Windows 7 Certified and Free Win7 Upgrades

Earlier this week I described an ideal scenario where Windows 7 was ready for release this summer. While a few made fun of one of my spelling errors I only had one person who asked if I really thought it could happen.

The same day I posted my thoughts I also read some insight from our good friend Harry McCracken who wrote “Windows 7 to ship in October, Probably unless it’s January”  Seattle Times is reporting “OEM Exec says Windows 7, September, October”

So what do I really think? I need to tell you today because tomorrow I’ll be participating in a four day Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Summit which includes a strict Non-Disclosure agreement.  That means, most of what Microsoft tells me I can’t share with my readers.

I agree with Harry and the Seattle Times that we’ll start to see Windows 7 machines in October ready for the holiday shopping season. Still, Microsoft won’t want students purchasing Macs when they go back to school so you can bet we’ll see manufacturers offering, “Free Upgrade to Windows 7” after purchase.   While I shudder at the thought there will also be machines that are “Windows 7 Certified” for the back to school shoppers. I don’t expect it to be the same fiasco that occured with the Vista Certified machines but we’ll see.