Microsoft learned valuable lessons from the Windows Vista experience, even though the company spent much of 2008 pretending that nothing was wrong with it and that the market hadn't given it a fair shake.
However, that changed at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, where Microsoft officials talked at length about Windows 7 and seemed earnest to give developers and partners as much information as possible.
Although Windows 7 isn't officially slated for release until late 2009 or early 2010, Microsoft executives at WinHEC suggested that Vista's successor could arrive as soon as the middle of next year. Microsoft clearly wants to avoid a repeat of the Vista third party device driver debacle, and it's using steady, constant communication -- at events and through the various Windows 7 blogs -- to achieve this.
