The short story is: Windows 7 still seem to be on schedule for a 2H 2009 release, or thereabouts at least. Microsoft started developing Windows 7 by Windows Vista's release. 2H 2006 + 3 years = 2H 2009. Microsoft do NOT want to repeat Windows Vista's development timeframe. It boils down to two quotes.
WinVistaClub:
"Windows 7 is still in the planning stage and will take approximately 3 years to develop."
WVC then assumes "OOH, 3 years from NOW!!"
However, this is the full info from MS given to CMP Channel (see the last paragraph):
"We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and expect the development to take approximately 3 years since the release of Windows Vista."
Note how similar it is. It's probably a canned reply, just more complete and useful this time. And with that info, we should be back exactly at the 2H 2009 estimate again.
If you want more info on this, read ahead here on what I posted at Wikipedia:
(thankfully, the Wikipedia editors had noticed the same mistakes made in media, and particularly WinVistaClub)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Windows_...e_date_articles (read the section "Just a warning on release date articles")
The news chain unfortunately got quite long here, and is maybe still spreading this false interpretation of speculation -> facts that it seems like started with... you guessed it... The Inquirer.
I can't really blame WVC -- they're free to speculate after all. It's The Inq who turned that into facts, and that's just wrong, however. Actually, it's some pretty sad reading. Journalists soon enough even started claiming Microsoft had TOLD that it would be a post-2009 release! From WVC's speculation alone!Sorry if this was said in the other thread here on the WinVistaClub speculation (note again, Microsoft mentioned no start year for Windows 7's development there)... That thread apparently derailed to something else about XP vs Vista or whatever, so I didn't bother reading it too well.
