It seems that Microsoft is really in a tearing hurry, to put the specter of Vista very quickly behind it. Windows 7 that was only recently announced, has already been displayed to developers and is now all set to enter a beta by sometime in January. This fact has been confirmed in this blog,by Microsoft’s Keith Combs. It seems that copies of the new OS will be available, to people who attend the Microsoft developer conference, that will take place in January, in Chicago and Minneapolis.
This marks probably the fastest turn-around time for a new OS, by Microsoft. Keeping in mind just how long Windows Vista was in development and how badly it has been panned by consumers, Microsoft is now just focusing on taking Vista, polishing it up with improved UI features and performance related tweaks and just introducing it as a new OS called Windows 7.

Although Microsoft showcased a much more feature-complete variant of Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 Milestone 3 at the professional Developers Conference 2008 and Windows hardware Engineering Conference 2008 in Los Angeles the past couple of weeks, the bits that made it out of Redmond contained a variety of locked features across the operating system. In all fairness, the software developers and hardware manufacturers participating at PDC 2008, respectively WinHEC 2008, have little use for details of Windows 7 which are mainly
connected with the user experience, graphical user interface and interaction model. However, those features are indeed included in Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801, albeit unfinished, and a hack is now available to unlock them.

Windows' Rafael Rivera put together the Blue Badge tool to deliver a workaround the protections set in place in Windows 7. The hack is designed to unearth all the hidden Windows 7 features that have been identified so far. The workaround supersedes the initial tool limited to unlocking only the Windows 7 new Taskbar, dubbed the Superbar within Microsoft.Following the implementation of Blue Badge, users of Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801, which following its limited official launch was leaked and made available for download via torrent websites worldwide, users will have access to the new Taskbar, as well as Aero Shake gestures, panning, and the Desktop Slideshow.

As a general development rule, Microsoft integrates the graphical user interface evolution last in a new iteration of the Windows client. And with features like the new Taskbar still in development, the company's move to lock them is understandable. Microsoft did promise that the first, an apparently only Windows 7 Beta due in early 2009, would be feature complete. In this context, users will not have to wait too long before getting a full taste of Windows 7.

AMD today announced ecosystem support by leading x86 operating system (OS) and virtualization partners for the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, codenamed “Shanghai.” Built on 45nm process technology, the enhanced processor will offer innovations for AMD software partners like Microsoft, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems and VMware specifically designed to improve OS and virtualization performance. Strategic improvements in comparison to 65nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors include a larger L3 memory cache, and features designed to further optimize application performance in virtualized environments. The new AMD Opteron processor is uniquely architected to handle more memory-intensive applications while also enabling customers of all sizes to operate a flexible and scalable IT infrastructure.

“AMD is seeing rapid industry growth and demand for cutting edge technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization,” said Earl Stahl, vice president, Software Development, AMD. “As a result of our ongoing collaboration with software partners, AMD customers can soon easily upgrade to the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. Enterprise customers can leverage the ongoing enhanced performance and features like AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology that AMD continues to deliver, while protecting the investments made to their current software infrastructure.”With more companies turning to virtualization to help improve data center efficiency and costs, AMD designed the new AMD Opteron processor to deliver a robust platform that can manage customers’ most demanding workloads, such as web hosting and complex database management, helping to maximize the business benefits of virtualization.

ISV Ecosystem Support

By collaborating with leading OS and virtual infrastructure vendors to help ensure applications are optimized for the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, AMD is providing customers with greater opportunity to utilize the software solutions that best meet the needs of their businesses.

“With the adoption of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to address customers’ infrastructure virtualization needs, it’s exciting to see the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor coming to market to help improve the performance and scalability of virtualized environments and help provide power savings benefits for customers,” said Mike Schutz, director of product management, Windows Server virtualization at Microsoft. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with AMD to help customers utilize virtualization technologies and enable businesses of all sizes to make the most of their IT investments.”

“Red Hat is committed to bringing performance, reliability and security to our customers as they expand their use of open source virtualization throughout the enterprise,” said Brian Stevens, CTO at Red Hat. “As evidenced by our recent collaboration with AMD on live migration technology, Red Hat continues to deliver business value to customers via high-performance, standards-based virtualization solutions for heterogeneous environments.”

“Sun is committed to working with AMD to include optimization and tuning advancements in the Sun xVM virtualization software portfolio in order to meet the desktop and server virtualization requirements of our customers,” said Jim McHugh, vice president of marketing, Datacenter, Sun Microsystems. “Sun xVM Server, a datacenter-grade server virtualization solution, runs on 45 nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor-based systems and offers customers the ability to virtualize and manage heterogeneous workloads, including Windows, Linux and Solaris™ operating systems, as guests. Sun xVM Server is an easy-to-use, open source hypervisor that enables a simplified and secure environment for our customers.”

“The VMware platform helps AMD customers to minimize capital and operating costs, increase availability of mission-critical applications, and promote energy efficiencies,” said Shekar Ayyar, vice president of infrastructure alliances, VMware. “The advanced virtualization features in the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, such as AMD Extended Migration and AMD-V with Rapid Virtualization Indexing, can extend those benefits to optimize application performance in VMware virtualized environments.”

AMD also recognizes support for its forthcoming and current Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors from software and virtualization partners such as Parallels, Transitive and Virtual Iron. For more information about the software support of the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor.