Windows 8, and So It Begins Revolutionary vs. evolutionary

 
Back in early 2007, after Windows Vista shipped to customers worldwide, Microsoft shifted its focus on what was at the time referred to as Windows codename Vienna, & which ended up as Windows 7. The company delivered a taste of early designs, noting that it was aiming for a release ahead of 2009, but nothing more after that. In fact, it wasn’t until August 2008 that Sinofsky started sharing crumbs from the development method of Windows 7, at a time when the operating method was between the Milestone 2 & Milestone 3 development stages.

Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, & hit the shelves on October 22, generating obvious questions about what’s next for Microsoft’s proprietary operating method. & the answer is simple: Windows 8. This time around, the Redmond-based company made small efforts to hide the moniker associated with the next generation of the Windows client. Not that it could, given that the codename aspect of Windows development efforts is the only transparent aspect of the otherwise translucent communication strategy set in place by Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows & Windows Live Division.

With Windows 7 wrapped up, Sinofsky was upgraded to the President position from senior vice president of the Windows & Windows Live engineering group, but as it was the case for Windows 7, Windows 8 will be developed in accordance with his vision. With Sinofsky at the helm of the Windows 8 project, Osterman could even expect the same development experience as for Windows 7.

In this regard, it is interesting to understand how early Microsoft actually started building the successor of Windows Vista. According to Larry Osterman, Microsoft Principal SDE, the Windows team was hard at work coding for Windows 7 within 4-5 months after the general availability of Vista. “In June of 2007, they started working on actual feature planning – the planning team had come up with a set of tentative features for Win7 & they started the actual design for the features – figuring out the user experience for the features, the internal implementation details, etc.,” Osterman noted.

Revolutionary vs. evolutionary

“The remarkable thing about Win7 development was that it was friction free. During the Vista development method (& in every other product I’ve worked on) development was marked by a constant stream of new issues which were a constant drain on time an energy. It felt like they moved from two crisis to another crisis,” Osterman recalled. “For Win7 it was different. I think it was some time during the second milestone that I realized that Win7 was ‘special’. The newer development method that was deployed for Win7 was clearly paying off & my life was far less stressed. In fact I don’t think I worked late or came in on weekends two times during the entire 3 years that Win7 was under development – this was a HUGE modify. Every other product I’ve ever worked on has necessary late nights & weekends (sometime it necessary all-nighters). But for Win7 it didn’t happen. In lieu they set a set of goals that were reasonable with achievable schedules & they executed on those goals & delivered the features they promised.”

When it moved forward from Windows Vista (version 6.0) & Longhorn (Windows Server 2008) to Windows 7 (v6.1) & Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft chose the path of evolution than build a revolutionary OS. Another legitimate query about Windows 8 is whether the platform will continue to evolve, or whether Microsoft is ready for a revolution in Windows, even though the memory of what revolutionary meant for Vista is still fresh for customers. While only time will tell whichever way Microsoft will take Windows 8, two thing is clear, the Redmond-based company started planning for the next generation of Windows long before Windows 7 was finalized.

In addition, the application giant is also hiring people to start coding for Windows 8. If the development method described by Osterman still applies, Microsoft will start building Windows 8 early in 2010, if not even earlier. However, as is the case with all Windows platforms, the successor of Windows 7 will must go through a planning phase, where coding is left in the background, & the priority is putting together the actual feature set for the operating method. Still, don’t expect Microsoft to start talking Windows 8 until well in to 2010, if not even 2011. After all, it took over a year since the Windows 7 coding had started for Sinofsky to share the first details on the engineering method of the project.

 in October, Microsoft mentioned Windows 8 in a number of job posts:

- “IIS team is looking for an experienced PM to join our core platform team. Your role will span across driving key features in to Windows 8 as well as owning several out-of-band modules, including web analytics that will bring business intelligence for the customers that host applications & contents on IIS. Your work will help differentiate IIS & Smooth Streaming from Apache & Flash. You ought to also be ready to work in a fast-paced environment & have a strong desire for quality, security, & performance. Your feature will be used by millions of customers,” for the position of Senior Program Manager.

- “The Windows Live Mail team is looking for a seasoned Lead Program Manager to drive our next generation Mail client, & manage five stellar PMs. Our client has over 40M users world-wide, & serves as a key component of our Windows Live “light up Windows” strategy. Our current release is centered on hot new consumer features & better synergies with Hotmail & Windows 7, & our future releases will likely be tightly designed to work best with new Windows 8 platform technologies. They will also work closely with the Outlook team on ways to bring Windows Live to Outlook,” for the position of Principal Lead Program Manager.

- “The TAG team provides the foundation services & infrastructure to support a unified check & dev workflow. This team’s charter includes - developing & jogging a unified check submission & execution method for Windows 8, Automating Check pass scheduling & execution, results analysis & automated triage, Windows code coverage services, Developing & jogging the eBVT quality gate, supporting WinSE’s Windows 7 sustained engineering check needs,” for the position of Check Lead 2.

What would you prefer Windows 8 to be? Revolutionary or evolutionary?

- “The Application Experience Bug Inquiry Team, AEBit, is looking for passionate SDETs that require to make an impact on Windows 8. On the AEBit team you will get the matchless opportunity to challenge & grow your debugging skills on issues that span the entire OS. You will have the opportunity to engage with application vendors, OEMs, as well as internal component teams. You will also be applying & enhancing your knowledge of method internals. As part of the AEBit team you will be responsible for driving & ensuring compatibility in Windows by engaging with component teams, root causing application bugs, & authoring mitigations,” for the position of Application Development Engineer in Check.