Technet confirmed that Microsoft will unveil the first beta version of Windows 7 in January 2009, just after 3 months of their public announcement about the new operating system. It will be delivered in DVDs and available to attendees of Microsoft’s Developers Conference from January 13th onwards. Attendees at the Chicago and Minneapolis conferences are likely receive their copies earlier than the other centers.

This announcement was a surprise for everyone. After what happened with the announcement of Windows Vista and its actual launch date, no one probably expected such an announcement from Microsoft. That’s not all. Microsoft expects to launch the official full version of Windows 7 before the end of 2009, instead of the predicated 2010.

Electronista says, “The speed up is helped largely by Microsoft’s focus on optimizations and the user interface over the core architecture, which was completely overhauled for Vista and whose troubled development forced a rewrite in 2004 that effectively restarted much of the project.”

[source: electronista.com, image credit: windows7news.com]