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Ballmer announces Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 betas


By David Worthington
January 8, 2009 — 
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) yesterday by announcing the availability of pre-release versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows 7's timely release schedule should come as no surprise: The OS was already API complete at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference in October.

Microsoft has implemented several user interface changes in Windows 7, including uniform use of its "Ribbon" construct and redesigned interfaces for common tasks. It also introduces an overhauled taskbar, called Superbar.

The Windows 7 Superbar provides new capabilities for launching and switching among applications and documents. Applications may be pinned to the taskbar and indicate when they have been loaded.

A feature that Microsoft calls Peek changes the focus of Windows in a manner similar to Mac OS X’s Expose; multi-touch gesture support also helps users navigate between windows.

The overall hardware requirements for Windows 7 will be similar to Windows Vista, the company said. The Windows 7 beta was issued to testers at CES and will become generally available tomorrow.

"I asked about upgrade plans, and only 10% of organizations have deployed Vista as their major OS," said Laura DiDio, a principal analyst at Information Technology Intelligence Corp. "That doesn't mean a lot don't have it in pilot networks and test implementations. What we saw from that is [what] most customers basically said is, 'We are going to skip Vista and go directly to Windows 7.' Microsoft has a very vested interest in getting this thing out on time and getting it right."

She added that Windows XP may also be getting too long in the tooth for enterprises that require support for composite applications, highly parallel applications and cloud-based services. "Customers have been asking for longer lasting, more scalable and [more] secure operating systems for years, and vendors, including Microsoft, responded. But Windows XP may not be powerful enough to run new applications," she explained.

Microsoft has been developing runtimes that will permit Windows to accommodate parallel applications. It is also developing operating system technologies for concurrent computing environments.

In his keynote, Ballmer said that the first beta of Windows Server 2008 R2 would also be ready for download tomorrow. It was already released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. The beta extends hardware support, improves power management, includes live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines and has more advanced support for remote desktops.


Related Search Term(s): Windows, Windows Server, Microsoft


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