Spore, the latest release from EA (Electronic Arts) proves that imagination is in no short supply when it comes to new games.  In fact EA proves that the world of games can be not only stranger than you thought, but stranger than you can think.  The result is lovable, engrossing and dangerously time consuming.

You start life as a ‘cell’  You eat, mate and evolve to become bigger, stronger, smarter, faster and generally to eat more.  The more aggressive you are the more you evolve and the more other things follow you in your flock.  Periodically, you raid nearby camps, slaughter and eat them to gain power.  This is not dis-similar from my life in a large corporation. Read the full story

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Every once in a while a big company comes out with someone so stupid that you just have to laugh (Take internet explorer for instance).  It spends big money to create and market a product.  It takes a lot of work to hype it up and get it enough exposure to become popular.  This is not that kind of product.

Songsmith reminds me of what great toys should look and feel like.  They should be open-ended, encourage exploration and creativity.  Great toys should also be a lot of fun and Songsmith is just that. Read the full story

Popularity: 11% [?]

Microsoft confirmed that there will be no updates to Windows 7 Beta until final release accoring to Steven Sinofsky, Windows Dev Chief, at Microsoft.

Sinofsky emphasized in his new post that Microsoft is not sharing any new ship date targets for Windows 7.  Microsoft will release a private beta to developers and hardware manufacturers a minimum of 10 minutes before they ship it to the general public.   The RC will be”Windows 7 as we intend to ship it,” Sinofsky blogged. More about the RC from his post:

“We will continue to listen to feedback and telemetry with the focus on addressing only the most critical issues that arise. We will be very clear in communicating any changes that have a visible impact on the product. This release allows the whole ecosystem to reach a known state together and make sure that we are all ready together for the Release to Manufacturing. Once we get to RC, the whole ecosystem is in “dress rehearsal” mode for the next steps.”

Microsoft refuses to comment on the release date saying that it will be before 2010.  Most insiders predict a fast track release and the internal pressure is mounting to get the Windows Vista that we all thought we bought out the door as quickly as possible.

The question is:  Will Microsoft’s strategy for fixing the ‘world worst software release’, Vista, be to rush Windows 7 out the door to soon also?

So far I have to say that the answer is, Windows 7 is ready right now.  There is not one thing I do in business or for my entertainment that is not working under Windows 7 Beta right now.  For me, it’s a complete environment and production ready.  Is it perfect?  No.  I’m no Microsoft fan boy.

My guess for a reasonable release date would be August/September.

The currently released beta expires in July right?  So with no further update planned, how big a gap would you leave if you were Microsoft?  I’m thinking that a release in the July time frame would be the final RC and that would take care of the beta expiration problems.

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I’ve got two computers here running Windows 7 Beta.  They are very different computers in that one is almost 5 years old and one is absolutely cutting edge with all the latest graphics cards, etc.  Both run Windows 7 Beta very well and without any errors.

The new Windows 7 Aero theme is pretty and a bit more organized and intuitive than Windows Vista Aero.  Enabling the mouse gestures makes Windows 7 much nicer.  An example mouse gesture that I use is to wiggle the mouse back and forth like you are scratching something off a list.  This instantly clears the desktop by hiding all the open windows.

The new interface also allows you to click the thumbnails of the programs that are running.  It’s a bit Apple OSX like, except not so animated and annoying in my humble opinion.

I am still concerned about compatibility issues, but even the few games I’ve run have been no problem for Window 7.

Given that a Windows 7 beta will be readily downloadable in the near future and given that the apparent quality of the release exceeds that of Vista SP2 Beta, I have to ask who will bother to upgrade to Vista SP2?

In addition to frame rate increases in games, the internet connection scores nearly 10% higher throuput.  On our 1GB connections, the difference is even more noticeable.

Even if you do not have machine to test drive Microsoft  Windows 7 on, you can use Vmware’s free desktop virtualization software to set up and start exploring.  It’s coming fairly soon.  It’s going to be good and if you work in a corporate IT department, you’ll have to support it.

To set up Windows 7 on Vmware, just tell vmware that you will be using Vista.  This works well because one of the excplicit goals of Windows 7 is driver and hardware compatibility with Vista.

Installation is a breeze.  It basically looks just like the Windows Vista installer with upgraded graphics.

Like all new Windows releases, Microsoft has tried to appeal to users on the current platform.  The result is that there is a lot going on under the hood that has changed but that you won’t see until you’re in a support situation and relealize that some of your tried and true debugging rituals no longer work.

Conclusion:

I think it’s wise to start preparing to support this operating system now, especially if you’ve been holding off corporate users waiting for a better version of Vista. By the time Windows Vista SP2 Beta is stable and out the door, you’ll be on the heels of Microsoft’s Windows 7 release date.  At the least you should install a virtual machine on Vmware for familiarization

If you have applications that need to be tested on Windows 7, the time to start that is right now.  Developers should have their beta copy very shortly

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