Former Windows chief Jim Allchin, co-president, Platforms & Services Division, considered Windows XP SP2 the equivalent of a fully fledged Windows release, but certainly much more than a service pack. Allchin retired from Microsoft just as Windows Vista hit the shelves in January 2007, and there are no doubts that the current Windows client is a major release. However, word is still out on the next iteration of Windows. Ward Ralston, group product manager Windows Server, already confirmed that Windows 7 Server/Windows Server 2008 R2 will be a minor release of Windows Server. But as far as the successor of Windows Vista is concerned, Ralston stated that "the client in fact will be a major release." Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, confirmed that while Windows 7 Server would be just a minor release, the Windows 7 client was built as a major evolution to Vista.

"When we started planning the release, the first thing some might think we have to decide is if Windows 7 (client) would be a "major release" or not," Sinofsky revealed. "I put that in quotes because it turns out this isn't really something you decide nor is it something with a single answer. The magnitude of a release is as much about your perspective on the features as it is about the features themselves. One could even ask if being declared a major release is a compliment or not. As engineers planning a product we decide up front the percentage of our development team will that work on the release and the extent of our schedule-with the result in hand customers each decide for themselves if the release is "major", though of course we like to have an opinion," he added.

But then Sinofsky managed to drop the minor/major references and started playing with words. "Our goal is about building an awesome release of Windows 7," he indicated. Not minor, not major... simply awesome. Sinofsky argued that the measure of a major/minor Windows iteration is subjective in accordance with different perspectives from consumer groups, partners, developers, IT professionals, analysts and so on and so forth. But in the end, Windows 7 will not be the result of a Windows re-architecting process, it will be just an evolution of Windows Vista.

"The key is always a balance. We can have big changes for all customers if we prepare all the necessary folks to work through the change. We can have small changes have a big impact if they are the right changes at the right time, and those will get recorded over time as a major release. If we listened well and focused our efforts correctly, then each type of customers will find things that make the product worthwhile. And if we do our job at effectively communicating the product, then even the things that could be "problems" are seen in the broader context of an ecosystem where everyone collectively benefits when a few people benefit significantly. From our perspective, we dedicated our full engineering team and a significant schedule to building the Windows 7 client OS. That makes it a major undertaking by any definition. We intend for Windows 7 to be an awesome release," Sinofsky concluded.