Comments on: Have you lost faith in Microsoft?

By: Neville Hobson

Neville Hobson — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 09:05:43 +0000

You’ve zeroed in on the key point, Dennis:

“Sadly, this kind of exchange demonstrates the kind of immaturity in handling corporate communications that deflects attention away from the issues and which serves to push people away and causes the very confusion Scoble is seeking to clear up.”

Well said.

By: Ric

Ric — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 08:37:04 +0000

Trevor

The issue isn’t with the social software (yes – I take your point that several people were looking for “real” executives at MS to respond). I don’t disregard Scoble’s take, and I don’t discount the discussion just because it took place on a blog. I’m not even all that fussed that Scoble reacted badly (which WAS a shame, but perhaps understandable – have you seen some of the cr*p that gets put in his comments sometimes?). My point is that nobody seems to deny the claim from the representative of a MS hardware partner, and I think Scoble missed the point slightly – it’s not about the “60%” or the supposed timeframe, but that there is obviously a problem with the Vista release, and nobody wants to admit it.

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:55:29 +0000

Not at all Trevor – my view is this has gone beyond Scoble. That happened the minute he got personal with Smarthouse.

By: Trevor Cook

Trevor Cook — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 04:52:43 +0000

It certainly looks like we don’t have faith in social software; otherwisw why do we just disregard Scoble when it gets ‘serious’ and start demand some old command and control PR action. Maybe, despite the rhetoric even bloggers feel more comfortable with what is familiar.

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 01:53:07 +0000

We’re in agreement on much of what you say Ric. Many firms and vendors have bet the proberbial farm on MSFT. As this is now an MSM story, they need a response. They have to take this to a higher level and the blogs are not where to do it for the corporate buyer.

I’m agreed their PR has been pretty appalling. Daniel’s post is testament to that. But if they don’t take any lessons from this then quite frankly, Scoble’s blowing smoke and not much else.

By: Ric

Ric — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:40:47 +0000

Dennis – the title of the post assumes that people had faith to lose: that may not be the case. I tracked the posts on Scoble’s blogs (and there is considerably more heat than light being generated there!), and while I agree with the disbelief that 60% of Vista could be rewritten by November, I haven’t seen anybody deny the comment by the Acer guy in Australia (Smarthome was quoting somebody else, not generating it themselves – or if they were it should be easily verifiable/deniable by checking with Acer), and I haven’t seen an official denial that 60% of the code (which is entirely without context, BTW – 60% of what exactly?) needs rewriting REGARDLESS of timeframe.

Unfortunately MS has created this rod for its own back – they have a less than glorious history of competition by press release, creating sufficient uncertainty in the marketplace to prevent people going to a competitor’s product while delaying their own releases. I have no particular beef with MS products – I quite happily use XP/Office etc at home and work – but I have serious issues with MS marketing and management, and I didn’t have a lot of faith to lose in the first place.

PS – aren’t you supposed to be doing something else right now – this isn’t “blogging light”?