Confirmed: Windows 7 launching in 2009

Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte has confirmed that Redmond is "tracking well to a Windows 7 holiday", which according to our senior vice president-to-English dictionary, means "Windows 7 will be out before Christmas."

Shocking indeed. No wait, the other thing: predictable. Although Microsoft's official position on Windows 7's release date has been January 2010, we knew this was a position about as comfortable as Bikram Yoga. A pre-Christmas launch was always an internal goal.

A good friend of Crave, Major the Right Honorable Rupert C P T St J Goodwins, reported last week that an Acer exec had accidentally outed the Windows 7 release date as October. And as far back as last November, Microsoft's Doug Howe told CNET UK's sister site CNET News, "Definitely the holiday focus is going to be on 7."

So if you didn't see this coming, consider following CNET UK's Windows 7 coverage in future to avoid subsequent disappointment. Here's a juicy blue link. Go ahead, click it. It'll take you to the home of all our past, present and future coverage. Did you miss it? Here it comes again.