Yeah right, 3 years is unlikely. Always add atleast another year onto what they predict will be the release date.

And your wrong about 32bit. I heard serious speculation to it being strictly 64bit. Windows Vista was the last 32 bit operating system.

EDIT: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/server/microsoft_looks_to_64bit_future.html
Whoops sorry I was a bit wrong, Server 2008 is the last 32 bit OS. Guess I can safely say its NOT speculation.

subscription anything on my core OS is a big fat no thank you.

Yes, NO SUBSCRIPTION STUFF on the OS itself... extras like Windows Live, whatever, but NOT on the OS.   

3 years is to short. if vista tok 5 years, the new OS will take longer. But, if it is 3 years, i'm skipping vista and going right to the next version!

And thus the great Vista skip begins!   

Definitely a "NO WAY" on the subscription for the OS. I agree vStyler. No use if it's only three years 'til the next one!

I'll say 2012 at the earliest! It could be 2020 and I'd still stick with XP over Vista

i'm, with you guys...screw that subscriptions crap NO WAY MAN!! it's worse enough we have to spend what a few hundred dollars for the OS..if they even think of trying that crap i'll seriously switch ALL of my systems to ubuntu with out hesitation

It'll get droped Im sure. Just like them wanting to add an activation limit to Vista, people complained so much that they scraped it entirely.

And in a year or so you'll be completely alone.

bullshit.I'm not leaving XP for Vista til something I just HAVE to do cant be done on XP.Vista usability is horrible...and I'm not referring to drivers or program compatibility...it werked flawlessly on a borderline system.

But the user interface in general is complete step backwards...a scrolling start menu?What a joke!Intrusive search bars EVERYWHERE,no toolbars!tabbed dialogs replaced with individually opening windows.I COULD go on but people happy with Veeesta wont care and people stuck on XP wont understand how lucky they are.  

How about support from Microsoft? You think they wont discontinue support for things like UPDATES next year? Think again.

It will not be out in 3 years, it will be 5 or more. This way Microsoft can claim they do not have to have backwards compatible support more then 1 version of their various software suites. (example, vista only supports Office 2003 or the new 2007, those with xp/2000 of office are forced to purchase upgrades)

Subscription based operating systems. HA! That would be the death of Microsoft to the common folk.

Havnt installed a single update since the release of SP2...still rockin and a rollin.  

You're just asking for something to go wrong.   

Well if Microsoft gets themselves in gear, they could probably pull off a release in 2010. Look at how Windows OSes used to come out. Win95 in 1995, Win98 in 1997, WinME and Win2k in 2000, then WinXP in 2001. Windows XP was a major release and was codenamed Whister which is the name of a ski resort in Canada. Vista was originally supposed to be a minor Windows release similar to WinME which is why it was codenamed Longhorn, a bar/tavern/pub/whatever you wanna call it in between Whistler and another ski resort named Blackcomb. The version of Windows to come out after Vista was codenamed Blackcomb and was supposed to be a major Windows release. Of course now that nomenclature wouldn't make sense since the two ski resorts are now one big one called Whistler-Blackcomb. What happened was that development of Longhorn took so long that it ended up turning in to a major release. As for Windows Blackcomb, that was renamed to our current Windows 7. Hopefully with Microsoft announcing this release date, it just means that they're getting back on track like how it was before Vista.