February 1st, 2007
Goodbye, 'Vienna.' Hello 'Windows 7'
It's February 1: The first "official" day of the Steven Sinofsky Windows era.
Yes, I know Senior Vice President of Windows and Windows Live Engineering Sinofsky has been working on Windows Vista and Windows Live for the past several months. His re-org stamp is already visible on a number of divisions and projects. But given that January 31 was former Windows chief Jim Allchin's last day, I'm counting today as the first day of the new post-Allchin Windows world.
That means, for one, it's time to move beyond the vista-themed family of codenames and begin using the more boring and sanitized ones that we're all going to have to get used to, going forward.
First off, it's time to stop with the "Vienna" stuff. Those in the know need to start using "Windows 7" to refer to the next full-fledged version of Windows client. (Why 7? I guess because it follows NT 6.0?)
Not so coincidentally, numbers are back in vogue — like they are on the Office side of the house, which, as Microsoft watchers have known for a while, is working on "Office 14" (not "13" — bad luck), the next version of Office.
What other changes are in store from the new Windows regime? Over in my regular Redmond Magazine column, I mention (tongue planted in cheek … sort of) a few of the ways Microsoft could and might make Windows development and testing more like that done by the Office unit.
Among my suggestions:
* Stop talking about unreleased products. Don't share publicly a list of promised features/functionality before the product is totally locked down. Punish transgressors both inside and outside the company.
* Cease sharing any information about delivery milestones or dates. Never talking about ship targets means never having to say you're sorry.
* Ban historical references. Anyone mentioning "WinFS," "Cairo" or "Hailstorm" gets put in the penalty box.
Other changes you're expecting in the brave new Windows world?
Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 20 years. Don't miss a single post. Subscribe via Email or
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