Windows Vista is transforming from a stepping stone to Windows 7 into an intermediary Windows platform to yet another Windows Vista release. According to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Windows 7 will be nothing more than a bettered version of Vista. Fact is that just as Windows 7 Server is Windows Server 2008 Release 2 (R2), so will Windows 7 be Windows Vista R2. However, Ballmer underlined that the next iteration of Windows is indeed a major release of the Windows client.

“Our next release of Windows will be compatible with Vista. The key is let’s get on with it. We’ll be ready when you want to deploy Windows 7,” Ballmer noted at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando, courtesy of Between the Lines. Microsoft’s CEO then stated that Windows 7 “is not minor because it’s a lot more work than a minor release. It’s a major release”. In this regard, Ballmer emphasized that the next version of Windows would improve on Vista, pointing to enhancements in the operating system's shell. As far as the user interface is concerned, he revealed that “Windows 7 will be Vista, but a lot better”.

In this context, the question of the relevance of Vista upgrades comes yet again into focus. Asked whether skipping Vista and going straight to Windows 7 would make sense given the current economic environment, Ballmer said, “if people want to wait they really can. But I’d definitely deploy Vista”.

It was in mid-August that Ward Ralston, group product manager, Windows Server, confirmed Windows 7 Server (or Windows Server 7) as Windows Server 2008 R2. On the heels of that announcement, Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, labeled Windows 7 as an awesome release. “Our goal is about building an awesome release of Windows 7. Not minor, not major... simply awesome,” Sinofsky stated at the time.

Still, the new details coming from Ballmer make it increasingly hard for Microsoft to pass Windows 7 along as a major Windows version. The Redmond company revealed early in the process of building Windows 7 that the operating system is developed as an evolution of Windows Vista. The fact that the code version of Windows 7 will be Windows 6.1, while Vista SP1 is 6.0.6001, is an illustrative move from the software giant in terms of the evolution of Vista into Windows 7.