科技前沿:微软呕心打造Win 7避免重蹈Vista覆辙_科技

科技前沿:微软呕心打造Win 7避免重蹈Vista覆辙

【英文原文】

To Rebuild Windows, Microsoft Razed Walls

To build its new operating system, Microsoft Corp. needed to do more than fix the flaws of its predecessor. The company also had to address major bugs in its software development process.

The three-year effort to create Windows 7, which lands on store shelves this Thursday, was marked by closer collaboration between the thousands of people working on aspects of the high-stakes product -- reducing communications breakdowns that contributed to delays and defects in Windows Vista, one of the company's biggest missteps.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, also directed that software developers work more closely with computer makers, including Hewlett-Packard Co., and other PC players to head off the kinds of problems that hobbled Vista.

It's too soon to tell how well the effort worked. But favorable early reviews for Windows 7 have restored some faith that the software giant can still execute in a business that accounted for more than half of its $20.36 billion in operating income during the fiscal year ended June 30.

'I think Microsoft knew with Windows 7 it had to work harder and right some wrongs,' says Richard Barton, a Seattle entrepreneur who worked at Microsoft on Windows and other products during most of the 1990s. 'It looks like they are.'

One of Microsoft's rivals, Apple Inc., believes Windows 7 will create an opening for it to lure more customers to the Macintosh, in part because of the tedious process required to upgrade to Windows 7 from PCs running Windows XP.