Windows 7 available on October 22

Those waiting anxiously for the next version of Windows now have a date to anticipate. Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 will be launched on October 22, 2009. This date, which is referred to as General Availability (GA), is in line with Microsoft's previous statement saying that it would have Windows 7 ready by the holidays. After the software giant unleashed the official Release Candidate on May 5, it became apparent that development on the follow-up to Vista was close to wrapping up.

The Windows 7 launch will come just shy of three years after Vista development wrapped up and the OS was released to OEMs. (Boxed copies of Vista hit store shelves on January 30, 2007.) The timing is good for Microsoft, as it will come well in advance of the annual holiday shopping frenzy, even though the late-October release means that the company will miss out on back-to-school sales.

Windows 7 will come in six flavors: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise. The lineup is an improvement over Vista, as it's apparent that Microsoft has taken to heart the criticism it faced over the Vista versioning system.