Meltdown at Microsoft

Microsoft recently announced that its two main moneymakers would not be shipping their much-anticipated upgrades this year. Windows Vista and MS Office are slated to be released in 2007. I ran into a blog run by someone who works there and who has some commenters who work there as well. Fascinating look at an ongoing trainwreck. Check out Mini-Microsoft An excerpt from this post: Vista 2007. Fire the leadership now!

It certainly sounded like Microsoft leadership committed to us, our customers, our partners, and our shareholders that Vista would be out in 2006.

Slip!

We should have asked for more details around the "or else" part of that commitment.

I was upset at missing the back-to-school market. Now we're missing the holiday sales market. All of those laptops and PCs are going to have XP on it. What percentage will upgrade to Vista? Well, I guess that's the little dream that I need to give up on. Vista's deployment is going to come from people buying CPUs with the OS pre-installed, not dancing down the CompUSA aisle as they clutch that boxed version of Vista to their loving chest. So not only did we miss last year's opportunity, we're missing this year's opportunity, too. With the convergence of high-tech media, this holiday season would have been an explosive nodal point to get Vista out for a compounded effect.

Personally, I've been holding off of buying a laptop and a new mega-big-iron PC until Vista is done. I'm super-excited to get Vista Ultimate on that new PC and be able to hook Media Center up to my Xbox 360. And now I'll wait.

And a bit more:

People need to be fired and moved out of Microsoft today. Where's the freakin' accountability?

The comments are well worth reading too:

ballmer: fired!
allchin: fired!
valentine: fired!
jones: fired!
partners at windows division: fired!

windows does need a clean start. it's a no brainer at this point! and if the company doesn�t have what it takes to send you out without a job, you should be seriously thinking about leaving your chair to smarter, more motivated people. we cannot ship our OS. this is not a joke. if we don't take some radical decisions, the company is over.

Another:

The culture isn't accountable. Clamoring for a bunch of people getting fired is a waste of time. It�s OUR fault that this company is a disaster. You know who is responsible for our mess, US. It�s your fault. Take responsibility and stop being a bunch of front line victims. It�s pathetic.

Being a 10+ year vet I feel ashamed and sad. This company is a mess on so many levels.

Fascinating reading. I had the pleasure of working there for five years. A lot of fun but it was good to get out of there.