Microsoft broke silence on its Windows 7 plans today in a blog post from Chris Flores.
In an honest post the Microsoft spokesperson killed off some rumours regarding Windows 7:
"Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. Rather, we are refining the kernel architecture and componentization model introduced in Windows Vista. While these changes will increase our engineering agility, they will not impact the user experience or reduce application or hardware compatibility. In fact, one of our design goals for Windows 7 is that it will run on the recommended hardware we specified for Windows Vista and that the applications and devices that work with Windows Vista will be compatible with Windows 7."
Flores also commented that "We are well into the development process of Windows 7, and we"re happy to report that we"re still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista."
So it looks like Microsoft are targeting a Q4 2009 RTM date and general availability before the holiday period of 2009 this time? A poll created by Microsoft follower Ed Bott put the date at September 30, 2009 which I think is very much spot on.