In October Microsoft released a pre-beta of Windows 7 to developers. Now the word is that the first official Beta of Windows 7 could already be released to developers on January 13th.
Ed Bott at ZDNet reports that attendees of the MSDN Conference Series will receive a copy of Windows 7 Beta 1.
The first conference is this month, but the Beta 1 DVDs would not be ready now, but would be sent mid-January 2009. Of course this date is very close to CES 2009. So Steve Ballmer who will hold the traditional Microsoft CES keynote for the first time most likely is revealing new things about Windows 7.
Microsoft has always been rather quick with Beta releases of new operating systems. The delays mostly hit before the final release. So do not get your hopes up that Windows 7 could be launching in 2009 despite the first beta coming early 2009.
See also this Windows 7 screenshots.