The circle is now complete: Bryant posts the final part in his series on the pillars of Windows 7. Note that "pillars" is a common Microsoft term: They like to frame everything in terms of PowerPoint presentations, so normally the company will try to keep "pillars" to three or less, all the better to fit on a single screen. That there are five Windows 7 pillars is, I think, somewhat telling.: Windows remains a complex product.
The final pillar focuses much more on the business-oriented aspects of Windows 7 rather than the consumer additions we saw in the previous four pillars. The scenarios covered by this particular pillar are designed to make deployment and maintenance of Windows 7 easier than any prior operating system. Most of the scenarios in this pillar seem to be nothing more than enhancements of features which made their debut in Windows Vista, which is good for companies looking to minimize costs while looking to deploy an improved OS since it would mean less training for both employees and IT professionals.
Pillar Five: Engineered for Ease of Ownership
Windows 7 will put a number of computer repair personnel out of a job (kidding) while making life much easier for the typical corporate network administrator by providing the tools necessary to keep Windows running as long and as healthy as possible.
BTW: If you haven't seen it, I've posted three Windows 7 build 6519 screenshot galleries over the past few days, and should have a longer write-up about build 6519 sometime in the coming days. In contrast to the strategy stuff presented in these pillars conversations, I'm focusing on just the changes we can see in this first external build, compared to Windows Vista.