As developers received their copies of Windows 7 on Tuesday in the US, they offered varied reactions to the Microsoft operating system update.
Attendees of PDC 2008 received this
160GB Western Digital portable hard
drive and a pre-beta copy of Windows 7
(Credit: )

Windows 7 arrived in various forms at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. Windows vice president Steven Sinofsky showed its key features on stage, the OS appeared on PCs throughout the convention centre, and developers also received copies to take home.
Attendees at PDC 2008 received pre-beta copies of Windows 7 on DVD, as well as a 160GB Western Digital portable hard drive packed with code.
In addition to the Ultimate Edition of Windows 7, the hard drive came with the following additions:

• .NET Micro Framework development kit 3.0
• Azure Services Training Kit, a set of hands-on labs, presentations, and samples
• Live Framework SDK, documentation, samples and tools to build on top of Microsoft's Live Services
• Software Development Kit for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (pre-beta)
• Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition
• Visual Studio 2010 & .NET Framework 4.0 CTP
• Windows Azure software development kit

During the keynote on Tuesday, all the PCs around the convention centre for attendees to use for checking email were switched to Windows 7. Not everyone appeared to notice the change: one attendee, for example, said he didn't notice that it was Windows 7 until a reporter started taking pictures of the screen.

Windows 7 gets mixed reviews: News - Software - ZDNet Australia

Posted By: smarteyeball
30 Oct 2008