How Microsoft keeps Windows 7 development under control
InformationWeek | at | by Mike
For months and months, Microsoft kept silent about Windows 7.
After a limited demo last May, the first public comments started trickling out last August in Microsoft's Engineering Windows 7 blog, and the floodgates opened by the end of October at the company's Professional Developers Conference. It's all been part of the plan, and a far cry from how Microsoft handled Windows Vista before its release.
Windows boss Steven Sinofsky is known for his controlled, on-time delivery of products, most notably the well-received Office 2007 suite. His strategy has been hypercontrolled this time around. While a number of prerelease builds have leaked, Windows 7 hasn't been the start-and-stop, leak-heavy development cycle that Windows Vista was.