科技前沿:微軟嘔心打造Win 7避免重蹈Vista覆轍
【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.
【中文翻譯】
爲了打造新的操作系統，微軟(Microsoft Corp.)所要做的不僅是修復前代產品的缺陷，該公司還必須解決其軟件開發過程中的重大問題。
微軟新操作系統Windows 7將於週四上市銷售，這款意義重大的產品是微軟數千員工花了三年時間打造出來的。在研發過程中，負責各個方面的研發人員加強了協作，而溝通不暢在一定程度上導致了Windows Vista的延誤和缺陷問題。Windows Vista是微軟最大的失策之一。
微軟首席執行長巴爾默(Steve Ballmer)還要求軟件開發人員與惠普(Hewlett-Packard)等其他電腦廠商更爲密切地進行合作，防止出現困擾Vista的那些問題。
現在斷言這些舉措成效如何還爲時過早。但此前評測人員都對Windows 7給出了積極的評價，一定程度上恢復了市場對微軟仍能做好操作系統業務的信心。在截至6月30日的上一財年，微軟203.6億美元營運利潤有半數以上來自於操作系統業務。
負責Windows 7開發的史蒂文•斯諾菲斯基和微軟CEO巴爾默今年7月在亞特蘭大的一個銷售會議上。西雅圖創業家理查德•巴頓(Richard Barton)曾在上世紀九十年代效力於微軟，從事Windows和其他產品業務。巴頓說，我想微軟明白，他們必須更爲用心地打造Windows 7，糾正一些錯誤。看起來他們是這樣做的。
微軟競爭對手蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)認爲，Windows 7會給蘋果帶來一個良機，Macintosh電腦能藉此吸引更多用戶，部分原因是運行Windows XP的電腦需要經過繁瑣的過程才能升級至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.'
【中文翻譯】
蘋果負責全球產品營銷的高級副總裁菲利普•席勒(Philip Schiller)說，目前還不清楚Windows 7是否已經解決了前代產品的問題。他說，Vista當初上市之前也有很多一樣的說法，我想我們需要等着看新產品是否真的有那麼明顯的進步。
Windows 7的研發工作是由效力微軟20年的史蒂文•斯諾菲斯基(Steven Sinofsky)負責的，2006年之前他一直在Office部門工作。斯諾菲斯基將Windows 7的研發過程比作是一個史詩般的家庭裝修工程。他說，Windows沒有什麼不同，這是一個面向10億人的廚房。
Vista兩個最大的缺點是研發過程太長（五年），而且當Vista發售的時候，用於打印機、顯卡和其他硬件的關鍵軟件還沒有到位；因此，Vista的早期用戶無法在他們的電腦上使用很多此類設備。
其中的一個關鍵問題是，Windows團隊嚴格劃分各個小組，每個小組負責某一技術功能，彼此之間缺乏充分交流。每個小組開發的程序代碼可能自身運行正常，但與其他小組編制的代碼整合時就會引發技術問題。
微軟企業副總裁茱麗•拉爾森-格林(Julie Larson-Green)曾在Office部門與斯諾菲斯基共事。她說，這就是衝突的起源。在Windows 7項目上，格林和斯諾菲斯基促使研發人員廣泛交流各自計劃，從更廣泛的角度考慮使用電腦的體驗。
這一舉措幫助Windows 7開發團隊堅持着一個重要的新目標“平靜系統”(quieting the system)，即努力將電腦正常操作中屏幕彈出的窗口和對話框（例如安全警告）降到最低。這些煩人的信息是Vista最令人詬病的一個方面。
琳達•艾弗瑞特(Linda Averett)是微軟一個小組項目負責人，是系統平靜工作的主要實施者。她說，微軟在Windows 7中減少了這些信息，意在讓用戶覺得更舒服和更有控制感。
微軟還與硬件合作伙伴展開了更爲密切的協作。惠普負責臺式機營銷的副總裁約翰•庫克(John Cook)說，惠普和微軟指派了專門團隊，深入瞭解了惠普機器的核心，研究如何才能加快惠普電腦使用Windows 7時的啓動和關機時間。他補充說，當初研發Vista的時候，微軟可沒有這麼做。
庫克說，惠普和微軟就我們工程人員和客戶對Vista的看法進行了一些直言不諱的討論……微軟人員聆聽了這些，表現得更爲謙遜。
