Windows 7 Beta available Early 2009 and was NOT delayed

You may have been hearing from Kennedy at Infoworld that the Windows 7 Beta had been delayed. Let’s take a look at what Sinofsky had to say about the Windows 7 Beta at PDC:

The beta is going to be feature complete. It’s going to be pretty good. It’s not going to be final. It’s going to be a beta. So we’re still not ready for performance benchmarking. We’re still not ready to try out how every single edge case works, but it is the complete product as we envision it. I’m here today to tell you we’re going to deliver the beta early next year as well. And so all of you, of course, will be able to get the beta, and you’ll get it through MSDN, and all the traditional ways, and we’re also going to open up the beta broadly, and stay-tuned on Microsoft.com/Windows for how you’ll be able to download the beta just if you’re interested in it.

As you can see, it was made perfectly clear when the beta would be released and what we could expect from it. Nothing has been delayed or changed from the original scheduling. According to one of Rafael’s sources, the post was actually a “joke”. Joke or not, this is just bad press. First the horrible analysis on Windows 7 being Vista’s twin, and now this. The next time Kennedy tries to pull another stunt, he’ll be the boy who cried wolf.

Related posts:

1. Windows 7 Beta 1 to be released on January 13, 2009
2. Compal electronics claims Windows 7 should be out late September or early October
3. Windows 7 could be released as early as July