Windows 7 General Availability
Today on the other side of the world, at the Computex show in Taipei, Microsoft confirmed that later in the year, on October 22nd to be exact, you will be able to purchase Windows 7 factory installed on your favorite Dell PC. YEA! We have been working with Microsoft for the last three years to develop the best possible computing solutions for you and we are excited to see our work come to fruition. Globally, Dell will have a broad selection of netbooks, laptops and desktops available for you on both www.dell.com and on the store shelves of our retail partners.
Dell Windows 7 Upgrade Program
Microsoft also confirmed that as with previous Windows launches, they are partnering with PC manufacturers like Dell to offer the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program. Later this summer, if you purchase select systems through retail or directly from Dell you may order a Windows 7 upgrade kit. It’s important to note that the Windows 7 upgrade kits will not be shipped until AFTER Windows 7 has officially launched (Oct. 22 as noted above). Once the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program is officially announced more details will be available including supported PCs, languages and countries.
Windows 7 Release Candidate testing feedback
I also want to provide new details since my last post on how our internal testing and developments efforts are coming along with Windows 7 release candidate code. So far so good…Overall we’re impressed with how well the operating system is working on our systems. Here are some of data points that we have captured over the last 4 to 6 weeks:
- Solid Improvements in boot time (ie hitting the power button and getting to the desktop)
- Suspend results are looking much better (versus Windows Vista)
- Battery life is still trending to be as good as Windows XP (and better than Vista)
And this is more qualitative than quantitative…the systems just feel faster in a good way.
We’re looking forward to adding Windows 7 to our compelling notebook and desktop systems later this year.