Microsoft are getting ready to release technical details surrounding the Windows 7 operating system, according to a new blog about the OS.

Engineering managers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky have written in their blog, Engineering Windows 7, “in-depth technical information…” will be released at the Professional Developers Conference on October 27 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week.

Some reporters are suggesting that, by pushing Windows 7 into the public gaze Microsoft is signalling the demise of Vista! I must point out at this stage that I’ve been using Vista for some time now and, as far as I’m concerned, it was dead from the start. Poor responses from users and the slow uptake among enterprises would suggest that I’m right.

Apparently, the Engineering Windows 7 blog will allow a two-way disussion to take place based on comments and input from the engineering team.

It would appear that some commenters simply won’t let Vista fade away as some some have used the blog to highlight flaws in Vista - just let it die!

“Less is more. Really, it is. Microsoft went completely in the wrong direction with Vista,” wrote one commenter. “I personally think that, if you want a real hit on your hands, strip down the Vista OS to bare bones, optimise the heck out of the code, and tune the baby for speed.” - hmm, no shit!

Windows 7 has been slated for release in early 2010. Microsoft better pray that it doesn’t suck like Vista!

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Healthy sales this year.

I freely admit to liking new toys. Admittedly, my Sharp Zaurus is getting on but it’s one thing that I’m loathe to get rid of but my desktops are regularly replaced (let me just add that my old PC’s are recycled). So are yours according to a report by iSuppli.

The research shows global PC sales have been increasing at a steady rate - growing by 12.1 per cent over the last year. The significant point here is this: the figure is identical to the first quarter growth rates recorded over the last five years. This suggests that, regardless of the world economic state, home users and businesses feel the need to keep up with the latest tech (or at least have half a chance of supporting Vista the resource hog).

HP headed up the sales league with more than 13 million PC shipments, a 23% increase and 18.9 per cent of the total market. The success of HP’s notebook lines and a strong sales channel is credited as a significant factor in the companies rising sales figures.

Dell was second on the list with a 20% growth over last year. The company shipped more than ten million PCs attaining a 15.4% share of the market.

Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba rounded out the top five, posting market shares of 9.7 per cent, 6.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent, respectively.

Analysts are rather surprised by the figures, having expected the numbers to be far lower on the basis of the flagging world economie - then again, we’re only just starting to feel the effects now so let’s see what the future holds.

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Hardware piled sky high.

These figures are an estimate provided by Gartner who estimate that the number of PC’s is growing at about 12% per year. On that basis there should be around two billion installed PC’s kicking around by 2014.

According to research director George Shiffler,

Mature markets, such as the US, Western Europe and Japan, currently account for 58 percent of the world’s installed PCs, but these markets only account for 15 percent of the world’s population,

On top of those figures, reasearch suggests that 180 million PC’s are due to be replaced this year - that’s a whole lot of recycling!

Popularity: 45% [?]