Windows 7's Coming Out Party? In October

Microsoft has created a blog dedicated to Windows 7, the upcoming (in 2010, according to Microsoft) successor to Windows Vista. The first post in the blog, Microsoft said that first in-depth technical details will come at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), both scheduled for October.

We have two significant events for developers and the overall ecosystem around Windows this fall. The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on October 27 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week both represent the first venues where we will provide in-depth technical information about Windows 7. This blog will provide context over the next 2+ months with regular posts about the behind the scenes development of the release and continue through the release of the product.

The blog, Engineering Windows 7 or E7, will be written by the two senior engineering managers for the Windows 7 product, Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky. They go on to discuss the rather close-mouthed approach Microsoft has taken with regards to Windows 7 so far (though it's certainly not Apple-level paranoia).

We, as a team, definitely learned 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.

In other words, we screwed up with Vista, announced features we had to drop, and we don't want to do that again. Still, according to the blog, Microsoft wants "an open and honest, and two-way, discussion" about Windows 7, so expect there to be lots more info dished, starting in October.