Comments from Microsoft on "worst Windows launch in history"
By Justin Montgomery
The tight-lipped Microsoft rarely speaks of problems or a mistake in their product line, but when it comes to Vista, some engineers and Microsoft executives are beginning to come around. Why are some now saying Vista was "the worst Windows launch in the company’s history," and what are some of the main reason for its troubles?
In an "off-the-record" briefing, an anonymous Windows product manager admitted that Microsoft botched the Vista launch to the extent that it may have undermined users’ faith in the platform completely, according to AccountingWeb. Writer Will Smith of Maximum PC conducted the interview, who has spoke with unnamed Microsoft executives, senior "Windows Fundamentals" product managers and others about their view on the Vista launch and Vista in general.
Smith noted that every interview portrayed a different view of Vista, and included what he called "Microsoft PR-speak." Along with a number of performance and compatibility issues, Smith concluded that "instead of a revolutionary next-generation [operating system] that was chock-full of new features, the Windows community got an underwhelming rehash with very little going for it."
A lot of the problems with Vista were somewhat remedied by Service Pack 1, but it was a little too late. Now that users are already switching back to XP, it’s only going to make things harder. "With the next release of Windows due in early 2010," Smith advised: "If you’ve ridden out the storm on XP so far, it probably isn’t worth investing in Vista for just a year and a half of use."
With the next release, hopefully Microsoft can make good again and put the Vista madness behind them. It’s going to take a lot of improvements, and a long time of solid performance before people make the switch from XP again- since being burned once before.
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Stumble It!
September 19th, 2008
Does M$ use their own products? Vista had a sour launch with driver compatibility issues, but it’s more than recovered. It should have gone into beta for a(nother) year and it would have launched successfully.
Did any M$ staff every try their own “ME” product??
Now THAT was a joke.