A little peak at Windows 7

BBC News

It looks good, but i am not convinced by Windows anymore. They always seem to come out second best nowadays and from first hand experience using a Vista computer i can't say i'm overly pleased.

Fingers crossed they actually put something out that really kicks butt. Will have to wait just over a year though.

Looks like an updated version of Vista to me.

agreed vista is xp with nice bits stuck on to it and windows 7 is vista with touch screen, i think they should just rebuild the whole OS from scratch

Hang on. They literally did that, have you seen so many programs that were incompatible with Vista? This is because of the new features. If they built an entirely new operating system literally every program will need to be repogrammed for the new OS and really, Microsoft will get all the blaim like they usually do.

Vista isn't bad but it is quite bland I suppose, but I don't see how Windows 7 can be integrated into laptops?

So far it looks really good. Good name too, very simplistic.

Why do you think it can't be integrated to laptops?

Touch screen? Small laptops?

You've never seen a laptop with a touchscreen? How about Tablet PC's? Size really doesn't matter when it comes to being a touch device, look at the iPhone and the iPod touch.

I use a laptop and i am pretty confident touch screen technology could be used on a laptop of this size. Infact, at work we use small hand held computers which is touch screen. Interestingly enough they are being powered by Microsoft, so it's something that Microsoft has got the ability to put together without any real problems.

I think the catch here is that windows 7 will NOT REQUIRE touch screens it will simply have support built in at the OS level just like OS X does. The funny thing is that the computer being used to demo windows 7 already exists. Its called the HP TouchSmart and it's touch screen works just fine with Vista. The only difference is that HP had to create the drivers instead of relying on the OS. Seems like a lot of smoke if you ask me.

I also found it interesting that everyone was pointing out that Apple doesn't use touch technology on their computers. I don't think that's been a mistake on Apple's part as much as a conscious choice to use the technology where it makes sense. Touch tech is great when you don't have room for physical control systems (phone, music player, etc) but can you imagine doing most of your day to day work or playing games in a big screen touch environment? HP's touchsmart sales have been ridiculously low, probably because most people use their computers for more than viewing photos. Maybe someday Microsoft will understand that.