Windows 7 weblog drip-feeds fresh info

It's IT Blogwatch: in which Microsoft starts to blog about Windows 7 -- refreshing, authentic voice or cynical PR exercise? Not to mention the Large Hadron Rap...

Elizabeth Montalbano reports:

In a blog entry Thursday, Microsoft said it will finally give developers their first in-depth look at [Windows 7] at its forthcoming Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October ... and the annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week ... according to a blog post attributed to Steven Sinofsky and Jon DeVaan, the two Windows 7 senior engineering team leaders, on the new Engineering Windows 7 company blog.

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Through its public relations firm, Microsoft said the Engineering Windows 7 blog will be used "mainly to open a line of two-way communication between the Windows 7 engineering team and Windows developers"

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It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will use the blog to be more forthcoming ... about what features will be in Windows 7. The company has been fairly secretive so far. more

Aharon Etengoff adds:

The Vole's marketing department has unveiled a rather bland-looking Windows 7 blog ... In their first post, DeVaan and Sinofsky expressed interest in conducting a “two-way discussion” about designing Windows 7.

The blogging duo readily admitted that they had learned certain lessons about “disclosure” and getting ahead of themselves “in talking about features before understanding of them is solid”. As such, the two pledged to “promise and deliver” by refraining from setting unrealistic expectations and prematurely announcing features. more

Paul Thurrott is one of the chosen ones:

Looks like the Windows 7 information blackout is finally over. I received an email from "Steven Sinofsky" (though I honestly wonder about that) this morning ... The blog is now available and the initial post has some interesting info. more

Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky neigh:

Beginning with this post together we are going to start looking forward towards the “Windows 7” project. We know there are tons of questions about the specifics of the project and strong desire to know what’s in store for the next major release of Windows. Believe us, we are just as excited to start talking about the release. Over the past 18 months since Windows Vista’s broad availability, the team has been hard at work creating the next Windows product.

The audience of enthusiasts, bloggers, and those that are the most passionate about Windows represent the folks we are dedicating this blog to. With this blog we’re opening up a two-way discussion about how we are making Windows 7. Windows has all the challenges of every large scale software project.

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Our intent ... 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. more

But Chris Overd just waves his hand:

Steven you already started off by setting expectations too high, and inevitably you will now disappoint. Maybe someone could be open, honest and two-way about Ultimate Extras though while you’re at it – you know, that small little thing we all paid $100 for.

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Its going to be a press-release style, information posted when approved by PR type of blog. Maybe just move the blog to MS Presspass to make it easier for those mainstream journalists to find and quote? ... Community vehicle, no. PR vehicle, most likely. PR is good, just don’t pretend this blog is something it is not going to be. more

And Robert McLaws has a similar thought:

I really like the idea of “promising and delivering”… hopefully someone soon will address the “delivering” part of Ultimate Extras, too

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With PDC 2008 just a few months away, I’m excited to see the wheels start spinning up on the Windows Futures communication machine. more

Thom Holwerda calls it:

... yet another upfront, explicit admission from Microsoft that they more or less frakked up the development process of Longhorn and Vista, by promising features they couldn't deliver, or couldn't deliver to their fullest potential.

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The E7 blog reveals some interesting commitments by Microsoft, most notably they will no longer get all excited about possible features that in the end don't make the cut - like WinFS. more

And finally...

• I'm really not sure if this is really impressive or super-lame
  

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