Microsoft aims to show Windows 7 'readiness'

After getting dinged for constantly changing plans with Windows Vista, Microsoft is taking the opposite approach with Windows 7.

The software maker is being extremely conservative with what it says publicly about the operating system--a move it says is deliberate.

Click photo for slideshow on Windows 7 multitouch.

"The lack of a predictable schedule combined with the churn of features late in the the process made it hard for partners to know is this the real Windows Vista," said Mike Nash, Microsoft's vice president for Windows product management. "The result of our lack of predictability was everybody (saying) 'Let's wait for this thing to stop spinning.'"

With Windows 7, Microsoft has tried to share details only as they became relatively certain. The hope is that even though Microsoft isn't talking as early about its plans, it is talking with more certainty when it does speak.

That move has led to far fewer changes in plans--but also means that Microsoft is still hedging on key questions--in particular, when Windows 7 will ship.

Microsoft has said only that it will ship within three years of the mainstream launch of Windows Vista--essentially by January 2010. However, the company is widely seen as trying to get Windows 7 on machines in time for this year's holiday season.

Without being any more specific on dates, Microsoft is trying to get its partners to make sure their software and hardware is ready for the new operating system. Although Windows 7 doesn't introduce the kinds of major changes that Vista represented versus Windows XP, the company does need hardware and software makers to double check that their Vista-compatible stuff also works with Windows 7.

On Monday, Microsoft is announcing the Windows 7 Readiness program, an effort to formalize that process. In an interview, Nash said the company hopes that by speaking about the product only as details have been nailed down, the company will restore credibility with its partners.

Those who take part in the readiness program will have access to additional documentation and test builds from Microsoft. The goal, Nash said, is not just to increase adoption for Windows 7-specific features such as Device Stage and multitouch, but also to convince developers to start building on some of the features that have been in place since Vista.

"Some features in Windows Vista...have not gotten the adoption we would like to see," Nash said, pointing in particular to the Windows Presentation Foundation graphics layer that was built into Vista, but has yet to be widely adopted as part of Windows applications.

[john_doe2]

"Windows Presentation Foundation graphics layer that was built into Vista, but has yet to be widely adopted as part of Windows applications."

Well yea, that's because WPF requires you to convert your application to .NET. I don't know many ISVs out there who want to retool their application to something so radically different; even if they were willing, it would be a major undertaking to go from a C++ application designed to use Win32 & GDI/GDI+ to .NET & WPF.

[kojacked]

Ah, I think you neglected to mention that WinForm + .NET has been around for many, many years. It's not like the migration to .NET is new here. The migration from WinForms to WPF certainly is new however.

[Imalittleteapot]

You could probably just do a new front end in WPF and slap it over the back end native code libraries. It might look pretty, but other than that I couldn't tell you what the point would be. It's be a lot easier than porting the whole app all at once though. At least until you go to debug it.

[basraw]

And this wouldn't work on any version XP?

Way to limit your user base and sales!!!!

[NickH]

@basraw

WPF is part of .Net 3.0 (and up), and is available on Windows XP.

[Inconnux]

Better get it out the door quickly so people can get that bad 'vista' taste out of their systems.

[ppgreat]

Windows 7 is Vista. Just "done right" as Mr. Ballmer stated.

So my my question is: If you didn't like Vista, are you really going to like Windows 7?

[timber2005]

Its like pasta. Pasta from one resturant might not be as good as momma used to make, but down the street you find the best pasta ever made.
Just because its pasta doesn't mean it's going to be bad everywhere.

You can't assume that Windows 7 is going to be JUST LIKE Vista until it's here. I think theres enough to show so far that it isn't going to have the press of Vista.

[Renegade Knight]

I wish. Turns out to upgrade to 7, you have to be running Vista. They do have the clean install option for XP but patooey. DRM on the MS apps installed makes it so the install would have me phone MS to get the codes to make the products work making it a PITA to do the fresh install.

Anyay, bad Vista taste is going to have to remain for folks upgrading to 7.

[Seaspray0]

@renegade knight. It's not a requirement that you run vista to install windows 7. You can perform a clean install of windows 7 on any computer that meets the hardware specs.

As for the upgrade option, I haven't seen the requirements so you may be right. It may require vista for the upgrade path. I can see this as fair. I would hope MS provides the upgrade option either free or for a rediculously low price, if it applies only to vista.

[coryschulz]

In my experience the WPF isn't exactly a pleasure to program in. Granted I only tried working with it for a limited amount of time, but certain parts of the framework made me think "***!!!" So... I have an iMac now and am learning Objective-C and that seems to be working out quite nicely.

[Imalittleteapot]

I don't care what framework you're working with. If some part of it never made you scream out ***! Then you've never really used it. I however have never used WPF so I don't know how bad it might be.

[NickH]

WPF is quite different from WinForms. There's a lot to learn, but the payoff is worth it, IMHO.

[Kosher0]

One thing that isn't really clear to me is why Microsoft is pushing this whole Ribbon UI stuff on people and using it for Windows 7 rather than using WPF. Have you looked at the Ribbon API? It's a declaritive XML based UI in, wait for it, wait for it... XSLT!!!

Is Steven Stephonofski F'n mad!??!! They have a full blown kick ass graphics programming framework at their disposal to write their fancy little ribbon UI in and they choose XSLT? If this isn't politics, I don't know what is. Sure, version 3.0 had performance issues but now that we're at 3.5 SP1, the framework actually beats native C++ graphics in most areas. This is where MS is pushing candy they won't even eat.

[captainabab]

Ribbon Markup IS based on XAML

I don't know where you came up with XSLT - it uses XML mark-up for the view and it provides a win32 API for the behavior.

It isn't using WPF because that would require every win32 application to be ported to .NET whereas they are providing the ribbon to all the different frameworks (WPF - 2009), MFC - Visual Studio 2008 sp1, Native - Windows 7 and Vista.

[Kosher0]

Ah then they've updated since office SDK docs were out.
Look at the General Format of XML Markup Files here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa434075.aspx

That's interesting, they're using XAML with native code. Sweet!!! Is the native code library similar to what's there in WPF? That would rawk. Thanks for giving me some insight.

[Kosher0]

And when the heck are we going to see the Direct TV PC card for Media Center? It's about time folks actually got to use their computers with their cable provider. I wish the government would slap these ******* with a fine arleady.

[jdwii]

i love how these is going hell i love vista i have a powerful computer it NEVER messed up on me you can't except cheap computers to run something on such high graphics i found that vista runs better then xp on my brouthers pentium3 512mb of ram vista basic that is just turn ALL the graphics off make it look like windows 95

[bbneo2]

Gosh. I've had lots of trouble getting Vista to run on a Dell Inspiron notebook with 2 Gb of memory and a 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo processor... maybe it's not the hardware.

[tm_anon]

I'm running Ubuntu 8.10 with all graphics running on a 1.8GHz P-4 and 512 Mbs RAM. I've seen Vista graphics, they're KDE 4.x but take up 4 times the system resources to work properly.

The hardware is more than powerful enough to run graphics. It's more than capable of doing any modern task with power to spare. It's the software that isn't being designed to take full advantage of the hardware. The software needs to change.

[bbneo2]

Buy a Mac or learn Linux. It will serve you better in the future.

[Seaspray0]

Maybe for you, bbneo2, but you have assumed that everyone else is the same as you. That's a stupid assumption. We are all individuals, and as such, there is no operating system that "will serve you better in the future". That's a choice that needs to be made on an individual basis, not yours.

[elo888]

I feel like Windows 7 will be the moment of truth for Microsoft...if they can't pull this one off, they will be sunk as a brand. About a week ago, John Tantillo (branding expert, a.k.a. The Marketing Doctor) featured Microsoft in his weekly brand winner/loser posts (......as the loser, of course, with Apple as the winner).

It's easy to criticize a company and not always easy to suggest feasible fixes, but Tantillo points out that Microsoft is out of touch with its Target Market. Apple has a lot of hype surrounding the release of its product in large part because they are delivering products that are Of Interest to their Target Market to begin with. They don't need to generate any sort of artificial demand; rather, their marketing (as good marketing should be) is a means of communicating with their Target Market. Microsoft, on the other hand, joined a dominant position in the market for a long time "and because of the way it evolved, the company does not have real marketing in its bones."

Full post: http://blog.marketingdoctor.tv/2009/01/24/brand-winners-and-losers-apple-and-microsoft.aspx

[Seaspray0]

And while you are making such a judgement, you have ignored the main audience that microsoft targets... busines. Do they target the general public? Not really... not like they do in business. The desktop OS is only part of the products that microsoft and apple offer. Beyond that, they follow different paths geared for different markets.

[rakker91]

I've been coding in wpf for the last two years and really, really like it. It makes stuff that you wouldn't even attempt in win forms (like animations) very easy to do.

Plus, it's portability to silverlight is awesome. Most of what you can do in WPF you can do in silverlight.

You do have to stop thinking of it like windows forms because it's NOT the same. Most developers making the transition struggle with that.

[shellcodes_coder]

Multitouch is a really great feature in Windows 7

[seven7dust]

you mean a great marketing gimmick of Windows 7
do you honestly think it's going to be useful ?
keyboard/mouse will never be replaced by multi-touch

Multi-touch is for small screens like phones etc
maybe it can be of some use in netbooks but i highly doubt it !
try using it for 5 mins and come back to me on that

[Seaspray0]

@seven7dust. When was the last time you saw a laptop come with a standard mouse? Don't they all come with touchpads, now? Where's the keyboard on the iphone? On the touch screen, right? The keyboard and mouse are already being replaced before your eyes.

[stumiller]

runs like a dream on my Mac Mini !