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Microsoft, which is yet to even unveil the first alphas of Windows 7, has told customers that the operating system will ship in 2010.

Asus, however, appears confident that it will have its hands on Windows 7 in 2009. "I think in the future, in the second half of next year, we will put Windows 7 on Eee PCs," Shen told <

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Laptop magazine.

And Asus plans to take advantage of the touchscreen interface that will be built into Windows 7. "Some of the models will have this function next year, but not all the models," Shen said. "The touch function has its advantage but also some disadvantages. The machine will have to be thicker if it has touch and we want to have slim machines still."

The company is also working on different form factors for the Eee PC. "We are considering a tablet one and also a different alternative and form, but we cannot talk about the details. We plan to talk about it in Q1 of next year," Shen revealed.

One thing that definitely won't be adorning the Eee PC line is Vista, however. "We don't plan on putting Vista on any of the Eee PCs," he said. "For now it will be Linux and XP and then Windows 7 and not do [sic] Vista."

Read about the first official announcements on Windows 7 next week on www.pcpro.co.uk as we bring you live coverage from the Professional Developers Conference in LA.