Comments on: Windows chief talks '7'

In an exclusive interview, Steven Sinofsky offers up a few details on the new operating system and the rationale for why he is not saying more publicly.

[NottaMacGuy]

I just love pointless interviews like this. How many times does Steve have to say that he's not going to talk about it before Ina stops asking about it? I think it's time for Ina to stick with posting to his blog, he is a pretty clueless interviewer.

[Imalittleteapot]

I hope being tight lipped isn't code for MS has no clue about the direction they want to take Windows 7 in. I don't know what they're going to do except play around with the GUI. However, we've already heard 7 will be focusing on touch and speech, but we'll have to wait and see. I suppose features wasn't really the point of the interview anyway. One interesting question was if there was any philosophical aspects to Windows future, but the answer didn't really do it for me.

[schergr]

His being tight lipped is, in large measure, a result of feedback that they've gotten from enterprise customers to not waste their time with a half baked product. Many enterprises spent many hours and many dollars in the Vista early adopters programs and would up with a product that wasn't ready for the enterprise. He's simply respecting the wishes of his customers which are this. The Vista program was a debacle. When you have something that works, show it to me, but don't use my corp resources to develop your product.

[Imalittleteapot]

Vista wasn't ready for enterprise or the home user. They dropped every feature that people were actually interested in then added DRM. It was almost like they had no clue about the direction they wanted to take Vista in. Are you sure they don't have the same problem with 7? Even with 7 they hyped up this MinWin thing then quickly tell us MinWin has absolutely nothing to do with 7. Well that was a waste of everyone's time. Oh well. Unless something big changes we can pretty much now guess what Windows 7 is unless they design some new fantastic technology. It's basically Windows Vista with multi-touch and maybe better speech recognition then a whole bunch of other crap some big company asked for. I wonder if that'll do it for everyone.

[Igiveup2]

About the kernel - he didn't say WinMin has nothing to do with Windows 7. He said the Vista kernel, revised driver model, and revised graphics engine were the first step in the evolution of Server 08 and Windows 7. The modular kernel architecture that started with Vista allows processes to be isolated from the lower levels of the kernel, which is supposedly the idea behind WinMin. Modular = easier to evolve while maintaining compatibility, and easier to scale. In short, the development of the Vista kernel is the investment and the ability to evolve with Server 08, Vista SP1, and Windows 7 is the payoff.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: WINDOWS 7 et al. It would be really good to know very early what MS would do differently in WINDOWS 7 that they (MS), IBM et al did not do for OS/2, MS Office and all the previous iterations of Windows given that overall, Microsoft has only a few days ago stated that at length and at last decided to join the technical committee of the OASIS Group which supports the Open Document Format (ODF) Standards. There is nothing like that "COKE" in a bottle. So, just where in the world is Serenity Systems International with "eComStation"!

[Jim1900]

Many people had imagined that Windows 7 would be a great improvement over Vista (which I like by the way). But if they are annoyed by driver or software incompatibility, then Windows 7 probably won't be much different in that regard. And UAC is generally OK with new software, it is mainly the third-party vendors that are 10 years behind knowing what User accounts are. I think it is time they wake up and smell the coffee and upgrade their stuff.

[Penguinisto]

It doesn;t work that way - if you anger the ISV's, you lose mindshare. If you lose mindshare, customers go to those OS(es) that gain it. Microsoft's last reason for not being crushed by the competition lies in compatibility with existing app catalogs. If they lose that, they'll lose the ballgame (as it is, Apple is starting to make some serious inroads at the consumer level, and Linux is gaining at the business level. This puts MSFT in a squeeze they probably don't want to be in right about now...)

[Igiveup2]

I'm sure Peng would just love for MS to go back to obsolete and insecure permissions conventions. Wishful thinking reflected in the statement that compatibility with obsolete software is the only thing keeping MS dominant. Providing incentive for ISV's to write better quality software that doesn't make excessive system calls works to their long term advantage, not disadvantage.

[TeffJech]

Sinofsky has either been isolated in his Windows environment, or he just refuses to see all of the justified criticism Vista keeps receiving. He keeps refering to how well-built Vista is, and how Windows 7 will be built on Vista infrastructure. How disappointing! Many of us are waiting and hoping that "7" will include a major paring down of the bloated core Windows OS, but Sinofsky seems to be saying that they'll be adding to the beast to preserve compatability. Why are you worring about a printer that someone purchased five years ago? Build a great, sleek, intuative OS, and they'll buy a new printer. Wouldn't that make all the "partners" happy too? Windows desperately needs reconstructive surgury, and Steve's talking about giving it a manicure.

[MicrosoftGOne]

Why should anyone buy Vista if a new operating systems coming out soon? Why spend £300 on a useless piece of software that isn't better than the predecessor it was written on? and that will be replaced within three years? Games and Software will still be compatible with XP and Mac is getting better on having everything Microsoft have and more now... If it's anything like Vista is I'll stick with XP or a Mac.

[Paul Skinner]

Gaaahhhh!

THat freeking hurt me. I actually read the whole thing! It was like pulling a bandaid off my hairy inner thigh really slowly while dripping lemon juice on the cut underneath!

Did this gut ( interviewee ) actually hold an interview with the stated intention of ONLY talking about how MicroSoft is going to talk to non-MicroSoft people in the future?!

Listen, if someone says something like "we get feedback from different partners at different times in the plans, and really the disclosure is when we start to talk about the information that's actionable and exciting about the product." I say just rush em, throw them to the floor and stamp on their stomach. Bloody corpodialog.

Ok, what this entire article points out without any informative information to make it obvious is that MS screwed up royally with Vista, someone got fired, this guy got hired and that this guy doesn't want to get fired, so you're not going to get anything but "three years from the general availability of VIsta" from anyone at Redmond that still pays a mortgage. Damn, he won't even translate that babble into a date. It's just implied there without anything being quotable or defined too well. Nice.

STAMP STAMP STAMP!

[haraldf]

I was wondering: Why is it 7, not 10? http://www.felgner.ch/2008/01/windows_7.html

[linkbeat]

I disagree with you NottaMacGuy. The whole point of the interviewer's questions was to narrow the focus down to what the majority of Windows admins/power users want to know: Will MS listen to it's customers and change it's current path (based on the flaws of Vista & Server 2008) by improving general OS speed/response/etc. People got excited when they heard MS was working on a streamlined kernel for Windows 7 (which turns out not to be the case) but in reading this, it appears MS really isn't listening. Based on this interview, one could assert that they went from being the customer responsive underdog in the NT 4.0/Windows 2000 vs. Netware days, to becoming the slow moving, unresponsive giant today. I think we were all hoping for more.

[Commander_Spock]

Ya know - there is nothing like getting to the bottom (root) of things and how things can be described at times; so, how much different is NT 4.0 from OS/2. You tell us. Also, how far do you expect the "apples" to fall from the "roots" of the "trees"?

[The_Decider]

CNET "journalism" at its best. Of course he is going to say little. MS never stopped talking about Vista and the whole mess reminds me of the farce of Daikatana. Also, MS is hoping it can sucker a few more victims into buying Vista before they have to trick them into buying a new OS. Vista is dead and even MS knows it, but that will not stop them from trying to bilk money from the fools it calls customers.

[Mr. Dee]

I have mixed feelings from this interview. Yes, I agree with his stance on silence, Vista is still on the market and the Company wants to promote that and see the adoption by both businesses and consumers instead of holding out for Windows 7. But, I am not getting a real feel of the direction of Windows 7 except for the fact that it will have a lot of features and work like Windows Vista. I would hope to get more understanding of the philosophy as you stated. Will there be more integration with the Web services, better local experiences and features built in? At least I can officially starting blogging about Windows 7 as a Microsoft Community website.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "I would hope to get more understanding of the philosophy as you stated. Will there be more integration with the Web services, better local experiences and features built in? At least I can officially starting blogging about Windows 7 as a Microsoft Community website". Ya know, somethings never get old, for example this video (link attached):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oh3gqOEKU

"All Your Base Are Belong To Us"!

It's understandable that MS would be tight-lipped about 7. How many things were publicly planned for Vista that never panned out? They back-tracked on virtually ALL of the major new features. So yeah, they're going to make sure they only announce what they know they can deliver this time.

But anybody hoping/expecting 7 to be a lean and mean client, is going to be disappointed. The bloat will continue.

[Imalittleteapot]

Well they'd better think up some really cool stuff for 7 or they're going to make more mistakes. I hope they don't just change the GUI and ship it out the door. That just isn't going to work. I think MS's biggest problem is they've been going to IT professionals and enterprises and talking to those customers about what new features should be in the OS. Then you end up with a really big OS that doesn't help the home user. Just look at what the average home user and small business does with their computer, and pay attention to what kind of computers they're doing it on. Make those tasks quicker and easier. That's one area they could start on until they come up with some real ideas.

[nwberean]

As a common user of Windows (XP) I have seen no compelling reason to "upgrade" to Vista even though my system exceeds the minimum hardware configuration. Nor do i see any vision from the above article to compel me to anxiously await Win7. Unless it takes less resources, operates faster, or offers enhanced operational capabilities to the "working" software I use all I can say is, "Ho hummmm."

[elllroy]

"What I think I want to say is what I just said ..."
i like these kind of vaporware/we want to be transparent/i learned that from our pr guru/vista is amazing but lets rather take about the future-stuff. he has nothing to say. and with this kind of interviews it will be hard to even reach the "enthusiasts, who are really excited about Windows" (i didn't even know that these people exist). by the time windows 7 will arrive all the windows sufferers i know will be working on a 10 year old OS (of course all of them skipped vista). that's stockholm syndrom put to the extrem. amazing!

[martin_chalifoux]

This is a pathetic interview. Sinofsky had nothing to say but some corporate ******** that means nothing - a real air bag. He is floating way up there on his clowd. You houuuu, comme down to earth boy. And if you have nothing to say, just stay in your office.

[afreemanmd]

This interview was painful to read. This guy is no doubt brilliant but he he sounds like a caricature of an engineer. Bloated, corpro-techno mumbo jumbo.
During the dark times at Apple (crappy, expensive machines with buggy software) I almost left Mac for the pc world. I am so glad now that I did not. I continue to use Mac and, when I need to, XP. XP is ugly to look at but it works just fine.

This guy is awful. Unlikeable. I don't think I could stand to be around him for very long.

I do agree with comment above about a company being overly concerned with legacy users when developing an updated OS. If people have peripherals that they need to keep then they can stick with the old OS.

[The_happy_switcher]

Way to ask the tough questions. LOL.How about asking this: "Why is Vista such
a disaster and why should people believe the next version of windows will be any better?"

[thedreaming]

Steve-o has a great career, in politics. You ask a question and he answers it with allot of words strung together that sound like he said something. I love the way he dodged the question about how he felt about Apple's Smear Campaign against Vista.

[Stormspace]

I've been using Vista for over a year now and I still have issues with how the OS does certain things. Small things like renaming add/remove programs to the way the OS interupts you to ask "if you're sure" each time an application you've already told it is ok tries to run, no default administrator level access command line, and file locking that somehow can't be reversed. I currently have a photoshop doc on my desktop that can't be opened, deleted, or renamed and it's got to be a Vista permissions issue.

And to top it all off, it's way to slow to even be considered a viable OS.

[vvraj72]

Such a waste of time - why did he even agree to the interview if he didn't have anything to say?