Windows 7: Will they or won’t they?

With all the speculation surrounding Windows 7 and its ever accelerating launch schedule, I found the following quote from an “official” Microsoft email to be most intriguing:

“We are still in the planning stages for Windows 7 and expect it will take approximately 3 years to develop.”

The above quote comes from a message supposedly received by the folks over at winvistaclub.com. I say supposedly because the site is clearly a Vista “fanboi” endeavor, and I wouldn’t put it past such people to go and fabricate such a Microsoft “response.” However, I also think it’s worth taking another look at the evidence both for and against an early Windows 7 debut:

1. As far as the enterprise is concerned, Vista is a disaster. No matter how Microsoft tries to spin the numbers, the fact remains that they dropped the ball with “Windows NT 6.0.” Too much “fat” for the masses and not enough “meat” for corporate IT. And the blame rests squarely with Jim Allchin, a guy who to this day still doesn’t have a clue about the needs of IT professionals (your Banyan days will forever haunt you, Jimbo).

2. Save XP is gaining momentum. More and more IT shops are simply saying “no” to Vista and sticking with XP in the hope that Windows 7 will be the version that Vista should have been. Microsoft needs to seize on this and start fleshing-out its Windows 7 strategy ASAP. Come 2009 there’ll be some hungry IT patrons looking for the “meat” they were denied with Vista!

3. This ain’t your father’s Windows dev team. Steve Sinofsky runs a tight ship. He also has a penchant for under-promising and over-delivering. Witness Microsoft Office, a product that rivals Mac OSX in terms of trumped-up “new features” per version — but which also tends to ship on schedule.

   Translation: This is a Windows dev team that will set realistic goals and keep the “pie-in-the-sky” stuff from distracting them from their ship targets.

4. Making Windows 7 a success won’t be as hard as you might think. After the Vista debacle, IT shops fully expect Microsoft to pull out all the stops with Windows 7. The very fact that we’re even debating the possibility of the company shipping a version of Windows early speaks volumes about the level of expectation. To botch Windows 7 would be suicide, or so the conventional wisdom goes. That alone should be enough to guarantee a solid release, one that redresses Vista’s myriad shortcomings and throws a much needed bone to corporate IT types.

Will Microsoft ship Windows 7 early in an effort to salvage its enterprise reputation? I’m guessing yes, if for no other reason than they can. It won’t take a major engineering effort to turn the ashes of Vista (which, despite its reputation, did incorporate some good ideas) into a solid OS that corporate IT actually wants. Just trim the “fat,” fix the compatibility “gotchas” and start listening to what the guys in the trenches are saying for a change.

And whatever you do, don’t give it another stupid name like Windows “Horizons” … or anything to do with the environment … or shellfish.