we promise" but "promise less so we will be guaranteed to deliver"? Huh?

I won't be there to try their next OS. They can stick windows where the sun don't shine. After my latest Vista experiences I'm gonna get a MAC. All those damn app crashes for no reason are pissing me off to no end, not to speak of the damn random bsod's.

I'll be interested in Windows again when they can come up with a file manager that isn't a cluttered eyesore. The new explorer looks like the result of a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters. With the default view, there is often no less than 4 icons in the same window that take you to the same place. Ah, but has Windows ever been anything but a masturbatory attempt at "innovation" which in reality is nothing more than a collection of stolen ideas from every other software vendor?

Behind closed doors, however, Microsoft is working hard to make sure Windows 7 doesn't run into the same problems as its predecessor.

I saw few people here mention system performance as the "same problems". Microsoft sure hasn't; perhaps they're concerned about people's expectations regarding that as well (especially since they are reusing Vista's kernel).

MS can do everything necessary to make sure driver stability is golden, etc. but if Windows 7's performance is the same as Windows Vista SP1, I won't be interested. I've had the high-end hardware necessary to run Vista and it has still underperformed for me.

Isn't this what got Microsoft in trouble in the first place? If hardware manufacturers don't write those drivers

since driver support is decided on MS's terms, since they dictate when and if new drivers are needed as they do each OS release...... why is it the hardware vendors who have to take on the sole responsibility of supporting product that they make a one time profit on.......... while MS dictates when the infrastructure of the web changes and when.

I lay the blame at MS's feet..... if they are so bummed about losing VIsta sales they could have offered for a minimal fee a driver update service to make components compatible.... once the driver is written they can resell it to others with likewise components.... seems like a potential cash cow to be honest and a PR move to help those left in the cold.... because in reality it is MS who is leaving them in the cold.

Barring a new kernel with Windows 7, the hardware requirements should make Windows 7 seem much snappier than Vista from the get-go: nearly every notebook and GPU released by 2010 should run Vista Aero and be DX10 compliant; more machines with dual/quad setup; more machines with 4gb of ram as stock.

"Dual touch is dumb" - various

Touch monitors are going to be great. Millions of bored office monkeys will play Patience/Solitaire, Minesweeper and Tic-Tac-Toe using their generic Dell Touch LCD panels, smearing coffee, sweat and lunch in front of their bleary eyes. Sales of cleaning products will sky rocket.

Millions of managers will find creatively stupid ways to abuse PowerPoint with the oh-so-zany effects like "Fingerpaint Transition" and "Signature Slide".

Millions of home users will use their 0.25 millisecond uberXGA touch monitors on the UMORG WorldOfDoomcraft1942 in TeamTag and TeamTearTheChickenApart modes.

Use your imagination folks. This could be good. It's a better idea than VR helmets and a worse idea than a mouse. Where it falls exactly time will tell.

"largely to avoid disappointments in case it fails to deliver."

Does that mean no WinFS this time around, either?

While not knowing too much about M$'s kernel and all that, I think that they have dug themselves so far in to the Windows legacy that they are simply thrashing around in a mud pit right now. A totally fresh approach to the next system .. might not be a bad idea. They certainly have the money.

Vista didn't just suck because of a lack of optimized drivers. It didn't utilize many of the subsystems well enough to equal XP's performance. For example: USB and Hard Disk transfers were abysmal prior to SP1. (And that's just one example...)

"Hardware makers that don't start testing early "won't qualify for Microsoft's Windows Logo certified compatibility program for Windows 7 or Windows Vista," InformationWeek adds."

Isn't this what got Microsoft in trouble in the first place? If hardware manufacturers don't write those drivers, then people are going to have fairly useless experiences. Even those logo'd drivers that MS does pass muster (Intel's graphics, for example,) can suck. Finally, didn't the codebase change a lot in the last 9 months? So many manufacturer's ended up having to rewrite a lot of their driver code anyway?

promises .... promises .... promises ....

There should be no "in-case it fails to deliver", how about they work on it till is does deliver. Then release a operating system that doesn't have people begging for service packs.

Congrats, for MS trying to make an effort to solve Vista's #1 pitfall: Far too much hype for its own good.

#2, that's some truth. Tell me again why I care about multi-touch? It's just so impractical and pointless.

M$ needs to give the finger to hardware developers--including Intel--that don't toe the line on driver quality. After this past weekend, I'm really loving the new Vista WDDM; helped me diagnose a flaky 8800GT without BSODs.

MS could do well by hiring me to tell them what to do and firing the morons who think "dual touch" is really worth wasting time on.