Should We Care About Window 7’s Release Date?

Despite the fact that Windows Vista was just launched (almost exactly) one year ago, there has been a lot of Windows 7 talk recently. There have even been “leaked” screenshots, such as the ones found on this Chinese blog. If you take a look there, you will notice one thing… the screenshots don’t look like a Windows 7, but rather a Photoshop’d Windows Vista. That means two things.. it really is Photoshop’d, or it currently shows no differences or is rough around the edges simply because it’s a pre-alpha.

Having tested Windows Longhorn (pre-Vista), I remember the same thing occurred. At first, the OS looked exactly like Windows XP, with a different color theme. So that could be the case here… maybe they are just early screenshots. That doesn’t speak to what’s behind the scenes though, as that could be a completely different story.

Regardless, the question is, do we, or should we, care? Personal gripes aside, Vista hasn’t exactly been well-received due to blatant issues that remained after the beta, some of which Service Pack 1 should take care of. Still, with a reported launch date of late 2009 (this should be taken with 1/4th of a grain of salt) for Windows 7, no one should be looking forward to it. Vista has enough remaining issues of its own, to think of its successor in less than two years is a little… asinine.

As Ars Technica points out, Microsoft’s time lines haven’t worked out in the past (Vista should have been out in 2005, instead it was launched late 2006), but most importantly, we need Microsoft to take their time and not rush the next version. Whether they screwed up on Vista is an issue to be argued, but the fact of the matter is, it didn’t sell as well as they expected it to. Windows 7 should be where Microsoft turns a new leaf and gives us a well-tested and refined OS.

Unfortunately, Vista did become date-driven, and even Gates seemed to admit that Vista shipped before it was ready when Gizmodo talked to him at CES this year. Admission or not, it’s quite clear that things that were not “totally together” where included on the “shipping train,” and that the departure time became more important than the quality of the release.

Source: Ars Technica