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I haven't written about Microsoft for a while, but that's a given -- the latest Microsoft-related blip on my radar came months ago, when the PC giant planned to open retail stores all over the world. I think that article was more about ridicule than praise, though -- the move reeked too much of the catch-up game Microsoft has been playing with its rival, Apple.

I've also written volumes about Microsoft's most dismal creation yet, Windows Vista. Microsoft is currently working on its upcoming OS, Windows 7, which they hope will be every bit as acceptable as Vista was miserable. And on the helm of things is the little-known head of Windows Experience, Julie Larson-Green.

Larson-Green was also part of the Vista project, but at a much smaller scale. Nonetheless, she was responsible for one of the few good things that came out of Vista -- Office 2007. If you've tried Word 2007, you may have noticed that the interface had changed quite a bit. Instead of clunky menus and toolbars, the word processing program now uses "ribbons" -- sets of related command icons that change depending on what the user is doing.

Apparently, after sweating through a tolerable learning curve, users found that the ribbons actually increased productivity and usability of the program several times over. They didn't have to go deep into menus and toolbars to use a certain command -- it was now much easier to quickly produce documents. Office 2007 became a sleeper hit among Windows users, and Larson-Green was rewarded by a much bigger role in the Windows 7 project.

Reviews for Windows 7 has been fairly positive so far -- beta testers loved the fact that they never had to deal with Vista's pesky security alerts and unnecessary eye candy. For most, it was like a safer, more usable version of Windows XP, which many consider to still be the best OS Microsoft has come up with -- despite, of course, the paper-thin security.

You may have never heard of Julie Larson-Green, but now that you do, you'll probably be joining the chorus of praises -- or ridicule -- for her work when Windows 7 rolls around. I myself am pretty confident about her work -- she seems to be the only top gun in Microsoft who learns from their company's past mistakes.

(Is now thinking about switching back to Windows.)

(OK. No. Not really.)