Our friend Long Zheng, at istartedsomething, received an interesting and long comment on his Windows 7 post yesterday. While of course we can't confirm that MSBob actually is an insider, what he says from what we can tell is factual, including some interesting comments on Windows Live:
The other thing that should be considered is the relationship between Windows and Windows Live. Windows Live has taken ownership of most of the “service connected” features in Windows — Mail, Messenger, Photo Gallery, at a minimum. You can expect to see a Windows Live release in the same timeframe as Windows 7 that makes the “Windows + Windows Live” combination a killer one. Important note: Windows Live will be a strict add-on to Windows and it will take advantage of hooks provided by Windows that will be available to anyone. That was the promise when Windows Live was announced, and it will remain that way. So you will be able to install Yahoo stuff and have deep integration with Windows just as easily, as long as Yahoo chooses to take advantage of the new Win7 hooks.
That said, Windows Live is focused on more near term releases, so they are not doing deep plannng for the Windows 7 release right now. So it’s impossible to say exactly what that combination will look like. SteveSi is also in charge of the Windows Live Experience (WLEX or just LEX) team.
Earth-shattering news? No, not really, but getting someone from Microsoft to talk about future plans, anonymous or no, is like pulling teeth (sorry, OffBeatMammal!). Of course, that's what we're here for, and why you should continue reading LiveSide!