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I know I'll be sending mail to a bunch of people inside Microsoft tomorrow to try and get an M3 install disc. (If I succeed, you'll know because I will join Paul in being surprisingly quiet about speculating on which rumors are likely true or false)

:-)

Would this be a sign that they aren't sticking to the release schedule or does this seem right on time?

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I'm glad they are de-bundling some products like movie maker, hopefully that means they can release updates to those more often than having to wait 3-4 years for a windows release.

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Being as usable as Vista is the least you can expect from it, as it is a mere SP of it. The major change coming from the bundling of services and softs that come with it...

I believe Seven much further along than Vista, because most of the base and intermediate OS construction was achieved in Vista. Now Microsoft has the opportunity to really flesh out a better vision of what Vista was supposed to look like. I also believe Microsoft is in a better position to exceed that vision.

Keep in mind that they had to restart Vista because of everything that was happening with XP, IE6, Office, and 2000. They really had no choice but to stabilize and improve the security situations as much as possible. SP 2 for XP was critical and Microsoft had major success in stabilizing a core part of the business.

At the very same time, Microsoft was working on I.E 7 because I.E 6 was a security nightmare. With Vista, they managed to create the most secure OS on the market plus make I.E 7 way more secure than I.E. 6. Microsoft did such a good job, that it pushed OS-X from being the most secure to the most insecure OS on the market. Thats a major accomplisment.

Now that I.E 8 is on the road to completion, Live Mesh beta going very well, security situation a lot more stable, Microsoft is fully focused on Seven. Seven has the potential to really blossom not only to meet the original longhorn ideas, but to expand them to what 2010 computing will offer us. If anything, Apple needs to borrow a page from Microsoft. They should put Snow Leopard on hold to redo and renovate Quicktime, iTunes, Mobile Me, Safari, and improve security in both Leopard/Tiger.

@daveinla.- You're right about the services and software bundles, but I think M3 of Seven is much further along than Longhorn M3 ever was. The Vista codebase is holding up unlike the original longhorn code as far as anything I've read. The old XP code had to be reset in Longhorn's development. It was reset  to Windows Server 2003 SP1 codebase and that ended up being Vista. Since all the base and intermediate coding was done in Vista, now its improving that base and streamlining what was done. I'd say its like going from the old from the old WWII F4F Wildcat fighter to the F6F Hellcat fighter that won the Pacific Theatre.

I like the idea of using the ribbon in Windows 7, would be nice to see a Beta this year too. Even though i was happy just after Vista went gold, i missed testing out the Betas.....ok maybe not Beta 2. :D

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@subzero:

It wasn't so much IE6 that was a security nightmare - most of it was pre-SP2.  SP2 added the download blocker and ActiveX double-confirmation to IE6.  Automatic Updates after that included many security updates, but spyware and drive-by downloads were prevented just by installing SP2, mostly because drive-by downloads could bypass the normal ActiveX certificate confirmation screen.  By adding a "block-by-default" ActiveX bar to SP2's version of IE6, drive-by downloads would now prompt the user for installation.  IE7 added a more revised codebase but also added phishing notification.  Of course, IE7 also added more standards support, but security, not so much.  It was decoupled from the shell in XP, so malware couldn't cripple Windows as easily.  Unsuspecting users would still be as prone to getting malware installed as in IE6.

So to summarize:

IE6 pre-SP2 = drive-by downloads (the major source of spyware infections at the time, excluding P2P software of course)

IE6 SP2 = no more drive-by downloads (must be allowed by unsuspecting user)

IE7 = new features, decoupled from Windows Explorer (malware allowed by the user can no longer easily cripple all of Windows)

IE7 Protected mode in Windows Vista = malware allowed by user is further restricted to IE sandbox (hopefully security software picks up the rest)

I'm interested to see the ribbon in some of the native apps. I know a few people who absolutely detest the ribbon.

We haven't upgraded to office 2007 in my office yet and I don't know if we will anytime soon - it would require a lot of training for our users (similar to our switch from wordperfect to word earlier this decade) and I would estimate that many of them would not like it.

I am also interested in seeing if MS can live up to its goal of "streamlining" the code in 7 so that it runs more efficiently...

Wae,

I have to disagree with you to a small degree. Many people considered IE 6 such a nightmare. Many business institutions locked down IE 6 access like it was Fort Knox to prevent access to the Internet. It would run intranet and nothing more. Infact, DISD had us put Deep Freeze on every library computer, specifically because of IE 6. As soon as IE 7 got to public beta, I switch my XP machine as fast as possible.

Post SP2, I would agree that it was tons better.

"I have to disagree with you to a small degree. Many people considered IE 6 such a nightmare."

Perception and reality are two totally different things though.  IE7 included the breakup from Windows Explorer, and the new version number was heralded as a big leap for IE progress, after Microsoft claimed "they wouldn't need to update IE as frequently", but the biggest new security feature(s) came first from IE6 SP2 - most of that was the fact that drive-by downloads became a thing of the past, due to what people called "extra nagging" (which I won't say is one of the primary reasons why Vista is much more secure too - oops! ;)  ).  The new UI and phishing alerts in IE7 just sealed the deal for users.  

Kept up to date, IE6 SP2 can be just as secure as IE7 in XP in terms of attack entrypoints - it IS still supported, after all.  The fact that IE7 isn't linked to the shell means that the damage to Windows caused by malware requires several extra steps in coding, and is prevented by IE7's lack of endpoint connections.  Security entrypoints are about the same between the two browser versions though, as Microsoft still actively creates security updates for IE6 SP2.

I still recommend users get IE7 though because you can never be too cautious about users clicking on untrusted links.  The area of potential damage is just lessened with IE7.

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Der neue Windows Media Center kommt vielleicht schneller als gedacht in deutsche Wohnzimmern! Der im neuen Windows Se7en erwartete überarbeitete Windows Media Center könnte bereits Ende 2009 veröffentlicht sein. Paul Thurrott berichtet bereits vom dr