Redmond Offers a Peek Behind the Windows 7 Curtain with New Blog

Wondering what's going on inside the mystery that we call "Windows 7?" You could do worse than dropping in from time to time on the brand-new Engineering Windows 7 blog hosted at MSDN.

E7, as its co-authors, Windows 7 product senior engineering managers, Jon DeVann and Steven Sinofsky, call it, is aimed at the "...audience of enthusiasts, bloggers, and those that are the most passionate about Windows..."

DeVann and Sinofsky (learn more about them at the ArsTechnica article about E7) make some big promises in their "Welcome to Engineering Windows 7" blog entry:

We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion about how we balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows. We promise and will deliver such a dialog with this blog.

....

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.

Can they deliver - not just on the expectations we have for Windows 7, but on the promise to keep us in the loop during the run-up to RTM? Opinions differ: learn more on page 2.

Ed Bott Likes What He's Seeing at E7

ZDNet's Ed Bott (whom I assisted many moons ago in getting Special Edition Using Windows Me out the door), is cautiously optimistic about what the start of the E7 blog means for how Windows 7 is doing:

The fact that [Sinofsky]’s willing to speak now (and promise to post “regularly” means, I suspect, that Windows 7 is about to hit a major milestone. The other announcement in that kickoff post confirms that this is the opening salvo in a publicity campaign that we’ll hear much more about this fall, beginning at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, to be held in Los Angeles October 26-30, and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, scheduled for the following week.

...But Mary Jane Foley's Less Than Impressed

Another ZDNetter, Mary Jane Foley, isn't expecting much from E7:

While I think it’s admirable that Microsoft finally plans to start talking in any way at all about the next version of Windows client, I have to admit I’m a tad skeptical about how much or how deeply Sinofsky and DeVaan plan to do so.

And from Across the Pond...

The Channel Register (part of UK's The Register) shares her skepticism, but points out this potential benefit of the blog:

So, the blog – which is undoubtedly heavily edited by a team of PRs – could serve as a useful stick to beat Microsoft with if it fails to deliver the goods on time and transparently.

With over 190 comments already posted, E7's already getting some serious traffic.

So, what do you think? Will E7 give us a better view inside the Windows 7 development process, or is it simply PR from Redmond? Click Comments and tell us what you think!

Illustration courtesy of ArsTechnica.