FROM THE IGLOO

September 3 2009 update: Please see: Deep Freeze (beta) for Windows 7 available.

(Note that this answer is similar to, but different than, the What about Snow Leopard support? posting.)

We’re asked this question all the time, every time a new OS version is poised for release: will Product X work on the new OS?

OFFICIAL ANSWER:

1. We do not make any products publicly available with support for an OS until no earlier than one week prior to the OS’s official release date.

2. At this time, we anticipate that all of our currently shipping Windows products will be available for Windows 7 on approximately the same date that Windows 7 ships (October 22, 2009).

3. We may or may not have a private beta available for a particular product prior to the date that Windows 7 ships.

MORE DETAILED ANSWER:

The above is all true and correct, but the reasons for it can be slightly complicated. Unlike with Snow Leopard, there was a public beta of Windows 7 and there is now a public RC build available to all. Therefore, unlike with Snow Leopard, we are not bound by NDA when discussing compatibility or release plans.

However, it would be impossible for us to officially support Windows 7 until the Windows 7 code is frozen and we get a final build of it to test with. In the meantime, the best that we could do would be to officially support Windows 7 RC. We likely won’t be doing that and will wait for the final version instead. Not many of our customers would install the RC version in a production environment anyway and there is too much risk of something going wrong between the RC and final release.

We are in a different situation than many other developers when it comes to OS changes, particularly for the DF line. Because of what DF is and what it does, it operates at a very low level in the OS and is more “sensitive” to core OS changes than other products might be. DF is not like a word processor app (or whatever product you want to think of) where incompatibility with the OS might result in broken features or occasional crashes of the app.  A badly functioning or incompatible DF could cause fairly catastrophic failure, so we have to get it right and ensure complete compatibility.

This is why when you try to install the current version of any of our products on Windows 7 RC, you will be blocked by  a message stating that the product is not supported on Windows 7. We had no way of knowing when the current version was released whether it would work on a future OS, so we block you from potentially screwing yourself up. At least in theory — Microsoft changed their code from the beta to the RC in a way that now lets you screw yourself. After we display our message stating that installation is not supported, Windows 7 RC displays its own message asking if you want to continue installing in compatibility mode anyway. Note that we cannot prevent Windows from doing this and we do not officially support installation of any of our products on Windows 7 at this time. If you do go ahead and install, be forewarned that you should only do so on a “testbed” that you are willing to wipe clean and reformat if something goes wrong.

Our QA department is currently testing all of our Windows products with the Windows 7 RC; as they find compatibility issues or other bugs, our developers will fix and QA will re-test. We may or may not release an interim version of any particular product until the official release…

Please do let us know your experiences though. Keep checking back prior to October 22 and we’ll share more news as we have it.