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What did Microsoft learn from Vista? | |
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| Time: 14:31 EST/19:31 GMT | News Source: ZDNet | Posted By: Robert Stein | ||
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After Bill Gates, the man whose name is most closely associated with Windows is Jim Allchin. Allchin, the co-president of Microsoft’s platforms and services business, is in his final months at Microsoft. As previously announced, the 16-year Microsoft veteran plans to leave the company in January, following the retail launch of Windows Vista. I had a chance to chat with Allchin at length on October 18 about everything from why Microsoft decided to christen XP SP2 a service pack (rather than a new Windows release), to how he’d like to be remembered when he leaves the company. | ||
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| #1 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 10/27/2006 7:40:30 PM |
| Awesome, awesome article. Jim Allchin is the man. I'd like to believe this would clear up all the conspiracy theories about what they've been doing since XP's release, but I'm sure it still won't help. (sigh) But he very quickly said what many of us here have said for a long time--XP isn't the "only Windows OS shipped in the last 5 years" (or in over a decade, according to an article I read the other day... unbelievable!). XP SP2 was the right thing, and people would have complained FAR more had it been a discrete release--particularly if they had charged for it (why are people complaining about this, again???). And the Longhorn development schedule can be boiled down to about 2 1/2 years. |
| #2 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/28/2006 2:22:45 PM |
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Man, WOW!!! That has to be about the best interview I have read. Mr. Allchin deserves a medal, in my opinion - what courage he has to have in order to have shipped XP SP2 like that.
I don't agree that in hindsight, it would have been better to brand XP SP2 at all - a new release and all that went with it - when it was so desperately needed? He did it right and the right way, too. Besides, if they had shipped it as a new OS version, a lot of features would have had to make it in and he's right, many rounds of testing would have come with it and one has to ask, now that Vista will ship, and does take the greater steps Mr. Allchin wanted to take, how willing would people be to move to Vista, after having moved to a new XP version only two years ago. In the end, his decisions will work out for the best - especially for consumers. I don't know that I can blame Microsoft for all the issues with security, either - not entirely - I do mean that the entire base was always screaming for features, features, features.... then the net took a turn for the dark side and quickly evolved into a place that included a lot of very bad people... it was inevitable that security issues would impact a platform that is so features, ease of use, and backwards compatibility centric. With the emphasis on security first, one does not see any let up on demands for new features, but this interview sure shows how far Microsoft is willing to go to take care of people - and so stoically suck up the drubbing the took - both externally and internally. Microsoft's senior leadership is to be commended, too... for in then end, standing behind the subordinate leaders. I was in San Diego in May 2004, as SP2 was about to be released, and one could easily tell, Steve Ballmer was pissed - really pissed. His keynote was laced with frustration. I could sense that in part, he was upset about how SP2 was dragging, and perhaps at IT Pro's for not locking down what they could have... edge, perimeter, hosts and clients - there really was no excuse... and all this as Longhorn was being reset, and expanded to reach toward what may become Blackcomb - man, talk about a massive amount of change! Now today, we're seeing glimpses of just how well they did - to have finally achieved what they set out to do... even a cursory peek at what a dev can do in and around IE 7 is reason enough to get very excited - we've been going nuts discovery what one can do. I hope Allchin has a wad of cash and can just go hang out and have some fun. |
| #3 By 12071 (124.168.25.204) at 10/29/2006 3:09:03 AM |
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*wipes tear from his eye* Wow that was moving! 2004 - Microsoft adopts componentization.
"if we have to do a bug fix at a particular point in the system, we know what other components in the system will be impacted, so where else we have to test. We didn't have that understanding before." So all those jokes at Microsoft's expense were true after all. No wonder the EU can't get any concise documentation on Windows from Microsoft - they didn't have it themselves! |
| #4 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 10/29/2006 3:42:39 PM |
| #3, Very probably... such documentation can lag behind development for a very long time - and depends upon the core team working it up - provided they have the time, which they often do not. This is not at all unusual and it applies to a great many development teams and projects. If you are able to fully document the software you build, let us know how you are doing it successfully - I for one would pay a lot to see how, or have access to tools that make it happen. |
| #5 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 10/30/2006 10:36:38 AM |
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One thing I've always wondered is how you manage 100 million lines of code, and their interdependancies.
Back when I was writing shareware in pascal (the 80's) and machine-code, I'd get lost trying to manage 10,000 lines of code LOL TL |
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