- Warner Crocker

Yesterday, Loren Heiny responded to a post by Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky about customizing Windows and the many responses that they have received from users, some of whom think that allowing users to turn features on or off based on how they plan to use their computers. In the post he listed the Tablet PC bits as an example that could be turned off.

Some examples are quite easy to see and you should expect us to do more along these lines, such as the TabletPC components.  I have a PC that is a very small laptop and while it has full tablet functionality it isn’t the best size for doing good ink work for me (I prefer a 12.1” or greater and this PC is a 10” screen).  The tablet code does have a footprint in memory and on the 1GB machine if I go and remove the tablet components the machine does perform better.  This is something I can do today.  Folks have asked about Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Windows Mail, Windows Calendar…this is good feedback and good things for us to consider for Windows 7. 

Loren’s response was similar to mine:

Yes, he’s saying that even on a Tablet PC, the Tablet bits don’t have enough value for him.

Loren took Steven to task for his comments on screen size and Inking as well, recalling the Tableteers lament for the HP tc1100, which by most accounts was a great, if not the great Tablet PC at a 10inch screen size.

Sinofsky responded in a comment to Loren’s post saying the following:

I think you read more than I wrote " src="http://www.lorenheiny.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" />

I just said that for me, a 10 inch Prime screen is too small for inking. Maybe I just write too big. When I use ink I mostly use OneNote and I just find that a 10 inch Prime screen at 1280×768 is not enough information density.

That’s all

Maybe, maybe not. Here’s my issue. Sinofsky has clamped down on communication about Windows 7 and now is using the blog, Engineering Windows 7, to talk about the process behind assembling the next version. I applaud the effort to talk about what’s happening behind the scenes. That said, I don’t think Sinofsky is as naive about the impact of what he writes in that blog as he appears to be about Tablet PCs. Maybe I should say I hope he isn’t. When you control information the way Microsoft now is doing, and talk about that control, what you choose to share has powerful meaning, even if used as “an example.” The same is true with what you choose not to share. This community has been on pins and needles about the future of Tablet PC computing for some time now in the wake of Microsoft’s poor marketing and implementation of what Tablet PCs can and do offer. That only increased when the Tablet PC’s biggest advocate, Bill Gates, retired from the day to day.

That point is driven home to me by Steven’s comment. He chose to focus on the screen size issue rather than address Loren’s larger issue:

The performance fix for the Tablet bits is not to remove them. It’s to address the lower level implementation details. I wish he was signaling that that’s on the Windows 7 to do list.

So do I, Loren. So do I.

So, Steven, you’ve opened the door for dialogue now with the Tablet PC community, and at the risk of making you feel like you need to say even less about Windows 7 in the future, what you wrote “too big” in this instance, is an invitation we’d love to take you up on. Let’s talk about the future of Tablet PC computing. I think you’ll be surprised by what you hear.

- Warner Crocker

It looks like we might start hearing some info on Windows 7 relatively soon. Microsoft has a new blog, Engineering Windows 7, authored by the Silencer himself, Steve Sinofsky, and Jon DeVaan, who is in charge of the Windows Core Operating System.

There's not much info being blogged yet, except for some corporate speak about why they lid has been clamped down so tightly up to now.

In leading up to this blog we have seen a lot of discussion in blogs about what Microsoft might be trying to accomplish by maintaining a little bit more control over the communication around Windows 7 (some might say that this is a significant understatement). 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.

With the Professional Developers Conference coming up in October, I look for some information to start trickling out about then. But, I'm guessing it will still be very tightly controlled. Pendulum swings are tough to ride.

- Warner Crocker

Microsoft will be putting Multi-touch into Windows 7, but you’ll need a monitor equipped to handle it right? Albatron looks like they may be first out the gate with a desktop monitor to do the trick, with a 22 inch (1680 x 1050) monitor. Albatron uses a sensor on each side of the screen and says that the cost will only be 20% more than a non-multi-touch monitor.

Via tgdaily

- Warner Crocker

When there is an absence of information it creates a vacuum. After last week’s declarations from Steve Sinofsky that Microsoft won’t be talking much about Windows 7 in the ways it has talked about Windows Vista, Microsoft officially created the vacuum, with the exception of the tid bit of news that Windows 7 would incorporate a multi-touch UI. Well nature abhors a vacuum and so do geeks.

The intrepid Loren Heiny is adopting natures’ role and filling that information vacuum with a very funny new post that chronicles 7 ways Windows 7 will outdo Apple. You have to read this.

 

Tags: Windows+7

- Rob Bushway
Sumocat has been talking up a storm in our Multi-Touch Scenario article, and went a bit further and penned this fantastic essay talking about multi-touch possibilities in Outlook. Sumocat does a really good job strengthening the argument that multi-touch can indeed be a great tool for business users.

Sumocat wraps up his essay with this closing thought, which I am in total agreement with (emphasis mine):

Multi-touch is a great advancement in user interface technology, but the key words there are “user
interface”. Microsoft needs to explain how this enhances the existing user interface, not show us how it
works in new applications we’re not using. Making ripples in a virtual pond is fun, but I’m not using a
virtual pool now. I use stuff like Outlook. Show me how multi-touch can improve Outlook, then I’ll be
interested in seeing what else it can do.

- Rob Bushway

Thanks to BetaNews.com, we just learned that Microsoft's newly unveiled PDC 2008 web site features some special sessions geared just for Windows 7. It looks like Microsoft has decided to begin talking about Windows 7, after all.

There are four Windows 7 sessions listed that will be of interest to a lot of developers, and folks generally interested in learning more about Windows 7.

Of particular to interest to our readers is a session geared toward touch computing and their API support.

I think I need to be planning to attend PDC 2008!

Windows 7: Touch Computing

In Windows 7, innovative touch and gesture support will enable more direct and natural interaction in your applications. This session will highlight the new multi-touch gesture APIs and explain how you can leverage them in your applications.

 

Here are the other Windows 7 sessions being offered:

Windows 7: Graphics Advances

Windows 7 enables you to advance the graphics capabilities of your applications while carrying forward existing investments in your Win32 codebase, including GDI and GDI+. New enhancements to DirectX let Win32 applications harness the latest innovations in GPUs and LCD displays, including support for scalable, high-performance, 2D and 3D graphics, text, and images. Also learn how to leverage the GPU's parallelism for general-purpose computation such as image processing.

Windows 7: Optimizing for Energy Efficiency and Battery Life

A single application can reduce mobile battery life by up to 30%. Windows 7 provides advances for building energy-efficient applications. In this session we will discuss how to leverage new Windows infrastructure to reduce application power consumption and efficiently schedule background tasks and services. 

Windows 7: Web Services in Native Code

Windows 7 introduces a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code. This session will discuss the programming model, interoperability aspects with other implementations of WS-* protocols and demonstrate various services and applications built using this API.

 

- Rob Bushway

Word from the D6 highlights blog is that Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates will be demoing the new user interface in Windows 7 at the D: All Things Digital conference. Let's hope they show some touch!

- Warner Crocker

With rumors abounding that we’ll hear something about Windows 7 at D6: The All Things Digital Conference later this week, comes a CNet News.com interview with Steven Sinfosky, the Microsoft honcho behind Windows 7. There are a few nuggets to be found in the interview but only a few. For example, the plan is to keep the driver model the same so that we won’t have to go throw the same sort of catch-up game waiting for drivers that we did with Vista (and XP).

We also learned that at least in this interview, Sinfosky isn’t going to spill the beans on what the plans are for Windows 7. There’s a lot of of “we aren’t going to talk about that now” in the interview, especially on things like a “minimum kernel.”

I call Snake Bit.

The interview is more about why Microsoft is not talking about Windows 7 at present and the giant pendulum swing that occured after the negative reaction to Vista. From the interview you can glean that some in Microsoft felt that they were a little too open in discussing the potential of Vista. Remember, things changed radically along the path of Vista’s development. Sinofsky seems to have clamped down in a major way and is talking about talking about (or not) Windows 7. I’m guessing there’s starting to be a reacton to the silence which prompted the access for this interview. While it might be a good PR move to talk about why you aren’t talking, in my opinion, the hyper-reaction to issues with Vista, shouldn’t necessarily lead to such a strenuous Apple-like clamp down. Certainly there is a middle ground.

Chris Flores also talks about how Microsoft isn’t talking about Windows 7 on the Windows Vista Blog as well. Looks like there is a major PR effort being launched about how Microsoft will communicate (or not) about Windows 7.