April 21, 2006

28 Comments »

1. Changes may be happening, but as Paul points out the trouble starts from the top wil Bill and the other “Bad Microsoft” people in charge.

   The two major parts of Vista are UAP and Aero - nearly all other new things are being backported to XP (WPF, for example). UAP apparently throws up incomprehensible dialog boxes, and if it’s impossible to tell which window has focus with aero glass (and it is), then it is unusable. These are the two big things, and both don’t work. Yeah, it’s beta, but you’d expect that by now these would work.

   The Sidebar is interesting, but gadgets/widgets are implemented in so many other ways that it doesn’t really count as a big Vista-specific thing. The original Sidebar would have been novel, but now it’s just another Object Desktop/Konfabulator/Dashboard/Opera 9.

   Comment by Dave — April 21, 2006 @ 12:38 am

2. First, Vista has a lot more than what you list, Dave. But regarding SideBar being just another Object Desktop/Konfabulator/Dashboard/Opera9, what is the userbase for each of those products? So small as to be insignificant compared to that of Vista once it’s released. So while you can get off badmouthing SideBar as being old hat, 99% of users will not (this is similar to the charges that Apple’s widgets in Tiger were old-hat because of Konfabulator, but >90% of Mac users didn’t know Konfabulator even existed so who cares?).

   Also, people keep complaining about the UAP dialogs, and this is a good thing because the problem will be addressed. But it’s a well-known problem, so there’s no need to keep bringing it up over and over like Microsoft doesn’t know about the problem. They released a beta, and will act on the feedback (otherwise, why release a beta at all?). The feedback contains the UAP complaints, they’ll be addressed, so chill. (And no, I don’t buy the “I know this is beta, but I expect it to be release candidtate quality” bull. That’s just twisting things in order to make an argument. Smacks of sophistry.)

   Comment by Molly C — April 21, 2006 @ 2:10 am

3. Items of Interest: 2006.04.21

   Things I found interesting on April 21, 2006:

   The Code Wont be Ready - Bruce Kroeze breaks the bad news to his soon-to-be former employers when they accepted a project they shouldn’t have
   A Tour of Microsoft’s Mac Labs - Along with picture…

   Trackback by Ellis Web — April 21, 2006 @ 2:47 am

4. Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror) covered some of the stuff from Vista as well. Gives a nice little summary. The comments are great too… lots of viewpoints.

   http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/

   Comment by Eric D. Burdo — April 21, 2006 @ 5:52 am

5. […] The mockoble (Mock Scoble) i.e. the blogger standing in for Scoble weighs in with good commentary on the Paul Thurrot article I blogged earlier. Thanks man! […]

   Pingback by FuzzyBlog » Blog Archive » And the Other Perspective — April 21, 2006 @ 8:18 am

6. Bubba,

   Thanks for a more honest,open and evenhanded post about Vista than we ever got from Scoble. It was nice to see the balance.

   Comment by Dmad — April 21, 2006 @ 8:30 am

7. Once supreme temper-tantrumy micromanager Gates took the helm, I knew it was over — later further cemented when Fuzzy Wuzzy Ozzie was tapped to plot the future. I wish Scoble had kept up his comment archives in great working order, as the things I said around early 2003, were so prophetic. Came from seeing the Tablet PC team interworkings and how Gates buffed that one into the ground (Alex was the saving grace however).

   “Promises were made. Excitement was generated. None of it, as it turns out, was worth a damn.”

   Geee, it took Paul 3 years to finally see the light? With the bloggers over-hyping it enmasse, and Scoble doing his usual happy dog and pony tricks to fill PDC seats, it was directly predictable in 2003. Look at the hype, divide by three and you get reality.

   Too bad this is an “unhappy thought” and will get deleted. ;) It might mean the start of the end, or it might be the ‘Road to Damascus’ moment which saves them. But Microsoft will still succeed, just cause their competitors won’t take bigger ‘real opportunity’ bites. Saved by luck…

   Comment by Christopher Coulter — April 21, 2006 @ 10:43 am

8. […] Update: The “mock Scoble” posted a fairly good response to this article … about the only one he could have. It basically boils down to: we’re learning from this feedback; thanks for being honest. […]

   Pingback by Sparkplug 9 >> bizhack » Blog Archive » Thurrot devastates Windows Vista — April 21, 2006 @ 11:38 am

9. Thanks, Bubba, for this post! I had asked about Paul’s article and you responded. Much appreciated.

   Comment by Oscar — April 21, 2006 @ 12:19 pm

10. @2. I’m not sure that really address the uber issue with Vista. The fact that UAP looks to be a disaster from an implementation perspective and that you (or rather MS) are having to take feedback and address the plethora of complaints indicates a larger underying problem: the Vista team didn’t understand the problem they were trying to address. More imporant, they apparently didn’t understand basic usage scenarios. It looks to be designed for bit heads and not “my Mom”. This seems to reinforce something that to me isobvious: Microsoft apparently builds software for other Microsoft employees first and foremost. They seem to have lost sight of how the average user uses software as a tool to get a task done rather than as something to play with in and of itself. Few people buy an OS for the sake of buying an OS. Do you really think your average soccer Mom would be happy with the UAP experience?

    The fact that the Vista team is still having these type of usage issues this late in the game suggests larger issues of design and and understanding of how the consumer actually wants to use software. Not to dramatically oversimply things, but don’t start out designign software to be used by your fellow employees, design it for your Mom to use.

    Comment by Dmad — April 21, 2006 @ 12:51 pm

11. Dmad: we’re doing a lot of user testing on Windows Vista and I’d expect to see changes between now and launch.

    That said, a lot of these features aren’t designed for Microsoft employees. They are designed to help keep users from hurting themselves. Unfortunately when you run a computer you need to know a little bit about when you are making choices that could dramatically hurt you.

    Many of these features come straight off of our support lines, not from internal Microsoft employees. Most employees, particularly the geekier ones, know how to keep from getting viruses and keep our data secure and all that.

    Personally I like the warnings. They’ll help keep my friends and family out of trouble particularly when they are visiting “at risk” sites.

    Comment by Robert Scoble — April 21, 2006 @ 1:00 pm

12. […] Thanks to Bubba Murarka for the pointer. David Weiss, over at the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit, posted a virtual tour of their offices. They have a TONS of Apple computers, including 150 mac mini’s. It is like a mac geek paradise. Check it out! […]

    Pingback by Confessions of an Undercover Geek » Maybe the only place you’ll find 150 Mac Mini’s in one room — April 21, 2006 @ 1:16 pm

13. Microsoft should learn alot from shipping Windows Vista. Hopefully they will remember the lessons learned when applying them to other development projects.

    However, one this they have not learned is to ‘not to over-hype a product to early’ in the development cycle. It seems with each OS Microsoft likes to talk about all the new things they are going to ship in the product, then half way through the development cycle they have to start removing functions from the product. This in itself isn’t a bad thing from a project managment standpoint, if it’s needed to keep in line with a target ship date, or control costs. The problem comes in when Microsoft talks up ‘all these great new things’ in public, which sets high expectations with the consumers and businesses( mostly tech enthusists and IT pros). Microsoft usually ends up removing these from the product before shipping. And it’s rarely the little things that get cut, in Microsoft’s case it’s typically the things most hyped in the early stages which get cut.

    Microsoft needs to tone down the hype of vapor-ware features until they are sure someting will be shipped. I know IT guys get excited about this stuff, but take a lesson from Apple. Keep the specualtion high, and hype the product features at the ship date or a few months before.

    Comment by Jason Hartley — April 21, 2006 @ 2:01 pm

14. bubba,

    The Mac Lab post is terrific. It gave me an idea that I blogged about. But I don’t think your investor relations people read blogs, so if you’d be so kind as to point them to it…

    Anyway, the Mac Lab piece really drove home for me the barriers to entry that Microsoft has created for other industry players and new entrants.

    Many people like to talk and speculate about Microsoft being vulnerable to web-based office applications by the likes of Google and hundreds of smaller outfits, but they often forget the amount of R&D and testing that Microsoft puts into its products .

    When Google launched its calendar recently, I honestly couldn’t figure out how to work it. This got me wondering if Google has a usability lab. Best I could find were some open job postings for user experience designers.

    So now I’m wondering: Does Google have a Mac Lab? What David has done, I think without realizing it, is ease at least some concerns that shareholders might have about Microsoft’s future.

    More please…

    Comment by Dominic Jones — April 21, 2006 @ 2:04 pm

15. “Microsoft is going to learn a lot from shipping Vista”

    Wait, are you saying we should layoff the criticism and consider Vista a stepping stone to something better? We’ve been waiting for all its promised glory for a LONG time, and now you say “its not gonna be all we want, but we learned our lesson. Check out the NEXT version of Windows - its gonna rock!”

    Really, I’ve honestly been looking forward to Vista, but more and more I’m getting the depressing feeling that it will be way behind the competition by the time it is released.

    Comment by Joshua — April 21, 2006 @ 2:44 pm

16. Microsoft should learn a lot from shipping Vista…

    Comment by Alfredo Octavio — April 21, 2006 @ 2:56 pm

17. Vista will be late again, how do we know? It is not being widely used within Microsoft. Few ouside the windows division have tried it. Once the word goes out for everyone inside Microsoft to start using Vista you can wait 6 months or more befor it will ship.

    Comment by Henry — April 21, 2006 @ 3:11 pm

18. Henry: that isn’t true. I see it used all over campus. There are thousands of people using it at Microsoft and not all in the Windows division, either.

    Jason, regarding early hype. This is a problem with our business model. Because we are a platform company with thousands of third parties that need to build things for Windows (like drivers, software, hardware, etc) we need to tell them why the next release will be cool and get them on board as well.

    Just imagine if Windows Vista shipped and there were no sound cards that worked on it because we changed our audio driver model.

    Comment by Robert Scoble — April 21, 2006 @ 3:16 pm

19. Interesting video :)
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4134446112378047444&pl=true

    Comment by Ahsan — April 21, 2006 @ 5:11 pm

20. Ahsan, yeah, very funny. I notice they took out the parts about writing on your screen, or watching TV on your Xbox, or talking to your Vista box and building a Word doc while talking to it, or the Sideshow stuff where you can look on the outside of your laptop case to see what your next meeting will be without opening the lid of your laptop. But, nah, leaving those in would just mess up a fun video, wouldn’t it?

    Comment by Robert Scoble — April 21, 2006 @ 5:16 pm

21. Is the original video lying around somewhere? ‘cuz that sounds more interesting :)

    Comment by Ahsan — April 21, 2006 @ 6:15 pm

22. Ahsan: I don’t know. I don’t even know what presentation they got this original sound track from. It’s not a demo of Windows Vista that I recognize.

    Comment by Robert Scoble — April 21, 2006 @ 6:17 pm

23. The average consumer isn’t going to be installing new pieces of software everyday, likely not even every week, nor every month. It isn’t a thing that is going to affect my mother greatly because if she were to use vista, it would only be if she bought a new pc with pre-installed software. That in itself may be an issue that microsoft needs to address, ie, to get people like my mother to upgrade without buying a new pc. That aside though the average consumer sets the machine up the way they like and then get to the business of working with the pc. They differ to an elite beta testing tool, in that the latter are typically installing and uninstalling new things all the time and thus are more affected by issues like UAP.

    Even then, I run build 5342 and yeah it’s a pain to see all the dialogues when installing software initially and that needs to be addressed in upcoming builds, but the fact of the matter is that once what I wanted on this system was installed I barely notice UAP, it really is a non issue for me.

    I also have the choice of using XP and Vista as I run a double partition and I use Vista around 90% of the time and XP 10% of the time. I wont be using XP at all once some more driver and software support becomes available for Vista. Why? Because I am more productive with Vista even though there are some performance issues that need to be addressed.

    In short there are number of “little” things in vista which MS dont really surface well when talking about Vista, that make it a more productive and enjoyable experience than previous versions of windows. This experience is likely to increase as each new build becomes available and issues like UAP, UI changes, performance issues etc are addressed.

    I would be more worried about the issues Paul speaks of if this were a public beta, which would be a clear signal that its nearly ready for prime time, but seeing as its not at that stage, issues like these are the very thing beta testers are meant to highlight to MS. It is par for the course at this stage and is what is to be expected.

    Comment by Eddie Traversa — April 21, 2006 @ 6:45 pm

24. @11. Sure, Robert. I’m not arguing the need to protect the environent. However, the way UAP works today is a pain in the ass for and everyday user. And granted my mom won’t be installing software all that frequently,but I can imagine there being the need to install updates and the plethora of security patches that are sure to come the day after Vista ships ;-). Not to mention gaming updates (women apparently play more games than men), downloads from web sites, etc. It’s not just software installs that trigger UAP pop ups. The point is MS often gets way too feature happy as every Program Manager and developer wants their pet computer science project included in the box. That’s admirable but sometimes it seems to come at a usability and even stability cost. I do think the devs and many of the Program Managers are much more insulated than they think they are. And I also understand that support issues are also considered when shipping new software. But, that probably ranks #3 or #4 of the list of priorities, somewhere behind MS strategic direction (WinFS anyone? Did users ask for that?), maintaining market leadership, and staying competitive.

    I know this has been tossed around a lot, but there’s much to be learned from the elegance the Mac design.

    I also think it’s indictive of MS’s insulation when this late in the game they are realizing UAP is in serious need of some tweaking (to put it mildly). Vista has potential. But MS needs to do a much better job of convincing people WHY they need it, beyond “writing on the screen” (apparently only 1MM people in the last 4 years have seen the value in that…not exactly a paradigm shift). watching TV on your XBOX, or seeing your calendar on a lap top. All cool features to be sure, but appealing to many corner case usage scenarios. Not the type of thing that compels people to line up at midnight to get the first copy.

    And I gotta believe Henry has a bit of a point. There may be thousands within MS using it, but out of almost 70K users, I would hope it would at least be in the tens of thousands..if it is as compelling and stable as you imply. When my MS Account Manager shows up using it, then I’ll think you are close to shipping.

    Comment by Dmad — April 21, 2006 @ 9:37 pm

25. Actually, for all the bashing that MS has recieved over dumping the RDBMS-based filesystem, (including from me), I’m going to give them some credit for having recognized eventually that it was a bonehead idea in the first place.

    Of course, it took Apple’s Spotlight to come along and say ‘No! Do it like THIS, stupid!” for them to come to that realization, but still: way to go, MS..

    Comment by J. Random Poster — April 22, 2006 @ 1:08 am

26. “Just imagine if Windows Vista shipped and there were no sound cards that worked on it because we changed our audio driver model.”

    MS doesn’t have to care about audio beyond system beeps. MOTU and the rest of the pro audio vendors just write all their own infrastructure code to handle their own audio hardware, and couldn’t care less about your driver model.

    Comment by J. Random Poster — April 22, 2006 @ 1:23 am

27. Someone said “The two major parts of Vista are UAP and Aero”.

    The major part of Vista is the strong support for DRM and any hardware underneath enabled on board.

    This is life changing. Beginning with Vista, the content can be remotely controlled.

    Comment by Mike — April 22, 2006 @ 11:43 am

28. […] MS reacts on Vista review By Vincent | Related entries in Windows Vista It looks like Microsoft could have found a way to react on the critical review that Paul Thurrott wrote a few days ago. The company is promoting the new OS at the National Association of Broadcasters convention being held this week in Las Vegas. MS needs to keep customers wanting Vista for at least ten months from now, so we need to believe that Vista makes the operating system superior in the delivery of multimedia. This would include several enhancements to Windows Media itself as well as expanded functionality within Windows Media Center. I don’t think they’re doing a real good job convincing the public, Bubba Murarka does it better;) […]

    Pingback by Windows Vista Weblog » MS reacts on Vista review — April 24, 2006 @ 1:18 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment