"...replace the Aero UI skin with a new version."

[ar09]

"There are also persistent rumors that Microsoft is planning to replace the Aero UI skin with a new version."
even if this dont come true. what are they (microsoft) talking about, something that looks different perhaps?

 

[Sovereign]

I did hear something (I think it was on WinSuperSite) that if they did take this course of action it might not show up until the official RC (May 5)... I doubt it though simply because the UI in 7 as it stands is pretty good.

 

[Joe Average]

Build 7100 is done, folks, it's "in the can" as they say in the movie industry. It's out there, right now, and it'll be the exact same thing you'll be able to get direct from Microsoft on May 5th, so don't expect anything magical to happen in the next week or so 'cause it won't. The RC is done, it's as final as it will get, no further development is being done on the RC build, so that's that... On May 5th we're not going to see some special RC build just for May 5th, that's not how they create and distribute such builds.

As for the Aero thing, those rumors are floating around but, as Windows 7 is feature complete now - unless Microsoft really throws a wrench into the past 30 years of their history by adding a huge new feature into the post-RC builds pre-RTM, that is - so don't waste time expecting something that is, by all accounts, not going to happen.

Rumors are rumors for a reason...

 

[Jon55]

Build 7100 is done, folks, it's "in the can" as they say in the movie industry. It's out there, right now, and it'll be the exact same thing you'll be able to get direct from Microsoft on May 5th, so don't expect anything magical to happen in the next week or so 'cause it won't. The RC is done, it's as final as it will get, no further development is being done on the RC build, so that's that... On May 5th we're not going to see some special RC build just for May 5th, that's not how they create and distribute such builds.

As for the Aero thing, those rumors are floating around but, as Windows 7 is feature complete now - unless Microsoft really throws a wrench into the past 30 years of their history by adding a huge new feature into the post-RC builds pre-RTM, that is - so don't waste time expecting something that is, by all accounts, not going to happen.

Rumors are rumors for a reason...

So from here on out it's pretty much just adding in extra drivers and bug/glitch fixes till they step back and say "...Yup, looks good. Ship it."? Any performance leaps to be expected from now till commercial release? Don't they focus on features first and then stability and performance last?

 

[Joe Average]

In the past with previous versions of Windows, the betas tend to perform at certain levels (debug code, checked builds, etc), then the RCs take over and offer more solid performance and reliability you can actually measure over the betas, and that last home stretch from RC (depending on the number) to the actual gold RTM build do tend to show improvements in performance, yep.

When Vista hit Beta 1 status, it was significantly better than previous ones, but RC1 was rather lackluster and performed (at least to me and many people) worse than Beta 1 did. It was solid, and reliable, it just wasn't as quick and snappy. And then RC2 came out and it was like "holy cow man, who turned on the afterburner..." because it was so dramatically different from RC1. And the RTM build did even better... and XP and Win2K followed the same basic track of improving performance from beta to RC to RTM stages.

I have no reason to expect anything but even greater performance when Windows 7 goes gold...

 

[Arainach]

So from here on out it's pretty much just adding in extra drivers and bug/glitch fixes till they step back and say "...Yup, looks good. Ship it."? Any performance leaps to be expected from now till commercial release? Don't they focus on features first and then stability and performance last?

No, stability and perf are tested throughout the development process, from initial specs through development and testing.