Windows 7: Same as the old boss

Sad to say it folks, but everyone holding out for an update to Windows Vista that will be worth buying is likely to be in for a world of frustration come January 2010, the newly-announced target date for its release. Why? Based on new demos and interviews with Microsoft brass, Windows 7 is starting to look awfully familiar. One might even say it looks like warmed-over Vista, a big bottle of ketchup for last year's OS. Nonetheless, Microsoft will surely attempt to gouge another $400 from you for the privilege of installing it.

The insight began with Cnet's lengthy yet information-free interview Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky, who provided precious little insight about what Windows 7 might include. Comments like "Look, we're working--the team is working super, super hard on this release of Windows" and "we're very excited about the release" are the kind of throwaway lines you'll find in the opus. (Not that I blame Cnet's Ina Fried, mind you. She did a great job at trying to get blood from the stone of Redmond.)

Why is Sinofsky so cagey? Many conjecture that Microsoft is press-shy after Vista got so much early hype and ended up being so awful. So after the epic interview, Fried went back and pulled out the few things that Sinofsky actually did say about Windows 7. Here's what we know: It will come out in early 2010. It will use Vista software and drivers. It will have 32-bit and 64-bit versions. It will "build on" Vista architecture and won't have the MinWin kernel that was previously displayed.

Soooooo how is all of this any different from Vista really?

As one of his final duties as Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates demonstrated an early beta of Windows 7 at this week's D6 tech conference, its first real public demo, to attempt to show us how it's different. His answer: A multi-touch screen inspired by the Surface table and, er, the iPhone. Neat demo, but will all Windows 7 computers have to have touch-sensitive screens to use these features? There's a mapping system that looks like Google Earth. And it's said there will be an OS X-like dock, though current demos have the usual taskbar as we've known it since Windows 95.

Honestly, in trotting out Surface again, I have no idea what Microsoft is hoping to accomplish except to disguise the fact that this is merely Vista given a little cosmetic pop (multi-touch piano, woo!). (Gizmodo editor Brian Lam puts things a little more succinctly.) Average users may find this stuff, like photo resizing and organization, kind of cool... if they have the right hardware (tablet PC and 4GB of RAM, anyone?), but I can already hear the reaction from corporate America starting to rumble.

Do parlor tricks and hocus pocus like this really impress anyone?