Windows 7 officially "on track for holiday season"

Microsoft has abruptly come forward and announced that Windows 7 is arriving sooner than it had previously hinted at, formally announcing that the next-gen operating system "will be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season" later this year.

The company stopped short of setting a date for release, but previously leaked information is now looking more reliable than ever. That date pegs Windows 7 for an October 23 launch date, a date which I said made "a whole lot sense" and looks increasingly like a solid target for now.

Of course, you needn't wait until October to get a sense of what Windows 7 is going to look like. The most recent beta, Release Candidate 1, is already available for download.

Although I expect very few of you will care about this portion of the announcement, Microsoft also said that Windows Server 2008 R2, the latest version of its back-end server software, is set to release at or around the time as Windows 7. Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate 1 is also being formally released today and can now be downloaded for free.

The question now becomes guessing the actual-final-for-real release date of Windows 7, while simultaneously worrying about whether that date will slip. Microsoft is notorious for announcing release dates and then pushing them back (sometimes for years), but Windows 7 has been a surprising exception to that rule. It is, as far as I can remember, the first and only time a Microsoft release date has actually moved forward in time. And that can really only be a good thing.

LINK: Complete press release