According to a Microsoft press release announced today, Windows 7 will go on sale October 22, just in time for the 2009 holiday season. While rumors of the speculated release date have been swirling around for months, they were ‘officially’ put to rest today.

The news couldn’t come at a better time for Microsoft which is facing enormous pressure from investors to release Windows 7 as early as possible, to stave off any further sales decline of the current and wildly unpopular Vista operating system. Vista which presented no great advantage over XP and never garnered any loyal following was responsible for 30% of Microsoft’s $60B USD, in sales in 2008.

Microsoft is also facing pressure too. Apple announced they will be releasing their Snow Leopard OS sometime this summer or fall, and Google recently announced that Acer was adopting its Android OS on their upcoming netbooks.

Besides all the challenges Microsoft faces, BETA versions of Windows 7 point to an excellent mature product, one that is a quantum leap over Vista. We eagerly look forward to its arrival and predict it will be one of Microsoft’s best products to date.