istartedsomething

Two weeks ago, Joe Wilcox of Microsoft Watch insisted “Microsoft, you need to get some good leaks out there to generate buzz. Please, let’s see more of this. … If (Shipping) Seven provides some juicy details, people will subscribe to his or her feed, and enthusiast sites will report or blog every little feature.”

Today, an obviously different Joe demands radio silence over Windows 7 proclaiming “buzz about the next Windows version distracts potential Vista adopters.”

Unfortunately this appears to be a dilemma only affecting Microsoft. In contrast, Apple who announced OSX Leopard (10.5) in June of 2005, two years before its eventual release had no problems selling Tiger (10.4) nor Tiger-based Macs through almost two full years.

A year after Leopard’s announcement in 2006, Apple sold 1.61 million Macs with Tiger, 30% growth over the year. When Leopard eventually was released in 2007, Apple sold a record 2.16 million Macs with Leopard, 34% growth over the year. Buzz about the next OSX version, even though Leopard didn’t change all that much from 2005 to 2007, surely didn’t distract any Apple adopters.

Joe also argues “(Windows) Seven won’t be a big, splashy successor, so why make it seem so?” I agree. In fact, these screenshots and videos are in some ways helping users understand Windows 7 is not some space-age operating system that’s going to shift every Windows paradigm into overdrive. Joe even shares a little about his shady past, “I recall the M1 leaks of Windows Longhorn back in 2003. I downloaded and used the warez software before writing about it. The UI already radically departed from Windows XP.” The difference here is Longhorn started off looking like the space-age operating system when it never could have been. Windows 7 on the other hand, looks modest and realistic.

After only insulting the blogger behind Shipping Seven, Joe turns around to say “I do see value in the Shipping Seven blog, which appears to be written by a Microsoft insider with some common sense.”

But what Joe really means is that we stop talking about Windows 7 after he’s had the last word. He speculates “PDC 2008 tips off that Windows Seven’s target release will be 2009. Microsoft generally, but not always, coordinates developer conferences with new Windows version development.” Gee, playing the release guess-date card so soon?

Speaking of distractions, I remember someone writing “Windows Vista is a train wreck“, but can’t recall who…

From the Chinese guy who brought you the first screenshots of Windows 7, brings you a Cloverfield-inspired movie about Windows 7 Milestone 1. This is a 3 minute and 50 second shakycam video showing off the new Aurora bootscreen with animated progress bar as well as slight visual updates to Windows Media Center. (via AeroXP forums)

Dedicated to everyone who cried wolf. Guess the Great Firewall of China doesn’t filter Microsoft content, yet.

Update: In the spirit of the moment, a Microsoft insider by the name of “Brooks” have also shared this short video of an even newer version of Windows, never before seen by the public. It’s authenticity is hard to disprove.

Slightly few hours before the official launch, Microsoft’s switched on the official Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED website and Dell (PRODUCT) RED PC website. Have a look through to see some of the special extras included in Vista Ultimate (RED) as well as check out the Dell (RED) PCs. Robert McLaws has a higher-resolution screenshot of what the exclusive wallpapers look like. Bear in mind all this comes at no extra cost to the consumer, but it can make a life-changing difference for someone else in the world.

Update: Dell’s (PRODUCT) RED website has also been switch on, although obviously not completely updated.

In response to the recent spur of events surrounding Windows 7, I’ve seen reactions from both sides of the spectrum. I know some people including myself can get carried away sometimes staring at one side of the coin and become blinded to the truth. So out of fairness, I came up with this glass-is-half-empty and glass-is-half-full comparison of the possible Windows disclosure policies. What do you think? Am I riding a dead horse?

Hot on the heels of the humble Windows 7 Milestone 1 review at Neowin yesterday, an anonymous commenter appropriately named “MSBob” on this blog who appears as a Microsoft insider wrote a fairly extensive comment essay confirming the authenticity of that review as well as revealing many other details about the current and future state of Windows 7.

There’s a lot of detail from the design of Windows 7, to the development teams, Windows Live integration strategies and of course the man, the legend, Steven Sinofsky who’s influencing the release cycles of Windows. And don’t forget Calculator, Paint and Notepad.

The review is real. Without Aero, however, the reviewer missed some of the good stuff that’s in the builds (mostly some new effects with the taskbar, and thumbnails).

The thing to remember, however, is that this is the end of M1 (i.e. milestone 1), and there are three milestones. There won’t be any major visual refresh until after M2 (i.e., everything will be implemented with the Vista look-and-feel until after M2). Whatever the new visual look of Win7 will be will be kept under wraps for quite a while. This is no different from Luna for XP and Aero for Vista.

Windows 7 is also the product of two teams working together: the WEX (or Windows Experience) team, which has primary responsibility for client releases as well as most user-focused features, and COSD (Core Operating System Division), which has responsibility for the kernel, networking, device support, and so on. COSD operates on a longer runway than WEX, meaning that work from that team will show up later in the cycle than work from the WEX team. Note: SteveSi is only in charge of the Windows team. Jon DeVaan runs COSD.

The other thing that should be considered is the relationship between Windows and Windows Live. Windows Live has taken ownership of most of the “service connected” features in Windows — Mail, Messenger, Photo Gallery, at a minimum. You can expect to see a Windows Live release in the same timeframe as Windows 7 that makes the “Windows + Windows Live” combination a killer one. Important note: Windows Live will be a strict add-on to Windows and it will take advantage of hooks provided by Windows that will be available to anyone. That was the promise when Windows Live was announced, and it will remain that way. So you will be able to install Yahoo stuff and have deep integration with Windows just as easily, as long as Yahoo chooses to take advantage of the new Win7 hooks.

That said, Windows Live is focused on more near term releases, so they are not doing deep plannng for the Windows 7 release right now. So it’s impossible to say exactly what that combination will look like. SteveSi is also in charge of the Windows Live Experience (WLEX or just LEX) team.

Finally, it’s important to understand one aspect of the SteveSi philosophy, which might be phrased as “there is always another version” or, more generally, the philosophy of developing release-rhythm. Under Allchin, Windows tended to get into the “big-bang or dot-release” mindset — each release either qualified as a dot-release (i.e. 6.0 to 6.1 — a minor update or refresh, usually ignored by the senior folks) or a “big-bang” release, which would try to change the world in one go. Very few dot-releases every lasted as such. Longhorn was supposed to be a dot-release to XP( that’s why it was named after the half-way point between the two big releases – Whistler and Blackcomb). The vision and scope changed drastically for reasons I was in no position to really understand. Big-bangs tend to collapse under their own weight (see: Longhorn .

SteveSi is a much more measured guy and believes in regular releases (though his idea of “regular” might still be long for some people). So teams will have visions that stretch to Win8, and you’ll see a first, thoughtful implementation in Win7, that sets the stage for Win8 (and also gathers important data about how the feature is used, to ensure that the complete implementation is better). Different parts of the product will get focus with each release, ensuring that there’s always *something* that is a killer feature, but there’s no attempt to make sure that *everything* gets an overhaul in every release. Over time, the whole OS will show improvements across the board, but the focus and long-term planning ensures that it’s a smooth upward path, not a series of spikes and (unfortunately) valleys.

This is the model that has been followed by Office for years — compare any release of Office with it’s successor and you’ll find small improvements everywhere and major improvements in one or two areas. Compare releases of Office over a longer time period and you’ll see huge improvement (say, Office 2000 to Office 2007). Even in Office 2007, while it looks drastically different, very few new features were added to the individual apps — the focus was on adding the ribbon to the core apps (many old features were exposed by the ribbon, which makes it look like much more was added than actually was).

Oh, and calc/paint/notepad are getting updates (i won’t say what), but they are pretty simple apps and don’t need to be re-written in WPF to get new features. Besides, everyone at MS is deeply aware that these apps are useful precisely because they are simple, focused and start up near-instaneously. No one is going to rewrite them in WPF just because they can and sacrifice the utility of those tools. Wordpad is a different story — it has no real purpose in Windows (it was originally more-or-less a sample app for MFC back in the Win95 days and really hasn’t been touched since, except to do security reviews), so part of updating it is to figure out how it fit it back into it’s natural place as a simple word-processing tool that sits between notepad and Word in functionality.

Of course this could be as authentic or as fake as the first, but I find it hard to comprehend why anyone wouldn’t be telling the truth, especially not with these many words to say about it. Some of the claims for example “new effects with the taskbar” I know to be rather true. If it’s not worth anything else, it’s still a fascinating read. What a great time to be anonymous at Microsoft.

Nick White at the official Windows Vista blog has confirmed CNET’s report Microsoft and Dell will be jumping on the red bandwagon this Friday with three (RED) branded computer system as part of the initiative to increase awareness and support The Global Fund to help people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Adding to the current (PRODUCT)^RED range of specially marked consumer products will be a red all-in-one XPS One desktop, and two XPS M1330 and 1530 laptops. However the (RED) branding won’t just stop at the hardware.

Microsoft’s also stepping out of its way to ship a customized version of Windows Vista Ultimate on these PCs featuring an exclusive and presumably red wallpaper, Sidebar gadget, screensaver and Dreamscene video. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but credit to them for putting in the effort for a special touch. Unfortunately it looks like these won’t be available for download, which is a shame since I’d love to help promote the cause even if I’m not buying a PC.

The innovative and rewarding factor about (RED) products is that it doesn’t cost any different – a RED XPS One will cost the same as a black one, but you’re literally saving lives. Dell and Microsoft will send a $80 contribution for every (RED) XPS One sold and $50 for every (RED) XPS laptop. In return, $80 could buy 6 months of antiretroviral treatment for 1 person. $50 could buy 416 single-dose treatments that help prevent transmission of HIV from mother to baby.

Dell might be the first OEM to join (RED), but I hope they extend the offer to more products in its range and also other OEMs joining too. If (RED) products are prevalent enough, there’s almost no reason why anyone would not want to buy a (RED) branded product. And then, the world will be a better place.