Mary-Jo Foley yesterday reported that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was effectively downplaying the launch of Windows 7 saying it would cause a “bump” in PC sales but that he doesn’t expect it to create a “sudden and miraculous boost to the PC market”.
He’s probably correct in this regard, especially given the global economic situation at the moment. All markets are depressed and if you are using a PC that runs XP or Vista quite effectively, buying a new PC to run an OS that’s faster than Vista and, as near as damnit, as quick as XP would place the purchasing decision in the luxury category.
One thing I am concerned about though is this comment…
“’The test feedback (on Windows 7) has been good, but the test feedback on Vista was good,’ Ballmer, 53, said in an interview last week. ‘I am optimistic, but the proof will be in the pudding.’”
Now I’ve been a technical beta-tester for Windows now since XP and slogged through the Vista beta as did everybody else. It would be difficult for anyone who was in the same position not be at least slightly offended by this remark.
What Ballmer is effectively saying here is that Vista was a performance dog, and ultimately a failure, because testers didn’t see anything wrong with it before it launched that would ring alarm bells.
Fortunately, Ballmer appears to be the only person who thinks this as there were, and many people are now pointing out, alarm bells ringing right the way through the Vista beta process.
Drivers were the major issue. Okay so Microsoft had moved to a completely new and more stable driver architecture, but drivers provided by companies right up until service pack 1 was delivered were buggy. Was this the fault of the hardware manufacturers? Partly, but they could only work with the code, information and support they were given by Microsoft. All through the beta process, testers were posting driver issues on the connect website that Microsoft said they were passing on to hardware vendors.
Then there was the moment half way through the beta where, essentially, the Vista code-base was dumped and Microsoft had to start writing it again from scratch. This also raised alarm bells with the press and testers.
These are only two examples of how testers were telling Microsoft right the way through the Windows Vista development process that there were problems ahead.
Then there was the Windows 7 beta. One of the biggest problems with the beta this time around was that Microsoft had already locked down the code before passing it out. The reply of “by design” to perfectly legitimate comments and feedback testers were giving has caused considerable annoyance in the testing community. If any testers were reporting problems ahead for Windows 7 and getting this response then will Ballmer try and blame the testers a second time round?
I don’t believe that Ballmer was having a go at beta testers or blaming them in any way, however these people are an army of unpaid volunteers who give their time to help Microsoft make their products as good as they can be so that the company can then go on to line the pockets of its shareholders. The people at the top should be careful not to bite the hands that feed them.
