Loading ...BREAKING NEWS: Details of Windows 7 surface
By Michael Pietroforte | 2 Comments | Permalink | Trackback | Previous | NextThanks for reading this post. But you don’t really believe that I know more about Windows 7 than you, do you? Sorry for luring you into this, but the same thing just happened to me. I read an interview at Cnet with Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft’s Windows chief. Wait, wait, don’t click on the link so fast. The interview is seven printed pages long and you can save yourself time if you read my version. It contains all the relevant info:
Ina Fried: Thanks for giving me an interview about Windows 7.
Steven Sinofsky: You are welcome.
Ina Fried: What will be the new features of Windows 7?
Steven Sinofsky: I don’t tell you.
Ina Fried: Hmm, but why?
Steven Sinofsky: Responsibility.
Ina Fried: I see. What CAN you tell me?
Steven Sinofsky: Windows 7 will be great!
Ina Fried: Anything else?
Steven Sinofsky: Nope!
Ina Fried: Just a little more?
Steven Sinofsky: By the way, did I tell you that Windows Vista is great too?
Ina Fried: Yeah sure, but Windows 7…
Steven Sinofsky: Come on!
Ina Fried: Poooooleeeese!
Steven Sinofsky: Sorry, but I have to go now.
Ina Fried: Thank you for the interview.
Well, I can understand that Microsoft is a bit worried about releasing more information of Windows 7 now. There were many announcements about Vista during its developing phase. Then, Microsoft had to cancel a couple of important features and so, Vista bashing started before it was even released. However, I doubt somehow that this new strategy is working any better. Just consider the stir this interview has caused in the blogosphere. Ed Bott collected some of the nicest reactions.
Another explanation for this new information policy is that even Microsoft doesn’t really know what will be included in Windows 7. There have already been so many rumors about its new features. The most interesting one was about this new mini kernel. Now I read, at the Vista blog, that this was just speculation. I wonder where all this speculation comes from? Are people inventing these things?
Anyway, if you belong to those who want to skip Vista and wait for Windows 7, you should ask yourself if you really know for what you are actually waiting.
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I think we will see the same situation that we had with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Windows 2000 was a major overhaul of the NT architecture - it contained a lot of very groundbreaking Features (Active Directory), that had almost no end user impact. XP refined a lot that was in Windows 2000, and added more end user stuff.
Windows Vista was again a major overhaul, mostly focused on security and enterprise features (Bitlocker, GroupPolicy, WIM). Again, the advantages for the end users were small, and the disadvantages rather big. Windows 7 will likely be a more end user focused version of Windows Vista, built upon the major reworking that was done. A lot of the post from the Windows Vista team reflects in this.
Still, i don’t think staying and waiting for Windows 7 is a good move. Skipping a generation is a bad idea.
Lukas, I think that at the moment even Microsoft’s executives don’t really know what features Windows 7 will have. They have a couple of ideas, but it is unclear which of them will really make it into the final. I agree that Windows 7 will probably be end user focused. But if features such as multi-touch or Windows Live integration will really come then I would call this a major overhaul, too.