Last week’s set of Microsoft pieces arrived while I’ve been away. I’ve read through a ton of posts and comments around the delay to the delivery of Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system. Daniel Lyons at Forbes’ was especially scathing. Referring to last week’s Vista press event, Daniel says:
Worst of all, I can’t believe Microsoft actually held this big nonevent “event” only a few days before announcing another screw-up in Vista. If Ballmer knew he was about to announce a delay and still had this event, he’s crazy. If he didn’t know Vista was about to slip again, then Microsoft is in worse shape than anyone realizes.
It didn’t get any better. At the BBC Brian Gammage, research vice-president at technology analysts Gartner is quoted:
“This means they don’t have the new system in place in new computers for consumers. The impact for the industry will be a disappointing one.”
Similar remarks were quoted at the FT’s online site as Microsoft announced a shake up at its Windows division:
“This is the other shoe dropping,” said Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies. “Missing the holiday season in 2006 was just unacceptable.”
If all this wasn’t bad enough, over in Australia, David Richards’ Smarthouse trumpeted:
Up to 60% of the code in the new consumer version of Microsoft new Vista operating system is set to be rewritten as the Company “scrambles” to fix internal problems a Microsoft insider has confirmed to SHN.
This set off a storm among bloggers. Dave Winer, hardly a Microsoft apologist but a powerful voice among technology bloggers said:
It’s unbelievable because if it’s true, there’s no way it’s shipping in 2007. If true it’s not just a setback, it’s a multi-billion-dollar debacle on the scale of Apple’s Copland (which, if you recall, resulted in regime change). Basically until someone from Microsoft confirms this, I’d give it zero credence.
Even now and with Robert Scoble Microsoft’s uber blogger insisting the story is untrue, the story refuses to go away. According to Vista Office Watch information has been received from a representative from Acer, a Microsoft partner:
We have also been told that up to 60% of the code will have some form of re writing or changes made. We are told that Microsoft is concerned at the impact that the delay will have on hardware manufacturers. We have raised our concerns directly with Microsoft.
Scoble replies saying:
Really, no matter what I, or anyone else says, there is no winning at this game. The Xbox team denies, on its blog, that Xbox programmers are moving over to Windows and confirms that Windows Vista is now feature complete so there won’t be any massive rewritting of Windows Vista code. The Windows team (and, yes, I’ve been calling around to friends on the team who’ll tell me the unpleasant truth) are totally denying that they will be rewriting any major pieces of code. They are in bug fix mode now, not in rewrite mode.
Neville Hobson suggests that someone senior at Microsoft needs to stand up and nail this story once and for all. Equally however, Neville notes that neither the FT nor the BBC have picked up on this story and that therefore it is a non-story. I think many folk are missing the point.
Blogging is a new medium and many of us are struggling to learn how best to use it. Spreading rumours is not helpful. However, I found Scoble’s attack on Smarthouse to be particularly harsh and unnecessary. One commenter, ‘Dmad’ nailed it:
So, end the confusion by either getting Brian Valentine or the Vista Release Manager on video to ask them the pointed questions. You can call all the “friends” you want, but until we hear it from them, and not filtered through you, this stuff will continue.
Scoble’s response:
Dmad: it’s on the Xbox team blog. I quoted the vice president of Waggener Edstrom. That’s good enough for now. Your protestations don’t mean a thing. You aren’t even willing to tell us who you are. So why, again, should I listen to someone who is probably working for a competitor?
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. If you were publicly attacked in the same way as Dmad and others, would you not worry about what you say? I certainly would. This is not one way traffic.
Scoble is regularly attacked by those who use his tolerance for all to come and comment at his place as a platform for their personal agendas and vendettas against all things Microsoft. However, if the world’s most read tech blogger can’t rise above the heated exchanges and recognise the need for the Big Guns to come out and convince the world, then I’m sorry. But he’s doing himself, Microsoft and the cause of social software a disservice. Regardless of what Scoble says, corporate buyers, where the Big Bucks really are, don’t care about his views. They want to hear the trusted spokespeople they already know. Given all the heated debate and lack of clarification, have you lost faith in Microsoft? I haven’t – yet.
Technorati Tags: accountability, accounting, Microsoft Vista
