In the letter, Veghte wrote: “Our plan is to deliver Windows 7 approximately three years after the January 2007 general availability launch date of Windows Vista.

“You’ve also let us know you don’t want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista.

“Our goal is to ensure that the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward.”

Well, if Intel is anything to go by, it won’t be the migration from Vista to Windows 7 that will be the problem, it will be the migration from XP to Windows 7 that most computer users will be worried about.

Source: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/windows-7-date-is-confirmed-410016

Exhibit A: The “Multi-Touch” technology that Microsoft plans to offer in Windows 7. As my colleague J. Nicholas Hoover reports, the technology is designed to allow users to open and close windows, launch applications, and perform other functions by touching the screen and using an assortment of hand gestures.

That’s uh, interesting, if it works; the history of failed direct input technologies is long and inglorious.

But, like Vista’s seldom used Flip 3-D interface, it’s nothing more than a resource-hungry novelty that will be used infrequently by people who spend most of their day on a PC. It’s simpler, faster, and ergonomically better to use a mouse for most functions.

Microsoft also previewed another gimmicky new function in Windows 7 called Concierge, which is basically a circular pop-up menu. Whoa, that’s worth buying another 2 GB of RAM!

So what’s the harm? Users not drawn to such bells and whistles can just turn them off, right? That’s only partly true. Vista requires considerably more processing power and memory than Windows XP, whether or not you use all its features.

And most users don’t want or all these googahs, especially if they require hundreds of dollars worth of additional hardware. In fact, computer users — in business or at home — in general want a machine that can handle word processing, e-mail, and the Internet, and that’s about it.

That’s why Wal-Mart’s $199 Linux PC sold out within days of its appearance on the retailer’s Web site. That’s why a story I wrote about a software tool that lets users strip all the gunk from Vista proved to be one of our most popular articles of the year.

Microsoft appears to be in denial about all of this, if early glimpses of Windows 7 are any indication. The company once again has adopted the kitchen sink approach to OS design. MinWin, apparently, was nothing more than a science fair project.

Microsoft’s problem is that its business model has come to rely on selling operating systems that cost more than the hardware on which they reside. It knows this can’t be sustained indefinitely, there’s too many new options in the marketplace. Apple is resurgent, Google’s eyeing the desktop, and there’s those Wal-Mart Linux PCs.

But Ballmer and company have apparently decided that they can sell a few more big fat operating systems until they get this whole Internet thing figured out (or buy their way into it).

It’s a risky strategy. (Otellini to Ballmer, circa late 2009: “Steve, the users are revolting!” Ballmer to Otellini: “Tell them to bathe!”)