Barney's Blog

Blog archive

Windows 7 Ready for Inspection, Sir!

At this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Steve Ballmer announced that pretty much anyone can now download the Windows 7 beta. Of course, you must first have a PC robust enough to run the thing. The good news is that many report that Windows 7 needs fewer resources than Vista -- that's a first!

I love the idea of a broad beta. It means the OS will get a good, solid beating, helping it ship faster and hopefully exterminate the bugs. Early reports from you, the Redmond Report reader, indicate that Windows 7 is faster and cooler than Vista. My plan? Skip Vista and move to Windows 7 when ready (and have a nice Mac lapper just for laughs).

Meanwhile, rumors have surfaced of a program that offers a free upgrade to Windows 7 for new Vista customers. The program, if true, could start this summer.

Posted by Doug Barney on January 09, 2009


Featured

  • Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

    In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.

  • Sound Wave Illustration

    CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

    CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.

  • Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.

  • Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

    The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.