Windows 7, the new version of Microsoft's dominant operating system, will be released on 22 October 2009.
Microsoft's OEM Division Corporate Vice President Steve Guggenheimer made the announcement yesterday at Computex 2009 in Taipei, saying: "As we've said many times, quality is our primary goal. We announce each milestone once we're confident of where we are in the development cycle and that it is ready to be shared with customers and partners.
"We've received great feedback from our partners who are looking forward to offering Windows 7 to their customers in time for the holidays."
Microsoft has also revealed that customers who buy a Vista-based PC in the run-up to the launch will be able to install Windows 7 when it's released, though a start date for this upgrade program hasn't yet been confirmed.
Feedback from Windows 7 testers has been largely positive, and the fact that several music software developers have said that they expect the switch to the new OS to be relatively painless gives us cause for optimism rather than concern.
