Microsoft has launched an MSDN blog dedicated to the engineering of Windows 7.
The blog, known formally as Engineering Windows 7, or E7 for short, is to be written by Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, two of Windows 7's senior engineering managers.
Steven and Jon state that the blog is dedicated to the enthusiasts who are most passionate about Windows, and hopes to open a two-way discussion on how Windows 7 is made.
The pair state that their team has been hard at work on Windows 7 for the past 18 months, and that the challenge in developing for such a diverse set of customers has proven to be a humbling experience.
Nonetheless, Windows 7 appears to be well on its way, and Microsoft will be revealing the first in-depth technical information of its Vista successor at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on October 27th.
In the meantime, the E7 blog will provide behind the scenes development news, and in an effort to communicate better with their customers, Steven and Jon state:
In leading up to this blog we have seen a lot of discussion in blogs about what Microsoft might be trying to accomplish by maintaining a little bit more control over the communication around Windows 7 (some might say that this is a significant understatement). We, as a team, definitely learnt some lessons about “disclosure” and how we can all too easily get ahead of ourselves in talking about features before our understanding of them is solid. Our intent with Windows 7 and the pre-release communication is to make sure that we have a reasonable degree of confidence in what we talk about when we do talk. Again, top of mind for us is the responsibility we feel to make sure we are not stressing priorities, churning resource allocations, or causing strategic confusion among the tens of thousands of partners and customers who care deeply and have much invested in the evolution of Windows.
Related to disclosure is the idea of how we make sure not to set expectations around the release that end up disappointing you—features that don’t make it, claims that don’t stick, or support we don’t provide. Starting from the first days of developing Windows 7, we have committed as a team to “promise and deliver”. That’s our goal—share with you what we’re going to get done, why we’re doing it, and deliver it with high quality and on time.
It appears that Microsoft, or, Steven and Jon at least, are aware of Vista's shortcomings and miscommunication.
We'll be keeping a close eye on the E7 blog, and of course, we're eagerly awaiting the in-depth details to come at PDC.
Official Engineering Windows 7 blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/default.aspx
