14 DAY TRIAL // The trend started with the MinWin project, designed to deliver a bare-bone core of the Windows operating system (the kernel plus critical systems) is reverberating across Windows 7. In combination with the need to bridge the desktop platform with the Cloud, Microsoft is stripping Windows of several default components that were included in previous releases of the product. In this context, Windows 7, Windows Vista's successor, will no longer ship with email client, photo editing, and movie making software. With this move, Microsoft is signaling a break away from the traditional mammoth releases of Windows which delivered an almost exhaustive collection of components building upon a product already increasingly criticized for being bloated.
Brian Hall, General Manager, Windows Live, confirmed to Ina Fried that Microsoft would cut Windows Mail, Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery from Windows 7, and make them all available as free downloads from the Cloud. The move fits perfectly Microsoft's strategy of Software plus Services as the three solutions will be transitioned under the Windows Live brand umbrella. In this manner, the Windows Live suite of systems and applications grows in importance in respect to the Windows operating system.
Making Windows Mail, Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery exclusively part of Windows Live and extracting all their roots from Windows is not only a move favoring Cloud services over desktop subsystems, but also an example of componentizing Windows. By making the operating system's footprint smaller, Microsoft ensured an increased pace of development and more frequent releases.
At the same time, the removal of Windows Mail, Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery from Windows was a move indicated as early as 2007 with Vista. Last year, Microsoft offered Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Photo Gallery to replace the platform's default components. With Widows Live Wave 3 Beta, Microsoft is also offering Windows Live Movie Maker.