The PumaCode.org Blog

I just read this fascinating yet painful attempt by CNet journalist Ina Fried to extract any information whatsoever about the next consumer version of Windows from Microsoft’s new Senior Vice President of Windows Engineering, Steven Sinofsky (who just took over from Jim Allchin). If you don’t feel like reading six pages of a Microsoft executive saying absolutely nothing, here’s Fried’s executive summary.

And here is my executive summary:

We’ve heard absolutely nothing about Windows 7 lately. What can you tell us?
It will have Internet Explorer 8. And we’re working with partners.

Apple has been eating your lunch lately with their anti-Vista marketing in the consumer space. How are you going to respond?
We’re working with partners.

We’ve heard some interesting information about the new “MinWin” kernel that will go into Windows 7; can you expand on that?
No, that’s wrong. It will have the Vista kernel. And we’re working with partners.

So what do you see as the problem with Vista’s execution?
I’d rather not dwell on the past.

OK, you mentioned that Windows 7 will build on top of the work that went into Windows Server 2008; does that mean it too will be more of a modular design?
I’d rather not talk about the future.

Don’t you think being tight-lipped about your future OS is going to hurt you?
We’re working with partners.

Ouch! This interview speaks volumes about Microsoft’s corporate mentality. It’s gonna take a lot more than a hip new ad campaign to fix that.