Thanks to Windows Server boss Bill Laing, we now know that Windows Server 2008 R2 will be released this calendar year. Since Windows Server 2008 R2 is the server version of Windows 7, we can deduce from this announcement that the successor to Windows Vista will certainly arrive before the end of the year. And what’s up with the “quite major announcements” about Windows 7 Microsoft is talking about?
Bill Laing revealed the plans for 2008 Server R2 during an interview. Generally, the server versions of new Windows releases are shipped later than the desktop variants, because the former needs more rigorous testing. As such, it’s pretty much certain now that Windows 7 will arrive before Christmas, and Microsoft may even try to pick a few back to school sales by releasing in October.
And that brings us to another interesting piece of news, coming from the British PC Pro magazine. According to Microsoft’s Windows OEM manager, Laurence Painell, the company has some “quite major announcements” up its sleeve for the coming weeks to coincide with the release of the release candidate of Windows 7.
There’s no specific release date set yet for the RC, but a recent “accidental” leak indicates the RC will most likely arrive somewhere in May.
Hey, anyone at the helm???
(I anticipate this will be corrected soon, right?)
The same sort of ‘major announcements’ that Windows Vista Ultimate purchasers were expecting but never received? I’m sure there are many Windows Vista users out there who are going to be saying to themselves, “I’ll believe it when I see it” given the litany of broken promises during the development process that never made it.
Will it do away with Windows Classic as Windows 7 is supposed to do?
If we are stuck with telly tubbies like interfaces then a lot of Server 2003 Sysadmins I know won’t be very happy when they get upgraded.
The same with me. I switch to Classic when I am forced to use Windows these days which I am happy to say is getting less & less.