This enormous and allegedly unsolicited blog entry by an “ordinary Joe developer” (is he related to the plumber?) details some of the under-the-hood stuff that’s going on with Windows 7 development. Although Ballmer has described 7 as being “Windows Vista with clean-up in user interface [and] improvements in performance,” this guy seems to think it’s a little more than that. I nursed my hope that 7 would be a completely different experience for a while, but now it seems less and less likely by the day.
Still, it seems that MS has changed up the strategy for putting things together, emphasizing smaller teams with less higher-up input. Teams called “Triads” — one developer, one tester, and one program manager — chisel away at problems and work independently. The poster says this leads to a more integrated approach to creating a feature, and more transparency in management means decisions can be made in good time with enough visibility for the teams to accommodate them.
He says they’re also not afraid to lean down in order to ship faster, which can only be a good thing considering how enormous Vista has gotten. In fact, it looks as if the time it’s taken to get Vista to a real working state may be enough that you can skip right over it with their blessing. Make this something people can put on a netbook, people. Make it something people want to upgrade to. Whether you look on Vista as a qualified success or an utter failure, we can all agree it was more of the same. We’ve really had the same Windows for a decade now. We want to love it, give us a reason!
[via El Reg]
What are you talking about? This was talked about in the latest blog on the official Windows 7 engineering blog.
It’s very detailed and can be found here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/default.aspx
Isn’t Win7 is just a marketing project, not a development project? Lipstick on a pig?
That’s what I thought, too. Then I installed the beta on my Slate Tablet PC which was build for XP. If you are interested read here: http://max.zamorsky.name/2009/01/13/windows7-auf-einem-motion-computing-le1600-tablet-pcwindows7-on-a-motion-computing-le1600-tablet-pc/
Low level guy? Hardly.
http://msexchangeteam.com/articles/85057.aspx
“I started working for Microsoft in August of 1984, there were about 600ish people at the company when I started.”
Maybe read up on the difference between management and technical tracks?
Apple fan boy’s love to put a spin on everything Microsoft tries to do.
You haven’t even seen W7 or even tried it and already you are giving it alternative names.
Windows Vista did have it’s problems but I don’t seem to experiance any more problems after SP1. I do hope we don’t have to wait till SP1 with W7.
Was Vista developed from scratch? They should overhaul that bad boy, and make a Simple OS… before Google Does.
I am starting to think you haven’t understand anything that was posted in the Windows 7 engineering blog.
Now, nobody said that they were changing the fundamentals at all. They said they were keeping them from the start, like the transition between Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
OK…apple fan boys…if you do not like Microsoft just dont read about them. and please stop pretending that Apple rules the world.
As for Windows7, it may be similar to Vista but would be a lot faster and stabler…
http://www.livbit.com
So you want them to change a lot of stuff to make new things? They should make under-the-hood changes so we have to get all new drivers? Great idea…no one will complain that their hardware doesn’t work unless their craptastic manufacturers decide to write drivers. And no one will complain about user interface changes. And no one will complain about broken application compatibility.
…End Sarcasm…
If you want a new experience every 12 months, switch operating system families every 12 months.
People bad-mouthed vista because it made too many changes causing compatibility problems, now they bad-mouth W7 because it stays compatible. Anyways, we all know the routine by now, whatever MS does will be criticized by all the arm-chair CEOs and OS architects till the end of time, ad nausiem. Meanwhile, windows out-sells mac os x, 10 to 1. Man, what a bunch of idiots they are in Redmond!
Reminds me of the saying, “God must love stupid people; because he made so many!”
Microsoft’s “Mohave” experiment was a test to see how rebranding Vista as something else would fly. Windows 7 is their mainstream attempt at the same.
For the love of Bill, please let Windows 7 be awesome. Vista is not a failure but it could be better.
It’s true that Windows is hindered by the need to support so much hardware and software. Apple can afford to be on the cutting edge without alienating the rest of the industry, as they own both the software and the hardware it runs on. Steve Jobs himself has stated that Apple is a hardware company. Because Microsoft doesn’t directly control the platform it runs on, it’s in a much more complex situation (for example, PCs being labeled “Vista-capable” by retailers when they would result in a poor user experience).
I think Vista has been a reality check for Microsoft after the success they enjoyed with XP. It seems like Windows 7 will be what Vista should’ve been.
Microsoft might also do itself some favours by taking a more pluggable approach to the desktop that encourages open-source Windows software, for example, pluggable desktop effects akin to Compiz on Linux.
I’ve been following the Engineering 7 blog for a while, and it seems to me that MS has learned what didn’t work in Vista, and really wants to succeed here.
More of Vista? No thanks. This is the very reason my next computer purchase will be my fist Mac.
Actually, what’s wrong with Windows Seven being “Windows Vista with clean-up in user interface [and] improvements in performance”?
Windows 2000 -> Windows XP was really a case of this, isn’t it? Improvements (from Wikipedia) include: User Interface changes, Hibernation, Kernel improvements and side-by-side assemblies to overcome DLL hell. Of course the major change was that XP incorporated the “designed for home use” thing from the 95/98/ME line + the NT line’s relative stability that made XP the OS we love.
So, if Windows Vista had a better UI, as well as if Microsoft improved the performance of Vista (another major Vista concern) I’d think Windows Seven would be better off than Vista.
As for drivers, it may not be good if Microsoft substantially changed the driver model, since most hardware devices already have Vista drivers today.
Oh but should I also add that I am looking forward to the (supposed) touch functionality in 7?
This posting illustrates the problem with tech writers who have no development experience. The same goes with end-users. What happens in WEX is the biggest news since XP. It’s not about new cool functions, it’s about Microsoft’s ability to deliver reliable software of high quality. It’s also about the people who work at MSFT. It’s not every day you hear them express such enthusiasm over their work.
imagine a google/linux OS!