The gang over at TechARP has gotten a hold of information relating to the release candidate of Internet Explorer 8.0.

While this is good news all by itself, TechARP also thinks it means that Windows 7 might be ready much sooner than Microsoft has previously stated.

As it stands now Windows 7 is expected to be released in early 2010, but with IE8 already being pushed out to OEMs this could mean the 7 launch schedule has been pushed up.

I think opposite could be true, with IE8 hitting in March this could mean a delay in Windows 7 as MS is pushing a major "feature" of the OS out early. Other signs to look for will be the availability of DX11 hardware.
If the major manufacturers cannot get DX11 hardware in the channel soon enough MS might not want to release 7 as there will not be a large demand if there is nothing to support the new features available in DX11.

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