Windows Weekly 90

Windows 7, Office 14, Zune rumors, MSDN, Software Wars, Roku, and more.

• Windows 7 Beta Fallout

  There is almost universal praise for the Windows 7 public beta which was released on January 9, 2009. After impressive demand for the new beta Microsoft has suspended its previous policy which would place a limit on the downloads to 2.5 million and will allow people to download the beta until January 24, 2009. Paul recommends re-arming rather then activiting to save your license keys. Windows 7 also runs great on netbooks, lower end notebooks designed for portability and low power usage. Paul describes a good experience on a 1.6GHz Atom system with 1 GB of RAM and 16GB of harddrive space. The only big question is: will the positive reviews of Windows 7 be enough to get XP users to upgrade?

• What about Office 14?

  With Windows 7 coming out in mid-2009 many are wondering if Office will quickly follow. Microsoft just started a limited beta test of their server offerings, but there is no news about the client. Sources say that we will have to wait until late 2009 or early 2010 for the new Office.

• Zune rumors

  Rumors abound that Microsoft may be exiting the portable media player business by discontinuing the Zune. However, Microsoft recently stated that rather then discontinue the Zune they are going to be expanding the product line. With Apple offering DRM free downloads from it's iTunes music store, Microsoft may have their work cut out for them.

  Paul is going to try to get Rob Greenlee of the Zune Insider podcast on a future episode of Windows Weekly to discuss the Zune in more depth.

• Keith Curtis

  Keith Curtis is a long-time Microsoft employee and the author of "The Software Wars," a book which states that open source software, not Apple, is the real future competition to the Windows operating system. GNU/Linux has been all but dismissed as a possibility on the desktop, but Keith disagrees and he may have a point. He will appear on a future episode of Windows Weekly where he will discuss his book and his ideas in detail.

• Roku Digital Video Player
  • This just in: Roku Digital Video Player adds hundreds of HD movies and TV shows via Netflix, plus 40,000 movies and TV shows from Amazon On Demand. The latter is coming in a few weeks
  • Netflix HD content
  • Office, 30 Rock, Heroes, Star Trek, plus movies like Elf, Ace Ventura, etc.
• A Message From Paul Thurrott

  "This week I'm going to be in Reston, Virginia on Friday for the 'D.C.' edition of the MSDN Developer Conference held at the Hyatt Regency Reston. It's sort of a mini-PDC that's going around the country. In DC to visit with Rafael. But drop me a line if you'll be at the show."

• Tips of the week
  • An amazing list of Windows 7 tips published by a Microsoft engineer.
  • Free Battlestar Galactica webisodes on Zune Marketplace In Season 0: A 10-part episode, Face of the Enemy, that bridges the gap between the last season and the next, plus two specials, "Recap" and "Catch the Frak Up"
• Software of the week

  Windirstat: Excellent disk usage viewer for Windows - surprised I haven't had this one in here before. Thanks to Greg Martin for the tip. See the discussion page for other similar free programs.

Audible pick of the week: Cross Country, Unabridged, by James Patterson, narrated by Peter J. Fernandez and Dion Graham. For a free credit toward the audiobook of your choice, visit Audible.com/windows.

Check out Paul's blog at the SuperSite for Windows for more information.

Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show. The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Derek K. Miller.