RSSThe new deal for Windows 7 testers
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published February 3, 2009, 11:16 AM
In what appears to be a deadly serious effort to expedite the rollout of its next operating systems, Microsoft has opened some of its developer support tools to a broader audience of partners.
One of the major shortcomings of Windows Vista that Microsoft has quietly, though plainly, acknowledged in recent months concerned the company's relative inability to engage partners in the development process. With a respectably long development cycle, there were too many third parties that complained that they couldn't get their drivers to work right, well after the operating system had already launched.
And by that time, it wasn't just the partners who were complaining, but also their customers.
In an attempt to rectify that problem -- in an effort that has the signature of Mike Nash written all over it -- Microsoft yesterday unveiled a new and separate home page for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 beta programs, that is an extension of the company's existing Connect program -- its outreach to interested parties beyond the paid subscribers to MSDN and TechNet. (A separate link for hardware engineers now appears on Hardware Developer Central.)
Windows 7 has a new feature which could either work splendidly or be one of Microsoft's more notable disasters -- nothing in-between -- depending on how soon partners take up the cause of developing and testing new drivers. In the latest build, that feature is called Device Stage, and its goal is to enable users of smartphones, digital cameras, and other USB devices to plug into Win7 and see their exact models show up on the desktop -- maybe even in 3D, if all goes well -- along with instructions tailored specifically for those devices.
Naturally, this feature won't make sense to users if partners don't start building device drivers to spec. This is why the new Ecosystem Readiness Program site (with the unfortunate acronym ERP) contains links to a newly refreshed Windows Driver Kit. In coming weeks, the HDC version of the site reports that the company will be adding Win7 testing labs in Redmond, with more locations to follow, for partners to work directly with the company in ensuring that applications and device drivers work as projected.
When Corporate VP Mike Nash spoke to us last October at PDC 2008 -- when the first preview release of Win7 was just being distributed -- it was clear then that this new program was part of his plan to remake the Windows rollout. "One of the things that we're really excited about today is that the build that we distributed to folks is not feature-complete, but API-complete," Nash told us. "So our ecosystem partners can get a chance to start learning about Windows 7, and then start building for Windows 7. And then when the beta comes, it'll be feature-complete, which means the things that happen post-beta are bug fixes and edge conditions, versus adding features and making the ecosystem deal with new things."
With the beta build 7000 now here, it's clear that Nash's plan is to learn from Vista's mistakes and not repeat them with Win7. In a prepared Q&A released yesterday afternoon, Nash remarked, "When we've discussed new versions of Windows in the past, we typically shared ideas as if they were final. Sometimes things would shift, which could make it difficult for partners to plan when they should begin developing products. We've learned a tremendous amount from these experiences. In response we changed our approach to Windows 7, engaging with our partners early and planning with them in a more systematic way. We had the opportunity not only to watch how our partners were using and developing for Windows, but also to get their input on what was important to them.
"Based on this approach," he continued, "we were able to prioritize the things that developers cared about, and share an application programming interface (API)-complete version of Windows 7 at [PDC]. We held the [WinHEC] in November as well, and took the event to Asia to reach our partners in Beijing, Taipei and Tokyo. We followed this momentum by delivering a solid and stable beta version at International CES earlier this month. What this means for partners is that they can confidently invest and start testing now because the Windows 7 beta will have the same API set that they will see in the final release."
The HDC version also contains a link to the version 1.3 document for the Windows Logo Kit, which contains the minimum requirements for an application or driver to be given the "Compatible with Windows 7" logo. This year, there appears to be only one tier for the logo program, not three, not two. That's another Vista mistake that Microsoft appears to have learned from.
Here's more on Windows 7 editions along with their features: http://www.neowin.net/ne...-7-sku-lineup-announced
damn it, Pro (formerly known as Business) edition will not have BitLocker, AppLocker and VHD support, for that we would have to go for ultimate or enterprise (VL) edition. Am sure business users will def. buy this edition of Windows 7 and just like Vista Business, it won't include BitLocker!! :(
Ultimate edition->Market: Retail market, limited availability
wtf? limited availability?
Don't forget to read the comments, many were disappointed to see so many SKUs AGAIN!!
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|Some people are easily confused. Ah well...
For home use, I'll get Home Premium. For our sites, we'll use Enterprise.
It would be nice to see Direct-Access in Pro, though, for mobile users.
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|Features new to Windows 7: http://en.wikipedia.org/...atures_new_to_Windows_7
Guys please read that thoroughly before saying "it's a service pack", blah, blah blah...
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|window 7 sucks blue screens of daeth core dumps ie8 freezes, noy good might be going to linux soon
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|idiot, this is beta so are the drivers so it should be expected. I am sure you are getting BSOD because of buggy or incompatible drivers
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|I have used every build since 6801 @ PDC. I have it running currently on 4 systems and have yet to have a BSOD. The only issue I have had is with sleep/hibernate (which they *NEED* to fix).
Perhaps it's your PoS system. :)
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|"Going to Linux"... There's a new one. Enjoy your time in your safe little cave.
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|I finally did my first ever upgrade from XP to Vista on my brother-in-laws totally screwed PC. We all know registry keys can be changed in XP with no warning what so ever and this virus disables the start menu, DVD drive and about ten other things.
After a fresh Vista Home Premium install, this thing flies. Word opens in les than 1 second, and so does IE, Front Page, and Paint Shop takes about three seconds.
Vista downloaded all the Lenovo drivers for the sound card as soon as I put it online.
We had no choice as XP continues to suck no matter how many times you frsh install it. At least he will be warned when something is trying to access / change the registry. For the poeple clingning to XP, you guys are idiots.
Normally a Vista upgrade is suicide but this PC had the "Vista ready" sticker. It's a Lenovo 3000 J series and I'm very impresses with the performance as it's about five times faster than XP at doing everything.
Startup takes about 30 seconds to desktop fully booted.
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|that was a fun fairy tale to read. thank you!
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|Too bad it's true.
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|Personally i have found W7 to fly , and controls hardware much more efficiently to boot. Forgive the pun. therefore less power draw and cooler box due to shutting down non used hard drives and spin them only when needed. Since the first day NOT 1 problem yet. Touch wood. does want reasonable graphics to run aero stuff tho, but everything runs ok on my sons 500 mb machine. But monolithic giants of binary has to crash sometimes... why else need a world of techs? Get over the XP mania and actually try the new system. Progression is about change, not trying to hold onto the past. Yes many $ related reasons to hold on until your budget gets better. BUT! if your upgrade your hardware, man, this operating systems makes sure the wings flap and she flies high.
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|Windows 7 is just an expensive service pack but if that's how you fanboys want to spend your money on...go for it while you're still employed.
XP serves my purposes just fine and I think that goes for millions of other people too.
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|"just an expensive service pack"
What is your proof? You made an assertion and didn't back it up.
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|Yeah... completely unlike the 'inexpensive' $129.00 service packs Apple keeps pumping out.
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|I think Bill has so much money that he really doesn't care about nothing. Crisis ? What crisis ? He can afford to loose if anything goes wrong. He will "innovate" on every little aspect of his products but he will never ever change a bit of his nightmarish licensing practices. Windows HAS to be DIFFERENT even when it comes to this. For the future I expect a Windows flavor/license dedicated to kids, one for European users, one for Chinese (even if they make their own OS as we speak), and why not, one for the eskimo. The one for the eskimo will have a very unique wallpaper featuring seals hunting for penguins and will probably be the cheapest of all ;-)
Uh wtf???? did i read that right? honestly are people really this beyond stupid
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|I think Bill has so much money that he really doesn't care about nothing. Crisis ? What crisis ? He can afford to loose if anything goes wrong. He will "innovate" on every little aspect of his products but he will never ever change a bit of his nightmarish licensing practices. Windows HAS to be DIFFERENT even when it comes to this. For the future I expect a Windows flavor/license dedicated to kids, one for European users, one for Chinese (even if they make their own OS as we speak), and why not, one for the eskimo. The one for the eskimo will have a very unique wallpaper featuring seals hunting for penguins and will probably be the cheapest of all ;-)
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|*laughing*
Um, dude...
Check the date, read some news.
Bill left Microsoft a long time ago...
...
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|Bill is not gone. He just cut back his hours. He is still the largest shareholder by far.
And he didn't look too happy about Vista either in his sorta retirement interviews.
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|You're quite right "he doesn't care about nothing", therefore implying he cares about something.
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|@Ethelred:
He's no longer in the business. He's focusing now on the Gates Foundation and has had little if anything to do with Microsoft since he stepped down from CEO. You don't actually think he'd have let Ballmer get away with his jackassery if he was still "in charge", do you?
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|About the most he's had to do with Microsoft recently is co-starring with Jerry Seinfeld.
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|"You don't actually think he'd have let Ballmer get away with his jackassery if he was still "in charge", do you?"
Yes. I have a copy of an intriguing video of Ballmer jumping and shouting at some shareholder get together from several years ago. Maybe stupefying is a better description.
"I love this company!!!" Bounced Ballmer.
Gosh what a surprise, it only made him a multi-billionaire. Then there was his Crazy Eddy style ads a long time ago. He has always made me think of a used car salesman with brains. If you can imagine such a thing he is it.
Ethelred
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|Are they going to make people pay for this Vista service pack?
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|Name ONE service pack on ANY OS that makes changes as extensive as the ones you in Windows 7. You can't. Be quiet and sit down, troll.
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|Don't play the troll card so easily, mate. Everyone has an opinion, yours is no more valid than anyone else's.
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|I PLAY THE TROLL CARD WHEN I WANT, UNDERSTAND?!
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|Vista? What's Vista?
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|Name one OS released with as many bugs, broken drivers, horrible performance, annoying prompts, etc... as Vista? And no, Windows ME does not count although it was really bad. The fact is, Vista is a failure and now Microsoft is rushing out Windows 7 to address some of the issues and is going to charge for it.
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|Isn't there another OS out there that prompts you for a password and not just a accept/deny dialog.. Ooooh thats right Linux..
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|Me counts.
It sucked. Looked O.K. if you didn't use it long or hard otherwise it had to be reinstalled more often than 98SE.
I have met people that are STILL using it. Most likely they never reinstalled either as they clearly had no idea how to do it. I guess it worked for their needs. Of course Linux would have filled those needs just as well. Oh wait Linux doesn't have Minesweeper.
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|[q] fatty Feb 3, 2009 - 7:26 PM Name one OS released with as many bugs, broken drivers, horrible performance, annoying prompts, etc... as Vista? And no, Windows ME does not count although it was really bad. [/q]
Trying to move from Win98 to Windows 2000 was bad because of the move from fat32 to NTFS. However, I remember many complaints from people moving from Win 98 to XP complaining because none of thier devices worked, couldn't find drivers, the interface was different and confusing.... Gee, sound familiar. It took years and 2 Service packs before XP became the really stable OS that many people don't want to leave. Kind of remindes me of 98 after what, 3 versions of win 95? The only complaint you mentioned of Vista that I didn't hear with the move to XP was the UAC prompts. And if you saw the early Betas of Vista, the Vista was a great improvment. I just hope the 'dumbing down' of the UAC for Windows 7 doesn't make it to vulnerable.
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|Please have the courtesy to know what you are talking about.
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|A service pack? What is your proof? Please back it up.
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|Really sad to see this, Microsoft Windows 7 flavors: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1890
They still haven't learned from the mistake that was made with Vista :(
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|I hate the flavors, but you have to remember that MS has residential and corporate customers. It's typically the cor customers who force that features be rmeoved. For example, I am typing on Vista Business. I would prefer Home Premium, but my company doesn't want all the extra stuff.
I think they could combine home premium and ultimate.
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|It's not actually as bad as this article makes it seem...Starter and Ultimate edition will be niche markets, Pro and Premium will be the two edition that MS and retailers will focus on for most consumers (just like the two XP editions), while the enterprise edition will be exclusively for businesses. So most people will only have a choice of two (Pro, or premium)...not that bad.
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|What mistake was that? The mistake of the EU and Korea and wherever else that wants to be a pain in the a** by requiring MS to make versions of the OS with ONE FEATURE removed and then no one actually buying it.
Or the mistake that many have made thinking that MS should lose money just to sell one SKU at one price.
I would like to see Apple have the customer base and usage base that MS has and see if Apple can stay out of the red selling only one SKU at one price.
Plus there are plenty of people that appreciate having more than one choice of SKU because they can buy one that doesn't have features they would never use in the first place. My parents do not need the ability to join a domain or to encrypt their hard drive. So they shouldn't have to pay for it.
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|As opposed to what, the 160000 versions of Linux?
At least two of those are for emerging markets so you'll never see them and business is for volume licenses so you're going to basically have 4 to choose from. Are you so stupid that you can't choose from four?
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|Your statement makes no sense. Microsoft arbitrarily strips out features of the OS and charges more money for them via different versions. With GNU/Linux you can install anything for no cost. But you knew that, didn't you?
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|@shellcodes: Yeah..because 3 versions can confuse hte mentally challenged among us.
Premium, and Ultimate are really the only 2 that will enter the mass consumer market, and possibly business for home-office systems.
ooooh... The array of choices is *so* bewildering....
Of course you could always go with the "other" PC OS...
So, do I need kubuntu, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, or should I look at some of the million other versions of Linux?
I love how you guys can complain about version confusion. It's so rich.
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|@fatty:
Typical.
So everyone needs BitLocker, DirectAccess, Domain access....etc, right? I mean, you would *never* suggest people buy an OS that includes "bloat" they'd never *use*, right?
Ultimate Edition: $240.
That what you want? One size fits all, at the price for that version?
Or...would you rather pay less for it, having the features removed that you'd never use anyway?
No, of course not. You are *entitled*. You want it all, for the price of Linux.
*laughing my a** off*
A lot of whining...no sense. But at least you're good for something.
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|Vista was no problem and never has been for me and many, many others. The friend of a friend of a friend might have had a problem...maybe, but doubtful unless it was on a sub par OS.
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|@PC_Tool
The OS Microsoft is copying left and right, OSX, which has more features, has only one version for $129, and no spyware authentication. Plus, you can legally install a single copy onto three machines.
Try again....
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|OK, let's add it up:
1 X OSx $ 129
3 X OSx compatible computers $5000
Total $5129
3 X Windows $ 450
3 X Windows compatible computers $2100
Total $2550
Any questions?
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|@fatty.. Trolls are useless fatty..
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|@fatty: Crap OS X has more features than Windows? You mean more eye candies than Windows? yes that' true. There won't be anything great in Snow Leopard, just some enhancements and a 64-bit kernel. Google it and find it out.Hey am using Windows 7 x64, and had been using Vista x64 ultimate, so a 64-bit kernel in crap os x, that's nothing new. Even Linux has a 64-bit kernel.
Here's features new to Windows 7:
New features in Windows 7: http://en.wikipedia.org/...atures_new_to_Windows_7
Let me know when Crap OS X will have BitLocker, multitouch (screen), support games like GTA 4, Crysis, integrated development environment like Visual Studio 2008 pro or better (for C++ and C# development) and more hardware support than Windows and customization too, that day I will move to crap OS X, for now it SUCKS. By the way am enjoying Intel Core i7 along with Windows 7 x64 on my DELL XPS H2C desktop. What about you? still stuck with outdated core 2 duo or quad core processors? even the new Macs will ship with either core 2 duo or quad core processors. Don't worry, you guys will be able to enjoy the power of i7 processors, once it's out dated...as usual LOL
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|Actually I was just expecting two editions of Windows 7: Home (Similar to home premium) and Professional (Similar to ultimate edition). Businesses would pick Professional edition so would professionals wanting features like BitLocker, AppLocker, VHDs etc. And home and netbook users would pick Home edition. It's that simple.
As far as starter and home basic editions go, people out there in poor countries would rather use pirated copies of ultimate and/or premium editions rather than using useless starter or naked version--home basic editions. I have seen that happen. Starter edition will only grow hatred for Windows, when Linux which is free can do much more!!
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|[q] fatty Feb 3, 2009 - 11:27 PM edited
The OS Microsoft is copying left and right, OSX, which has more features, has only one version for $129, and no spyware authentication. Plus, you can legally install a single copy onto three machines.[/q]
Please show me where I can buy a copy of OSX that I can install on my off the shelf self built PC. I would like dual boot (quad boot?) it on hardware I can buy anywhere instead of propriatry mac hardware, or maybe in a VM. And no, I don't mean a hacked version or darwin without the Gui. I want the official version with full support.
As for copying, all the OSes seem to be copying each other. Microsoft is copying Mac is copying Linux is copying Microsoft is copying.....
And it all origionaly came from a copier gui.
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|Go ask the people at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center about copying and Apple!
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|Oh dear... foxfyre will have another aneurysm. LOL
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