Windows Vista Aero Big Mouth

Microsoft Hush!! by Onuora Amobi 2/14/2007,
www.windows-vista-update.com

When the Bush administration came to power, their calling card was the ability to be disciplined and stay on message. Notoriously tight lipped and focused, they were able to instill a sense of discipline and focus on the Republican party.

Everyone towed the party line and the Republican juggernaut went headlong into.. well, that's another story.

Regardless of where that other story ended, Microsoft could do with a little bit of that discipline and focus themselves.

Starting with Bill.

How in God's name do you spend years and Billions (with a B) of dollars on the development of a "revolutionary" new operating system, launch it and then shortly thereafter start discussing it's possible replacement within 2 years?

Bill Gates previously had mentioned that the five-year gap between the release of Windows XP and Vista was unusually long and that the company aims to provide more frequent operating system release in the future.

Fair enough, but then a quote  of Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Windows Core Operating System division, recently made the rounds on the Internet in which the executive reportedly stated that the next Windows will released by the summer of 2009. "You can think roughly two, two-and-a-half years is a reasonable time frame that our partners can depend on and can work with," he told PC World.

That's analogous to giving a Christmas present to a kid and saying " This is cool but wait till you see what you'll get at Easter!"

That's like strategy out of a comic book. Who's on first again?

To Microsoft: When analysts ask you about Windows Vienna, try something radical: SAY NOTHING.

Or even better, say this: " Microsoft is very pleased with the end result of the years of hard work and resources that went into the development and subsequent deployment of Windows Vista. We are confident that Windows Vista will be a worthy replacment for Windows XP and (coupled with Office 2007) will add tremendous value to all of our customers"

Simple.

They attempted something similar with this press statement.

Alas my friend, the proverbial genie is out of his bottle and that sucker aint going back.

As a corporate consumer, If I now had to make a decision about an enterprise wide O.S. upgrade, I would now definitely put the brakes on till I knew a LOT more about the roadmap for Vienna. That (now) would be the RESPONSIBLE thing to do.

There's a huge difference between keeping XP till 2009 and keeping XP till 2011.

I would also want to know (in detail) what the differences would be between Vista Business and Vienna and what the delta's would be.

XP was stable, Vista is much better but this was an unforgivable slip. Even worse, all of this was avoidable.

All this nonsense as the result of a couple of careless statements from Microsoft executives.

My 10 cents to Microsoft: Hire some ex Bush administration executives to run your Public Relations. Say what you will about their competence, at least they know how to keep their mouths shut.

Till next time...

Onuora

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