“Up to 60% of the code in the new consumer version of Microsoft new Vista operating system is set to be rewritten as the Company ‘scrambles’ to fix internal problems a Microsoft insider has confirmed,” David Richards reports for Smarthouse News. “In an effort to meet a deadline of the 2007 CES show in Las Vegas Microsoft has pulled programmers from the highly succesful Xbox team to help resolve many problems associated with entertainment and media centre functionality inside the OS. The team are also working closely with engineers from the Intel Viiv team. and it is now expected that the next version of Viiv could be delayed to line up with the launch of the consumer version of Vista at the 2007 CES Show in Las Vegas.”
“One of the key components of the consumer version of Vista is the Media Centre code. This will be an optional package in the same way that Microsoft currently sell a Professional and Home version of XP. With Vista there will not be a seperate Media Centre SKU,” Richards reports. “Microsoft has also admitted that it has major problems in it’s Windows division and has has immediatly initiated a total restructure of the division, a move that comes after a costly delay in rolling out its Vista program.”
Full article along with the text of an internal memo written by Kevin Johnson the Co-President of the Windows division here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “mango” for the heads up.]
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Microsoft reorganizes moribund Windows unit – March 23, 2006
Microsoft’s inability to ship Windows Vista leaves door open for Apple – March 23, 2006
Tech writer: Forget booting Windows on Macs, now is the time for Apple Mac to take back share – March 23, 2006
Microsoft Vista fumble could lead to score for Apple Mac; Mac OS X Leopard may beat Vista to market – March 23, 2006
Analysts: Apple could benefit from Microsoft’s latest Vista slip – March 22, 2006
Forbes: Microsoft’s Vista slips again – Steve Jobs must be waking up a happy man this morning – March 22, 2006
What’s the difference between Mac OS X and Vista? Microsoft employees are excited about Mac OS X – March 22, 2006
Vista delay causes Windows-dependents slump in pre-market trading; Apple rises – March 22, 2006
Enderle on MS Vista slip: ‘I personally can not recall Apple ever getting an opportunity like this’ – March 21, 2006
Microsoft delays Windows Vista again – this time until January 2007 – March 21, 2006
Delays, delays and more delays…..
60% of Vista going to be re-written. Hmm…i thought 60% of XP was re-written in order to the birth of Vista
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Now seriously, why do i have the impression that Vista is not going to be like we have seen until now?
Morale within the Vista development team must already be at an all-time low and sinking fast.
First a major management re-organisation, then they’re going to be throwing out 60% of the code that they’ve spent the last five years writing, the Xbox programmers will be muscling in on the project and the whole thing must be delivered by January, so nobody in Redmond should be thinking of making any arrangements for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Then factor in Ballmer’s farcical keynote and his abrasive manner, think of the torrent of stories telling of how bad things are within all parts of Microsoft and it’s hard to see any way that things can get better.
Personally I’d like to see Vista launched at CES 2007. It will be the same week as the Apple Expo and would give Steve Jobs the most perfect opportunity to perform a killer keynote. However, if just 10% of the stories attributed to Microsoft insiders are true, I can’t see Vista launching in a useable state much before 2008.
Microsoft sucks.
MDN Magic Word: “good”. Good thing I don’t own any of their stock or shit programs.
So… I understand why Steve have sold 430 000 AAPL. He is going to work at Microsoft Windows Vista soon!
Did microsoft not already rewrite a large part of Longhorn/Vista?
All that money, all those people, and STILL not make your already delayed and delayed and delayed headline.
Monkeyboy Ballmer comes in the day after the “yet another delay” anouncement, promising computer heaven in 2006. Right. Then the next day the news about the management troubles. Way to go! Now the news about 60% of the code needing to be rewritten in say….6 months time.
This company is in serious trouble.
unless of course they’re all smarter than we are and this is a giant hoax.
The thing is that at least when Apple launched 10.0 they had the foundations there, subsequent versions have basically solidified what they had and built cool new features onto it. Microsoft have just spent millions (billions) and ended up with some deformed bastard child of their old code which doesn’t work. I don’t like Microsoft but if they’d started from scratch and made something good I’d be the first to congratulate them. As a consumer I don’t really care who does what, all I want is good software – Microsoft don’t and seemingly can’t offer that.
I’m also hoping this delay will allow Apple time to pull a few weeds of its own. After 4 years, maybe we’ll finally see the ‘real’ Finder in 10.5.
I think they should bite the bullet and rename the operating system again, to a moniker that fully describes its bloated structure and potential performace in the market place.
YES I think the Microsoft Titanic operating system would be the perfect title. Its big, over hyped, full of holes, users have to choose what class they can afford and it will be a total disaster when (if) launched.
‘Microsoft have just spent millions (billions) and ended up with some deformed bastard child of their old code which doesn’t work. I don’t like Microsoft but if they’d started from scratch and made something good I’d be the first to congratulate them.’
Wern’t they supposed to have done that with NT the precursor to XP and grandad to Vista? Has it run out of legs already, or was this new technology a myth in the first place. Yup difficult one that, NOT.
It would take a miracle to ship vista by 01/2007 if they restructure the organisation and rewrite the thing with 10 months to go. I assume there will be further feature-cuts (bug-cuts?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> ).
Lets assess those numbers. Now 60% of the code I can figure out, I mean those programmers will have to go and remove “deeper Bill deeper”. Of course they haven’t mastered the cut yet…LOL
But 2007, isn’t that a typo, I mean should it not be 2070?
MS are in a bit of a pickle really, a large proportion of their user base only use MS OS because of the legacy support , yet it is this legacy support that makes it impossible to move forward. Millions of lines of untidy coding that even the most talent and motivated programmers in the world would struggle to work with. I’m sure MS would consider releasing a totally new product but this would put them more or less on a level playing field with their competitors and obviously that is the last thing they want!
spyinthesky said:
“…they should bite the bullet and rename the operating system again….
YES I think the Microsoft Titanic operating system would be the perfect title. Its big, over hyped, full of holes, users have to choose what class they can afford and it will be a total disaster when (if) launched.”
LOL!
Absolutely Classic! I’m saving that one to send around.
Thanks for the great laugh :>
I can’t wait to see this develop over the next 12 months. What an interesting position to be in for Apple.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Cupertino!
I get the sneaking suspicion that this cluster*#!! will somehow adversely affect MS Office for the Mac out of pure bitterness.
If MS stopped producing Office for the Mac that would be no big deal:
1. The same way PC folks still use Office 97 Mac users could hang on to Office Mac 2004 for at leats the next 3 years.
2. In the meantime, Apple would release a real iWorks suite with he spreadsheet missing piece.
3. Also in the meantime, NeoOffice could get better at speed.
I already usei it for all M$ formated files that I receive from other users and, although a little slow, it works perfectly.
Don’t worry about M$ or Office for the Mac no more. They are history.
Apple was going for “Copeland.” Instead, we got Mac OS 8 (otherwise known as Mac OS 7.7).
MS was going for “Longhorn.” Instead, they got Windows Vista (otherwise known as Windows XP Service Pack whatever).
I am so happy Apple took the hit back then, and abandoned Mac OS 9 (err… Mac OS 7.8) and started over. I supposed they actually started with NeXT, and not from scratch, but close enough…
I think it is time for Microsoft to do the same. If they are bold enough to make that move, they might actually deserve to call themselves “innovators.”
Looks like Apple might be sending out new Leopard builds.
60% rewrite by December? Vista will be like NT4. Totally unusable until service pack 3.
M$ should do what Apple did years ago: develop a brand new operating built on tested technologies and slowly transition customers to that new system. Trying to please everyone does not work.
Imagine if M$ had a team developing something radically new (never done that before) and as it matured in secret, put more and more resources into it. When it was ready for public consumption, release it to the early adoptors and geeks who love to try new things and are not afraid of system crashes. Get feedback and improve the OS over time and eventually switch all resources to the new OS team and kill off the legacy OS.
Sound familiar? It is funny that M$ copies Apple in many things, but not in the most important things. They need to copy Apple’s long term strategy.
I have a question.
How can the “professional” version of Vista be all set and ready to go for a fall 06 release but the “home” edition is so messed up that 60% of it needs to be rewritten?
Does this make sense to anyone?
Stephen
I think it might be to do with the fact that the corporate version does not have the media facilities. And according to the article, the problem is with te media facilities.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they had done something so fucked up in their media routines, that it opened up all kind of secuity issues… requiring a fundamental rewrite.
Kinda like how viewing certain JPEGs can open up your system to a virus in XP….Only on windows would such a thing happen
Good question Stephen. I have one as well. What about the towels? In all this talk about the major rejiggering of personel and code at MS, not one little mention of towels. Poor towels, they used to be so important.
Oh, and it’s been a pleasent troll free stroll though the comments this morning no?
Gates wants to hang on to legacy compatibility, he is adamant about this and it’s the best thing that ever happened to Apple.
This latest news just goes to show how BIG that ball and chain of legacy Windows crappola is.
Here’s a question, “what have all the engineers at MS been doing to justify their existance for the last 5 years? Service pack releases?”
Anybody want to take a bet on whether the Vista ship dates slip farther?
The Micro-Sloth Internal Memo Stated…<b>
“1. Software + Services: Position for the next wave of innovation relative to our vision for Windows Live….”
and…
“2. Growth: Focus on the key growth opportunities ahead of us, specifically online advertising, emerging markets, and enterprise computing…”
I think these two points are very telling as to where Micro-<b>Sloth sees the future, not as much in selling their whatever version of OS they have, but that the momentum is moving towards server-side, cross platform, web-based applications that basically render M$ impotent, or at least unnecessary.
MDN:EAST, as in…No Fool Like and Old Fool!
The big news here is the stated one, the delay being made for the sake of getting the media center code right and coordinating with Intel’s Viiv architecture. This is a very big deal. We are at the cusp of the transition to HTDV with a 2009 date to complete the transition. The market for media center products is huge.
Microsoft can just look at Apple’s architecture for the media center with Front Row, Bonjour, wireless connections, remote control, iPod connections and the Mac mini as a stalking horse for the media center hardware box. They are shaking in their boots as Apple threatens to run off with the market for the next big thing.
I just hope that Apple gets enough early adopters of its media center products to give them a thorough test, before Apple puts out their updated media center box and software for the living room.