Microsoft confirms Windows 7 will be available in 2014

Although there might be some division in the KitGuru camp, there is a definite feeling among some of us that Windows 8 is going to completely miss the mark for desktop/laptop users.

News from our sources inside Microsoft, however, says that we need not fear for our interface just yet. Great news for anyone who thinks Windows 7 works.

Microsoft used to focus hard on usability.

It had an entire lab dedicated to it and the results from the lab seemed to dictate the products – rather than results being ‘fashioned' to support the conclusion that Microsoft had a great new product.

The biggest recent upset around the KitGuru Labs has been for Microsoft's upcoming update to the Office suite.

According to all who've tried it, a complaint should be lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority to have ‘NON-‘ added to Microsoft's promotional material. Just before the word ‘Productivity'.

We like the old versions of Office, where the command tiles were a tiny little strip along the top – not a huge overbearing chunk of gunk that no one wants or uses. We firmly believe that screen real estate is valuable and should be preserved. Massive icons for basic commands should only happen when you click the ‘Sorry my eyesight is terrible, do you have an Accessibility mode?'

Chance of anyone at Microsoft hearing our pleas and reacting?   Zero.

Let's face it, Microsoft seems destined to stumble down the road to oblivion – and every time the organisation ‘shudders and shuffles its way into a new guise', more loyal customers fall off.

If we didn't know better, we would swear that Microsoft product development is actually financed by Apple's marketing team. Having analysed the market carefully, we can't find anything that drives Microsoft customers over to Apple faster than MS updating its own software.

Much of the world's gaming software is, these days, touched one way or another by Gabe Newell. When he's not creating mega-hits himself, he's helping providing the Steam-powered world that gamers love to inhabit. Given that he was responsible for getting 3 generations of Windows off the ground, he has a unique perspective on the operating system.

So how does ‘Daddy of Windows and all things Steamy' see Windows 8?

“Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space”. Nuff said.

So good news for Gabe and KitGuru fans everywhere then, as our sources inside Microsoft confirm that Windows 7 will stay on its sales roadmap, at least through to the end of 2014.

KitGuru says: We all thought that Microsoft had learned from Millennium Edition and Vista, but apparently not. The good-crap-good-crap cycle seems to be carrying on into the future, but at least we'll still be able to buy an operating system we want (or switch to Apple's Mountain Lion, as Microsoft appears to want us to do). Now if we can just get Microsoft to schedule Windows 9 for 2015…

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