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.

【中文翻译】

为了打造新的操作系统，微软(Microsoft Corp.)所要做的不仅是修复前代产品的缺陷，该公司还必须解决其软件开发过程中的重大问题。

微软新操作系统Windows 7将于周四上市销售，这款意义重大的产品是微软数千员工花了三年时间打造出来的。在研发过程中，负责各个方面的研发人员加强了协作，而沟通不畅在一定程度上导致了Windows Vista的延误和缺陷问题。Windows Vista是微软最大的失策之一。

微软首席执行长巴尔默(Steve Ballmer)还要求软件开发人员与惠普(Hewlett-Packard)等其他电脑厂商更为密切地进行合作，防止出现困扰Vista的那些问题。

现在断言这些举措成效如何还为时过早。但此前评测人员都对Windows 7给出了积极的评价，一定程度上恢复了市场对微软仍能做好操作系统业务的信心。在截至6月30日的上一财年，微软203.6亿美元营运利润有半数以上来自于操作系统业务。

负责Windows 7开发的史蒂文•斯诺菲斯基和微软CEO巴尔默今年7月在亚特兰大的一个销售会议上。西雅图创业家理查德•巴顿(Richard Barton)曾在上世纪九十年代效力于微软，从事Windows和其他产品业务。巴顿说，我想微软明白，他们必须更为用心地打造Windows 7，纠正一些错误。看起来他们是这样做的。

微软竞争对手苹果公司(Apple Inc.)认为，Windows 7会给苹果带来一个良机，Macintosh电脑能藉此吸引更多用户，部分原因是运行Windows XP的电脑需要经过繁琐的过程才能升级至Windows 7。

【英文原文】

Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of world-wide product marketing, says it's not clear whether Windows 7 has overcome the flaws of its predecessor. 'A lot of the same things were said about Vista before it shipped,' Mr. Schiller says. 'I think we need to wait and see if it's all that much better.'

The Windows 7 development was led by Steven Sinofsky, a 20-year Microsoft veteran who had worked in its Office group until 2006. It's a process that he compares to an epic home remodeling project. 'Windows is no different -- it's a kitchen for a billion people,' he says.

Two of Vista's biggest failings were that it took too long to make -- five years -- and crucial software for printers, graphics cards and other hardware wasn't ready when the operating system shipped, so early Vista customers couldn't use many of those devices with their computers.

A key problem was that the Windows team had evolved into a rigid set of silos -- each responsible for specific technical features -- that didn't share their plans widely. The programming code each created might work fine on its own, but cause technical problems when integrated with code created by others.

'That's where the conflicts started,' says Julie Larson-Green, a corporate vice president who worked in the Office group with Mr. Sinofsky. With Windows 7, Mr. Sinofsky and Ms. Larson-Green pushed developers to share their plans widely and to think more broadly about the experience of using a PC.

That approach helped the Windows 7 team stick to an important new objective called 'quieting the system,' which sought to minimize windows and dialogue bubbles -- such as security warnings -- that pop up on screen during the normal operation of the PC. Such annoying messages became one of the most maligned aspects of Vista.

In Windows 7, Microsoft reduced those messages to make users feel more in control and comfortable, says Linda Averett, a Microsoft group program manager who was a chief enforcer of the system-quieting effort.

Microsoft collaborated more closely with its hardware partners, too. H-P and Microsoft assigned teams to do a 'deep dive into the guts' of H-P machines to figure out how to speed up the time it takes to start and shut down Windows 7, says John Cook, H-P's vice president of desktop marketing. 'With Vista, that never worked,' he adds.

Mr. Cook says H-P and Microsoft 'had some brutally honest discussions with what our engineers and customers thought of Vista . . . . They listened and were much more humble.'

【中文翻译】

苹果负责全球产品营销的高级副总裁菲利普•席勒(Philip Schiller)说，目前还不清楚Windows 7是否已经解决了前代产品的问题。他说，Vista当初上市之前也有很多一样的说法，我想我们需要等着看新产品是否真的有那么明显的进步。

Windows 7的研发工作是由效力微软20年的史蒂文•斯诺菲斯基(Steven Sinofsky)负责的，2006年之前他一直在Office部门工作。斯诺菲斯基将Windows 7的研发过程比作是一个史诗般的家庭装修工程。他说，Windows没有什么不同，这是一个面向10亿人的厨房。

Vista两个最大的缺点是研发过程太长（五年），而且当Vista发售的时候，用于打印机、显卡和其他硬件的关键软件还没有到位；因此，Vista的早期用户无法在他们的电脑上使用很多此类设备。

其中的一个关键问题是，Windows团队严格划分各个小组，每个小组负责某一技术功能，彼此之间缺乏充分交流。每个小组开发的程序代码可能自身运行正常，但与其他小组编制的代码整合时就会引发技术问题。

微软企业副总裁茱丽•拉尔森-格林(Julie Larson-Green)曾在Office部门与斯诺菲斯基共事。她说，这就是冲突的起源。在Windows 7项目上，格林和斯诺菲斯基促使研发人员广泛交流各自计划，从更广泛的角度考虑使用电脑的体验。

这一举措帮助Windows 7开发团队坚持着一个重要的新目标“平静系统”(quieting the system)，即努力将电脑正常操作中屏幕弹出的窗口和对话框（例如安全警告）降到最低。这些烦人的信息是Vista最令人诟病的一个方面。

琳达•艾弗瑞特(Linda Averett)是微软一个小组项目负责人，是系统平静工作的主要实施者。她说，微软在Windows 7中减少了这些信息，意在让用户觉得更舒服和更有控制感。

微软还与硬件合作伙伴展开了更为密切的协作。惠普负责台式机营销的副总裁约翰•库克(John Cook)说，惠普和微软指派了专门团队，深入了解了惠普机器的核心，研究如何才能加快惠普电脑使用Windows 7时的启动和关机时间。他补充说，当初研发Vista的时候，微软可没有这么做。

库克说，惠普和微软就我们工程人员和客户对Vista的看法进行了一些直言不讳的讨论……微软人员聆听了这些，表现得更为谦逊。