Microsoft kills Windows 7 beta
Microsoft yesterday ended its download programme for its Windows 7 Beta operating system. The company previously announced that it had "more than enough beta testers and feedback coming in to meet our engineering needs".
Users who initiated a download of Windows 7 before 12am US Pacific time on Tuesday will have until the end of February 12 to complete the download.
Brandon LeBlanc of Microsoft’s Windows client communication team said yesterday that after February 12 users would still be able to register for product keys so long as they had completed the download.
The deadline for downloading Windows 7 Beta only applies to general users, however. TechNet and MSDN subscribers – Microsoft’s paid-for memberships – will still continue to be able to access the Windows 7 Beta.
Critical success
Initial reviews of Windows 7 have been largely positive, with most users favourably comparing the new operating system to Windows Vista. Which is good news for Microsoft which is hoping that Windows 7 can reclaim some of the glitter that Vista managed to remove from its image. Windows Vista was widely criticised for being cumbersome and many companies, and users, have chosen to stick with their existing Windows XP installations until the release of Windows 7.
Vista also proved to be a failure on the new generation netbooks with just a handful of PC makers risking installing it on their ultra-portable machines. So dismal was Vista on netbooks that Microsoft was forced to pull back the end-of-life date for XP and allow OEMs to continue installing it on new netbooks. It was a move that has reclaimed some lost ground for Microsoft with new reports suggesting that well over half of new netbooks are installed with Windows now, as opposed to Linux.
Application limits
Although Microsoft has announced that there will be a choice of six versions of Windows 7 when the OS is finally released, the company is, mostly, betting on two editions – Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional – as the primary choices for users. The other four editions will cover developing markets, netbooks and the enterprise sector.
The one edition that is causing the most interest is the Windows 7 Starter edition. This is a new edition to the Windows lineup and aimed at developing markets and the critical netbook market. However, with the ultra-portable market in mind, Microsoft has said that the Windows 7 Starter edition will only allow users to open three applications at any one time. The three applications include those in the background, so a user running Messenger and Skype in the background will be limited to just one other application.
The decision has prompted much debate among users but Microsoft says that its research shows three to be an optimal number of applications for most users.
Windows 7 has no official release date yet but is expected to be released in late 2009 or early 2010.
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