Will Vista Mistakes Really Help 'Windows 7'?

Andy Patrizio over at Internetnews.com has a great take on the emerging details of Microsoft's upcoming operating system, called "Windows 7" for now.

Two senior vice presidents, Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, have started a blog about the OS, which Microsoft hopes to launch in late 2009 or in 2010. As Patrizio writes, "they will reveal the first engineering details about Windows 7 on Oct. 27 at the Professional Developers' Conference in Los Angeles. Additional talks will take place at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) scheduled for Nov. 5-7, also in Los Angeles.

Patrizio further writes:

Microsoft seems determined to get more feedback from the community this time around than it did with Vista, one of the many knocks on the beleaguered operating system. Sinofsky and DeVaan said their goal was to make sure "not to set expectations around the release that end up disappointing you--features that don't make it, claims that don't stick or support we don't provide."

Windows 7 was first discussed at the beginning of this year, when Microsoft executives promised a long gap between OS releases like the one between Windows XP (2001) and Vista (2007), would not occur. Given the relative dissatisfaction with Vista, considerable talk abounds about how IT shops are just holding on and waiting for the new OS rather than an upgrade to Vista.

What is known so far about Windows 7 is that it will be based on Windows Server 2008 kernel, which is an updated version of the Windows Vista kernel. The current driver model will be retained. In short, the internals won't change much.

My first impression of the article was, uh, yeah, right, good luck with that. 2009 or 2010? Why do I get that sinking feeling that Microsoft will push that back 10 times? And that the Redmond software giant will STILL pack "Windows 7" with tons of bloatware, no matter how much feedback from developers they get.

As usual, as a non geek who still needs Microsoft in my daily life (I think), I'll try to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt on Windows 7 and continue resisting a switch to Linux.