“Microsoft Corp.’s customers will never again face as long a wait between new versions of Windows software as they’re enduring now, chief executive Steve Ballmer vowed Tuesday. Meanwhile, Chairman Bill Gates said the company’s much-delayed Vista operating system is likely — but not guaranteed — to reach the market by January,” Mark Jewell reports for The Associated Press.
“The comments in separate speeches by Microsoft’s two top executives came nearly two weeks after the Redmond, Wash.-based company announced a postponement for its Office business software suite, and nearly four months after a similar postponement for Vista,” Jewell reports.
“‘I think it’s probably important for me to tell our partners that, rest assured, we will never have a gap between Windows releases as long as the one between XP and Windows Vista,’ Ballmer told thousands of Microsoft product resellers and other clients at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston. ‘Count on it,’ Ballmer said. ‘I can go through the history of how we got through here, but just count on it. We will never have this kind of gap again,'” Jewell reports.
“In Cape Town, South Africa, Gates said there was an 80 per cent chance that Vista would be ready in January,” Jewell reports. “However, Gates, the company’s co-founder and chairman, said at a presentation to Microsoft software partners that he would delay the launch if testing uncovered shortcomings in prerelease, or beta, versions of the program.”
“Ted Schadler, an analyst from Forrester Research, said Ballmer was “selling hard” in pledging shorter wait times for future versions of Windows,” Jewell reports. “Schadler said Microsoft could make good on Ballmer’s pledge to shorten new Windows version wait times by making more incremental improvements than the company has promised in Vista. ‘This time they really shot for the moon,’ Schadler said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: They obviously missed the moon. Windows Vista is so stripped-down, it’s a joke. Windows Vista is Windows XP SP3 (code name: PigLipstick). Or “Windows Me Too,” as we sometimes like to call it. It’s all very easy for Gates to make pledges with one foot out the door and for Ballmer, too, as – mark our words – he’ll be long gone if and when Microsoft inflicts the next “major” Windows release after Vista.
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I don’t trust that fat ass!
I seem to remember Apple had a hard time getting OS X to delivery also. In the early nineties there was a discussion of Windows NT3, which was capable of running OS7 (?) and then the Copland tragedy and finally the triumphant return of Steve and 5more years before 10.2 ( The first truly complete and stable version of OSX) Not to mention the various upgrades of the ever aging “Classic” system. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Mac OS, but there were dark days then also, and Apple survived. Unfortunately, so might Microsoft.
Well of course there won’t be any more long gaps because Vista will be the end of MicroS#it!
I won’t ever drink that much again, I will come home earlier tonight, I will
pay that bill on time in the future, I will be a nicer guy next time, my next
car will be more practical, I am going to start working harder at my job,
I plan to call my Mom more often, I will fertilize the lawn earlier next year,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
windows vista will be stayed for a long time near the future because Ms don’t have more creative idea to develop its own. basically it depend on how mac os x will go. you know, they will copy it again. that’s why windows os has been never released before mac os x. they need time to copy, copy. but product looks poor, lame, too. that’s very weird. after Bill Gates, MS will face with lack of creation idea, then turn to completely different company. it won’t be software company anymore. Ballmer? this guy is just business manager of MS, is not a leader or anything. he will screw MS up more.
Pledging shorter wait time? Why don’t they jsut say we are going to work harder so that you’ll have to upgrade your stuff more often. I don’t know why anyone would think this is a good thing.
and Schmutz, most of that stuff happenned Pre-steve2.0 so it doesn’t count. Once Apple had their OSX strategy, it pretty much went like it should have. I would also argue tha Apple switching from OS9 to OSX was a far harder task than some company just paving overtop of the roadkill code they’ve had for years.
There is a fundamental difference between the casual Windows user and the Mac user. For Windows users the whole computer experience is just one necessary pain in the neck that must be put up with because the job says use a computer.
The typical Mac user on the other hand actually loves his or her computer and the whole experience of using and being creative with the hardware and software. Often called the “wow” factor, it’s real. And most PC users just don’t get it. To them a computer is just a thing they have to put up with – a thing that mostly annoys them.
This difference can lead to some interesting observations. For one, millions of people putting up with delay after delay of the next shitty operating system.
Or this, I watched a guy drop his Dell laptop on the parking lot pavement of a motel I was staying at one morning. He sighed and said to me, “forgot to zip the case.” The damn thing lay there in pieces! If it had been me and my nice new MacBook I would have cried. Him, sigh, oh I dropped the damned thing!
There will never be so long a gap because:
A) Vista will be such a disappoint that Microsoft will implode, hence never another Windows, or
B) Vista will never make it at all.
“Well, Victor, the bank would like to congratulate you.
On the fastest freefall since the Depression. We can’t
even give your stock away.” — from FANTASTIC FOUR
I think they shot themselves in the foot. Definately not the moon by a long shot! I don’t think anyone knows what they really ended up with either after six years of working on it. I seems to me that after all the cut features it’s looking more like XP SP3 with more bugs than fixes.
I think they shot themselves in the foot. Definately not the moon by a long shot! I don’t think anyone knows what they really ended up with either after six years of working on it. It seems to me that after all the cut features it’s looking more like XP SP3 with more bugs than fixes.
“Microsoft Corp.’s customers will never again face as long a wait between new versions of Windows software as they’re enduring now” chief executive Steve Ballmer vowed Tuesday.
“…because after Vista’s release, there won’t be another. I’m off back to the Adams Family.” Ballmer added.*
*Actually, I made that last bit up. But you can hope…
Is that because there woin’t *be* any more Windows releases?
And we can produce EVEN more shite with a really crappy MP3 player in between XP SP releases…
What a joke that company is. I hope thay can take a step back from it and see how it looks from the perspective of the rest of the world…
I suppose the only rest of the world they ever meet are folk who grovel to them for a piece of their wealth and who would never tell them as it is.
Yes, I am convinced that Vista Service Pack 1
will be delivered in a timely fashion.
“Microsoft Corp.’s customers will never again face as long a wait between new versions of Windows software as they’re enduring now”
Is that a threat?
Thank you MDN…for not posting monkeyboy’s picture. I was afraid to click the link.
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I’ve been reluctant to buy a Mac because they’re expensive, but the other night my daughter, who is 9, started getting pop ups on her screen while she was working on a paint program. She called me over and it was porn. Well, that was enough… I went out to the apple store and bought a Macbook Pro and a 20″ Imac. The interesting part is this, I was looking at the G5 powermacs to replace my old 400mhz G4 but the saleman that was helping me told me to wait till August. Interesting…
Thanks, Connor – exactly what I was thinking!
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Well if they start working on adding the features that they’ve deleted and then issue a new release when each of those originally promised features is finally implemented, Ballmer’s promise might actually come true.
South Africa is in the southern hemisphere
Hey!!!! Wait a minute!!! Isn’t Bill Gates speaking from South Africa? in the southern hemisphere?
Every thing spins backwards south of the equator so what Bill is really saying is that there is an 80% chance that Vista WILL ARRIVE EVEN LATER.
Let’s get that spin right!!
Ihatewindows,
It is worth a little more money for sure.
It is unfortunate that something like
that had to happen to your child for
you too make the switch. Welcome to
the enlightened.
Spread The Word
“I can go through the history of how we got through here, but just count on it. We will never have this kind of gap again”
“Ted Schadler, an analyst from Forrester Research, said Ballmer was “selling hard” in pledging shorter wait times for future versions of Windows,”
MS, Ballmer, Gates, et al:
Don’t “promise”, “sell”, or ask us to “count” on you.
Don’t get all melodramatic in vowing that you’ll do so much better next time.
JUST GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER *NOW* AND DELIVER THE DAMNED GOODS!
Because right now your credibility is shot. Promises of better times ahead rings like your empty & broken promises of hot new Longhorn/Vista features and OS ship dates. By now nobody believes you even know WTF you’re talking about.
‘Count on it,’ Ballmer said. ‘I can go through the history of how we got through here, but just count on it. We will never have this kind of gap again,
LIER LIER YOUR SWEATY ASS IS ON FIRE, MONKEYBOY UNCLE FESTER LOOKALIKE
*farts in the wind going to Redmond*
Come on people. I’m a Mac lover and for years I have preached “get an Mac and enjoy using your computer” to Windows using folks. My experience has been that 90 percent of the people I talk to are happy with their MS equipped machines. They may not know any better, but they are happy enough not to even check out the Mac.
I don’t get paid to sell Apple products and so it is not worth alienating friends by implying they are dumb asses for using Windows.
Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
Thomas,
This article was about timely Windows releases.
What the hell is your point?