“Microsoft Corp. announced a broad reorganization Thursday of the unit that produces its flagship Windows operating system, two days after the company said the new consumer version of Windows would not be ready for the holiday season as planned,” Allison Linn reports for The Associated Press. “The company said a reorganized Platforms and Services division will be made up of eight new and existing groups, including the Windows and Windows Live Group, led by Steven Sinofsky, who currently heads development of company’s Office business software system. Other groups will focus on core operating system, online business products, and the servers and software tools businesses.”
“Vista will be the first new version of Windows since XP was released in late 2001. Some analysts had originally expected Vista to launch as early as 2003. But the system release was delayed, first by a companywide effort to improve security of all Microsoft products. At another point, Microsoft also decided to attempt to overhaul the operating system so it would be easier to add new features,” Linn reports. “Over time, the company has scaled back its goals for Vista, deciding not to ship the product with an advanced system for storing and organizing data, called WinFS. Microsoft does plan improvements to how users can find things like pictures, e-mails and documents, but the more sophisticated WinFS system won’t be added until later.”
Linn reports, “As previously announced, Jim Allchin, co-president of the Plaforms and Services division, will retire next year. Until then, he and co-president Kevin Johnson will continue to lead the division, while Sinofsky will focus on planning future versions of Windows.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s flagship is a submarine outfitted with screen doors. Until next year, Allchin and co-president Kevin Johnson will continue to lead the division? “Lead” as in, “the initiative in an action; an example for others to follow, show (someone or something) the way to a destination” or “lead” as in, “a heavy ductile metal; leaden: sluggish, heavy, lumbering, slow, burdensome, cumbersome, boring, dull, unimaginative, uninspired, monotonous, heavy, labored, wooden, lifeless, plodding, depressing, and oppressive?”
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What’s wrong with MS? Too damn many executive vice presidents watching over a bunch of folks scratching their heads.
If I trained monkeys, I could make a fortune off them working at MS.
“I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”
Detronius Arbiter, 210 BC
Never confuse activity with action.
reorganize the windows the division only a few months before the biggest product roll out in MS history.
vista = dead rotting whale carcass
sweat ballmer sweat
Great quote duper!
I know someone at my last business that had this option down to a fine art!
Duper, if you could “train monkeys” maybe you could train Steve Ballmer to produce a product on time.
How many times has Microsloth reorganized in the last couple years?
…but I thought Vista will soon be release and everything is going swimmingly. What has happened? What will happen? For the love of Pete, can someone tell me what the hell is going on here!?
Credit where credit is due: the Monkey Trainer at Microsoft did teach Steve Ballmer to dance.
Mac OSX 10.1 vs. Windows XP = XP Dominant OS
Mac OSX 10.2 vs. Windows XP = XP Dominant OS
Mac OSX 10.3 vs. Windows XP = XP Dominant OS
Mac OSX 10.4 vs. Windows XP = XP Dominant OS
See the trend yet, kids?
The reason XP is Dominant OS is because it’s a licensed OS!!!
Non-Licensing OS with High Cost Quailty PC vs. Licensing with Low Cost Poor PC’s.
That’s why XP is Dominant. Not because it’s better, but because it’s cheaper.
Remember kids, Cheaper does not equal better.
“I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”
Detronius Arbiter, 210 BC
Great quote. This is Mycrowsoft’s third reorganization in the last 6 years.
The problem with the first two is that Ballmer and Gates remained at the head of Mycrowsoft.
Windows is a reflection of the Company that produced. Bloated, disorganized, undocumented and built on a weak foundation.
XP = Dominant OS only in numbers. Superior OS goes to OS X, at least the last three versions. But I always thought Classic was better too! XP is for mechanics, Me. I like to drive!
Hey, I’ve got a question for ya’ll!
How many pollocks does it take to change an OS?
You know it must be hell working for Microsoft. Going to your work place and having to pass the Mac Lab, seeing all the Mac’s with that superior OS X operating system. Then you have to sit at a PC doing dull little things thinking I wish I was on a Mac.
I posted here yesterday. From inside this beast.
And I’m telling you the same thing today: This company is so badly mismanaged and unorganized that it’s a miracle the paychecks are printed on time.
Allchin was the last, best hope — so to speak. When he leaves, it’s just going to be more of the same that happens in similar situations at other companies: The vultures will dive in for the scraps and the others will try and solidify a position at the head of the table in that division. Because it’s a sweet, sweet paycheck, my friends.
I see and hear nothing here, anywhere, that leads me to believe anything positive is in store for Microsoft for the next several years. The stench of “riding this gravy train to the end of the line” and milking that retirement portfolio is palpable. You Mac users have no idea, ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA, just how much of a visionary Jobs is — until you’ve worked here and seen it all from the other side.
I have not one but three different headhunters searching new positions for me as I type this.
Soon, I’ll be able to gleefully say, “Goodbye MS”.
XP Dominant OS
Courts throughout the world have repeatedly convicted Microsoft of illegal monopolistic and unethical business practices, such as exclusionary contracts, illegal bundling, you name it. Illegally force out the competition, and even an inferior canachieve a dominance.
See YOU the trend yet, kiddie?
RE: “The reason XP is Dominant OS is because it’s a licensed OS!!!
Non-Licensing OS with High Cost Quailty PC vs. Licensing with Low Cost Poor PC’s”
Wha?
No, really… Wha?
couple more data points:
since jan 03…
msft stock 0% growth
aapl up 900%
aapl quarterly earnings continually breaking prior records
0 to 70% market share of music dl biz
hardware market share has doubled
30 year history of unrivaled innovation
and perhaps the most curious trend:
year after year, ms users brag about sucking aapl’s dust
mdn mw: end (of ms and its irrelevant acolytes)
The dominant trend I see is delays heaped upon excuses riddled with errors bundled with confusion and linked with desperation.
“The proof is always in the pudding.” If this were a college cafeteria, MS’s offering would start a food fight!
Mmmmm thesaurus!
One would think instead of having EIGHT different units, or different versions or flavors of Vista, they’d knock it down to two. Server and Workstation. That worked well with NT4. That is what is really needed. They can then have add-ons in different divisions, like an Advanced Web Applications division that will sell you addons to make Vista Server run better serving web apps.
I just don’t get why they decided to have all these versions. XP Home, XP Pro, Server 2000, Server Advanced 2000, etc, etc, etc.
Balmys office has been moved to a protected (out of sight) location on the MS campus so the press can’t see all the chairs flying through plate glass windows.