Global software major Microsoft is now gearing up to launch Windows 7, its latest operating system.
After having to remain contended with Windows Vista becoming a ‘much-talked about’ product in the negative sense, global software major Microsoft is now gearing up to launch Windows 7, its latest operating system.
The software is likely to hit the market by Christmas this year despite not very encouraging reports from the independent analysts using the beta version.
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said here on Wednesday he was very excited about Windows 7.
“It is simple to use and has better security and administrative features for the IT people. There are many wonderful features in it. In fact, there is something for everyone in it.”
But researchers, independent testers and analyst community does not seem to be sharing the same excitement.
The PC World magazine in its review said, “Improving performance is one of Microsoft’s design goals with Windows 7, and many early reviewers (including ours) have said that the new OS seems peppier than Vista. But tests of the Windows 7 Release Candidate in our PC World Test Center found that while Windows 7 was slightly faster on our WorldBench 6 suite, the differences may be barely noticeable to users.”
However, Microsoft is also planning to time the release of its Windows Server 2008 R2 in the same time of Windows 7.
Ballmer, while kicking off the three-day Tech Ed 09 event in Hyderabad on Wednesday, also talked about the software major’s commitment to the cloud strategy.
According to him, the transition from server to cloud is an important strategy and the Azure platform for the cloud strategy is ready.
Windows Azure, for instance, would be ready for release by the end of this year. Azure Services Platform is a move by Microsoft to help developers build the next generation of applications that will span from the cloud to the enterprise datacenter and deliver experiences across the PC, web and phone.
“Windows Azure will help the developers build and instantly deploy applications. Similarly, the Azure platform will also be extended to SQL. But, Windows Azure will be the backbone for Microsoft’s cloud strategy,” Ballmer said.
Talking about the need for innovation in the present economic conditions, he said that the next year would witness unprecedented wave of innovations including offering of unified communication features of voice and video. “Though this is a down economy, it is time for incredible innovation,” he said.
Taking a dig at the search solutions leaders like Google, Ballmer said that the search solutions that are available now are not enough to provide right solutions to the users.
“I think there is going to be more innovation in search. The average search string currently in English will take just 2.2 words. Search engines should be able to do better and they are going to be better in the next 10 years. Answering a question on Microsoft’s foray into search, he said, “I can’t throw more light on search. We have our businesses to do. Like we welcome more competition in PC market, the leaders in search welcome more competition in search. We are working our way in search. We have an incredible team in place.”
Talking about the global economy, Ballmer said that the global economy in general and the US economy in particular is in a reset mode. “Productivity and innovation are proving to be the key words in this market. IT matters today more than ever. Cost ( in enterprises) is going to be a dominant theme for next few years. Focus would be on reducing costs,” he said.
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