The most popular theme in classic American cinema is redemption. Unexpectedly, the fallen hero or heroine gets another chance and in a moment makes up for mistakes made years earlier. Microsoft's story of redemption follows a product rather than a person. Quite unexpectedly, Windows is exciting again and certainly not by accident. Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, and Jon DeVaan, senior vice president of the Windows Core Operating System Division, are principle architects of Windows redemption. Innovation can't thrive without good management. Microsoft has reached an unexpected juncture. Global economies are in decline, and they're sapping software sales. Microsoft executives can't even give Wall Street guidance about future quarters' earnings. There's a sense of indecision coming out of Microsoft headquarters. Microsoft must look beyond cutbacks to future investment and in process a massive management makeover. Windows Client division is now best example and model for every other Microsoft division to follow. Windows 7 Beta 1 is remarkable resurrection. From the crash called Windows Vista comes a phoenix. Management clearly is the difference between Seven and Vista. Under former Platform and Services division president Jim Allchin's leadership, or lack of it, Windows ran to ruin. Windows Vista is a management, development and marketing disaster. The product has done irreparable harm to Microsoft's corporate identity and to the Windows brand. Windows Vista is a failure by every milestone that matters: Performance, compatibility, usability and adoption. According to Gartner, only about 10 percent of businesses had adopted Windows Vista in late 2008. Now contrast Vista development to Windows 7. The management team has done what a year ago I would have asserted as impossible: Fix Vista's problems and reinvent Windows. Seven is a solid and exciting product, even in beta. Early Windows Vista betas were buggy and annoying; I couldn't use them full time. But I'm running Windows 7 Beta 1 on my everyday computer, and it's installed on all my other PCs. I've been recommending the beta to everyone. Something else worth calling out: Windows 7 is the "Wow" Vista should have been and wasn't. Microsoft released Vista about six years after Windows XP. After Service Pack 2, XP was solid, and there followed a robust channel and partner ecosystem supporting the operating system. For many people, Windows XP was good enough, which meant Vista had to be a whole lot better. Instead, for many end users, Vista was a whole lot worse because of application compatibility problems, heftier hardware requirements and petty annoyances like UAC (User Account Control) prompts. XP is still the most-used Windows version, meaning that Vista's mandate—to be a whole lot better than Windows XP—remains for Seven. I'm surprised to say that Windows 7 is lots better than either XP or Vista. source: microsoft-watch.com