Believe it or not, the successor of Windows Vista is starting to become palpable. The first signs of life as far as Windows 7 is concerned were delivered in December 2007 with the release of the Milestone 1 Build of the operating system. Since then, with the exception of the crumbs from the Windows 7 feast that slipped through, the next major release of the Windows client, as Microsoft refers to it, has been developed under a new, post-Jim Allchin translucency policy. But while still committed to artificially avoid transparency on the Windows 7 project, mum's no longer the word in respect to the next major iteration of Windows. The newly debuted Engineering Windows 7 hotspot seems to offer ample proof of this.

The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has been cooking an official Windows 7 blog for quite some time. You have been able to read about it first right here on Softpedia, as early as the end of June 2008, but at that time, the Redmond giant's Windows 7 blogging initiatives were little contoured outside the company. This is no longer the case as the Engineering Windows 7 blog is now live.

"Beginning with this post together we are going to start looking forward towards the "Windows 7" project. We know there are tons of questions about the specifics of the project and strong desire to know what's in store for the next major release of Windows. Believe us, we are just as excited to start talking about the release. Over the past 18 months since Windows Vista's broad availability, the team has been hard at work creating the next Windows product," cordially revealed Steven Sinofsky and Jon DeVaan.

Now Sinofsky and DeVaan are no ordinary Windows bloggers. Far from it, in fact. The first is none other than Steven (affectionately) "codenamed Translucency" Sinofsky, senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, and the reason why Microsoft is largely mute on Windows 7. The latter is senior vice president of the Windows Core Operating System Division, and together with Sinofsky, makes the duo leading the Windows 7 project.

"Planning a product like Windows involves systematic learning from customers of all types. In terms of planning the release we've been working with a wide variety of customers and partners (PC makers, hardware developers, enterprise customers, developers, and more) since the start of the project. We also continue our broad consumer learning through telemetry (Customer Experience Improvement Program), usability studies, and more," the two added.