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Remember, way back when, I wrote this blog post that guessed that the big thing that Microsoft was going to try and squish into Windows 7 wasn't going to be some fancy new kernel, but it would actually be multi-touch functionality from Surface and other research initiatives? Well... I told you so!
I've been flipping through various blogs and feeds reporting on "All Things Digital" (D6). Bill and Steve gave a really informative interview with Walt Mossberg. I was actually pretty surprised, both guys seemed really comfortable, really laid back, and at ease discussing some of Walt's tougher questions. For example, he came right out and asked them if Windows Vista was a failure. They were obviously put off by the question, but they handled it much better than I would've expected.
Anyway, a lot of details (also more than I expected) were revealed about Windows 7. One of the most important things that they revealed was that Windows 7 will not be using a new kernel. Not only will it not be using the much-rumored "MinWin" (a modular, scaling kernel that IMHO would've kicked ass) but it will be carrying forward the Vista/Server '08 kernel.
I'm sure the GUI will get a new facelift and we won't see the final vesion of that until much closer to the release date. Other than the re-use of the "old" Vista kernel, the other big news was that Windows 7 will be all about the multi-touch. There were demos of 7 there and they were basically Windows Vista with multi-touch support build into it. Gizmodo has a photo gallery of the touch and feel sessions with 7 here .
I don't know about you but I want more. I want lots more. I want something that is so awesome it will make me forget about all the controversy around the Vista launch. I want something so awesome it will make me forget about all those Mac vs. PC ads. In my opinion, it is Microsoft's responsibility to make something so awesome that people will forget about the Mac vs. PC ads and it will actually be cool to own a PC running Windows vNext. If MS doesn't deliver on that, they're just going to lose more respect and more customers to the other side of the fence - Macs running OS X and bootcamp.
No, I don't buy it. All those demos were just Surface and WPF demos. They
basically got a multi-touch driver for the screen and ran existing
software. That doesn't make Windows 7 - it's just something to keep the
press quiet until the PDC.
I'm betting that Windows 7 will be more about Live and Mesh integration.
Isn't it a bit dumb to very publicly demo something that won't ship for 18
months but your competition basically already has shipping? Anything useful
they demoed can be shipped by Apple well before 18 months. Seems to be me
that they have set themselves up here to trumped by a Steve Jobs keynote.
As Joe said, if Live Mesh becomes part of the operating system and the Mesh
SDK is part of .NET 4.0 and they actually get some real integration done
properly, then 7 is actually a compelling switch... The point here is that
Microsoft needs to do _something_, _anything_, that makes people _want_ to
buy a new OS instead of just being forced into it via PC upgrade paths.
It will be interesting to see where this goes. Windows already has decent
touch screen support, so multi-touch will be interesting. OS X already has
very good multi touch support, both in the mobile and desktop version so
they have a bit of a head start. I guess it depends on who delivers first
and how good the implementation is.
If I was running MS, I'd focus on fixing my problems before adding new
features. I'd find out exactly what the complaints over Vista are and fix
them.
