“Think Microsoft is happy with Vista? Think again. Numerous top execs involved in its development and launch are no longer at the company, at least in one instance because an exec was put in a position that was certainly a demotion,” Preston Gralla blogs for Computerworld.
“The latest casualty is Will Poole, who until the middle of 2007 was responsible for client versions of Windows, Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer’s reports. Poole is a 12-year veteran of the company,” Gralla reports.
“Keizer quotes analyst Rob Helm of Directions on Microsoft as saying that ‘With the launch of Vista, there was a new broom. There were a number of people who moved out, or were moved out, of [the] Windows [group] in the wake of Vista. Some of them have decided to move on out of the company,'” Gralla reports.
Gralla reports, “Poole was clearly given a demotion of sorts after his work on Vista. Analysts note that after Vista, Poole was made head of the the Unlimited Potential group. Never heard of it? No one else has either.”
Full article here.
Like rats from a sinking ship.
Poor Will. The “Unlimited Potential” group is the group who is assigned to develop the next, next version of windows (windows 8). After Vista it is not so much a demotion as a death sentence.
From all I’ve read Micro$oft put marketing ahead of programing, the shame needs to be heaped on the CEO.
Don’t give people the proper tools to do the job and then demote them.
Very nice, SoftAndFlaccid.
He’s probably been given a cubicle in the mail room next to Zune Tang!
Wrong take, MDN. We want these people to STAY and make the upcoming Windows 7 WOW experience everything Vista brought. Every Mac user should get on their knees each night and pray for Ballmer to continue as CEO. Each time a Windows executive responsible for Vista leaves it is time to wear the black armband. Vista is one of the big reasons the OS X is booming…
The longer Ballmer stays as head of Microsoft, the better it is for Apple. The guy couldn’t manage his way out of a shoe box with out a lid.
What will be interesting to see is how big is Ballmer’s golden parachute when he’s finally forced out, ‘cuz he ain’t leaving voluntarily.
@ Cubert
You mean Small & Flaccid…..
I seem to recall a joke about that. Something to do with a wedding night resulting in the designation of some company or another…..
I guess there were too many people polishing the turd.
The buck stops with the head honchos – Gates and Ballmer should be taking the flack…
Doesn’t the Unlimited Potential class ride the short bus?
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others”
Kudos to the first person who knows who said this (hint for you Apple fanatics: It’s not Steve Jobs)
I wonder, when you “exit” Microsoft do you get a free chair?
You know -the ones piled up under Ballmers office window, or does he just throw one at you?
Ten times the money…ten times the number of employees…and the result is ten year behind Vista.
It should be ten lashes on Ballmer’s back.
Ultimately, HE is responsible.
Funny, M$ customers and M$ employes don’t want his head on a platter…just shows their mentality, reasoning, and low tolerant standards.
The fall of the giant will be in history books.
Will Poole …. the name was familiar. I remembered where from.
His were some of the emails that were exhibits in one of Microsoft’s many court appearances — the Vista Capable suit in this case.
This was the guy who reneged on the deal MS made with HP in order to please Intel. It’s thanks to him Mr & Mrs Joe Public were buying machines that had stickers that said “Vista Capable” on them when they weren’t.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/132891.asp
An amusing summary by a Slashdotter, who — correctly one feels — refers to Will Poole as a “weasel”:
*************************
Here is a summary for those that don’t want to read the PDF:
Early 2006: Microsoft got cozy with HP to make sure that HP invested in a better graphical experience for Vista. Intel had to make its quarterly earnings and convinced Microsoft to call their chipset “capable” even though it couldn’t meat the graphic standards. Microsoft had explicitly told HP that they wouldn’t do this, but they, led by some dude named Will Poole, decided to bone HP to make Intel (specifically some SVP chick named Renee-most likely Renee James) happy. Then MS discussed how they are going to try to play it off to intel with some fancy obfuscating letter. They got this guy at MS named Jim Allchin to sign off on it, which he reluctantly did, but chastised them for pulling this crap. Some dude named Mike Ybarra pointed out to Jim that they are boning HP and their customers just to get cuddly wuddly with Intel and Jim seemed to agree, but figured the wheels were in motion and could not be stopped. Mike specifically said, “We are caving to Intel… We are really burning HP… We are allowing Intel to drive our consumer experience…”
Fast forward a year later and some board member John Shirley sends some borderline literate guy named Steve Balmer an email about how his shit won’t work with Vista and that some of the stuff may never get Vista drivers. They surmise that vendors didn’t trust them to deliver Vista (gee, wonder why) so they didn’t make drivers. Balmer sends an email to some guy named Steven Sinofsky asking about the driver situation. Sinofsky agrees that vendors didn’t expect them to ship and also says that changes to Vista made it so XP drivers wouldn’t work, he questions how smart it was to call the Intel chipset “capable” when it wasn’t, and says that they need to be clearer with the industry. Then some exec named Mike Nash points out how his company boned him because he bought a $2100 “Vista capable” laptop that is only good as an email machine.
In the end, some exec John Kalman says that lowering their standard for Intel screwed them and they won’t make such a stupid mistake with Windows 7.
In short, Will Poole is a weasel who is just trying to make some Intel chick happy. Mike Ybarra is too thoughtful and has too much foresight to work at MS. Jim Allchin needs to go with his gut and remind Will Poole which side of the desk he sits on. Steve Ballmer is missing some keys on his keyboard. Steven Sinofsky and Kohn Kalman have 20/20 hindsight. HP deserves to kick somebody’s ass at MS. They should probably kick Intel’s ass too, but MS is too busy licking it.
****************************
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=470200&cid=22592548
Makes you glad to be a Mac user.
M$, you didn’t skate to where the puck was going to be.
Bizlaw,
Will Ballmer still get a parachute? He’s worth $8B.
But you’re right, he will. The stockholders will give him a huge sendoff, a platinum plated Good Fscking Riddance — with donuts.
Curious tho’. What’s he gonna sell after he’s signed the Do-Not-Compete-Clause?
Any thoughts? I’m thinkin’ Scuds.
freefromdesign,
I know, but I just shrugged it off.
“MacDailyNews Take: Like rats from a sinking ship.”
Shouldn’t that read “stinking ship”?
Who’s complaining about Vista?
MAC sheep, that’s who, and they don’t even use it.
The funny thing is Vista makes your PC just like a MAC so if you’re bitching about Vista then you are really bitching about MAC OS. You MAC sheep are jealous because you can’t play games on a MAC. Dorks.
Your potential. Our passion.™
@bizlaw
“The guy couldn’t manage his way out if a circle drawn on the floor.”
Minor suggestion.
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“Keizer quotes analyst Rob Helm of Directions on Microsoft as saying that ‘With the launch of Vista, there was a new broom.”
And for Ballmer, the business end of the broom is opposite the bristles.
Welcome to the Social.
William Poole.
“I’ll impale Woo”
Poor Woo!
Does anyone else imagine that they play Nearer My God to Thee in the hallways at Microsoft?
Microsoft ex employees are giving rats a bad name.
This is why he really left:
<a >
Oops:
This is why he really left.
Let’s not forget that Jim Allchin left Microsoft right after Vista’s official release – on the very day, I think. Even he wanted nothing more to do with it.
@ Hint Hammer
Clearly
@ James …
Geeze – that’s nauseating. Springsteen should sue
Ayn Rand. Nice quote, FreeFromDesign! It does sound Jobsian, though.
No kidding! Didn’t someone once say that Microsoft simply had no taste? How many of their employees had even spurted from the ooze when that might have been relevant? I’d flee too.
Maybe Will ordered this video.
I was being oblique. It was a breadcrumb. I’d collect my kudo directly from Alisa. But, I’ve misplaced my tardis!
FWIW, I believe — and like that quote. Even though, some were quite contrary.
The quote is similar to something I believe. “Business is about making money — about putting food on the table; roof over head; and money in the bank. It is NOT war.”
sta-sta-stapler
has anyone seen my sta-stapler?
uuuummmyeeeaaaaahhh
about that…
Is Zune Tang for real? I used Vista everyday for months and had such a terrible experience with it that I switched back to XP. Btw, I rather have a Mac and I hope to buy one soon.
It’s interesting that Howard Roark (the ‘hero’ of Rand’s The Fountainhead) is practically Steve Jobs written on a page whilst the Keating character is Gates.
However, it’s not the only Randian reference in computing history: some Data General engineers in the late-Seventies code-named the project to develop a competitor to DEC’s VAX architecture as FHP which stood for Fountainhead Project. Bizarrely, theirs was not an homage to Rand – they simply did their initial development work in an apartment block called The Fountainhead that was close to DG’s Westboro headquarters.
FHP initially appeared to win an internal competition against Tom West’s EGO project (in a direct allusion to 2001, they deliberately created an acronym that was one on from EGO): however, their design was a clean 32-bit sheet of paper with no legacy support for programs developed for DG’s earlier AOS and RDOS operating systems.
EGO was dead, however West (who was smarter than a fox with a Masters degree) recreated the team in secret to develop a machine called ‘Eagle’ (try saying that without thinking EGO) and – when FHP faltered – Eagle came out of the shadows with its backwards-compatibility and became what was ultimately DG’s MV architecture.
It could be argued that Eagle was an early model for Apple’s current success: the new ‘rational’ Jobs has – with the help of his hardware and software monkeys – created a new Macintosh that not only embraces and extends the old Macintosh, but also has the capability to embrace its competitors (Windows, Linux, etc.).
However, unlike the truly horrible WinDell model, the support for ‘legacy’ and ‘foreign’ systems is maintained at arm’s length maintaining the purity of whatever the ‘current’ vision of the Macintosh happens to be at the time: I bet Ballmer wishes that Microsoft could develop something with that modular elegance.
LOL – We all know ‘Unlimited Potential’ is the name for the
‘happy class’ at Microscoff’
As Mac fans/users, we don’t care if the rats “stay or if they go” (to paraphrase the immortal Clash) as long as Apple doesn’t HIRE any of them!
Please, Steve, don’t bring any of those copycat losers on board!
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
Interesting MCFFR. The reason I saw it as so fitting was that so many focus on beating the competition that they forget the real reason they are doing it. I agree, when I saw it it sounded Jobsian so thats why I put that in there.
M$ is fucked till Ballmer’s ass is kicked out the door… I wonder what he has on Billy Gates that keepd him in his job?
Rats from a sinking ship, and they are are one with more than two brain cells … Balmer has one that works once in a while when showing some signs of cognizance [rarely].
“Unlimited Potential group”…Lol!
Only MS can think of something like this! 😀
@ MCCFR
That’s cool history!
I live and work the 128-495 corridor.
Love the history of the early days.
And anyone who can tie Atlas Shrugged, 2001:Space… and the early days of high tech startups gets “hazzahs”
Will Ballmer still get a parachute?
Give MonkeyBoy a choice of several parachutes. Make sure they’re all painted pretty, so nobody will notice they’re made from patched-up old burlap.
Then have none of them actually work, despite 10+ years of development effort.
Anyone remember the falling whale from “Hitchhiker’s Guide”? You get the idea.
M$ are still making obscene profits. Ballmer will hang on until he wants to leave.
I’m wondering if the Yahoo deal goes down M$ will have bitten off more than it can chew. It could accelerate its decline.
@ Just Me
no, he means “microsoft.”
I see none of you folks recognized my comments about The Rand.
Whatever. I can dumb it down. Anyway…
Alex, for the KudoCookie. Who is Alisa Rosenbaum, AKA — Ayn Rand.
And for the HuzzahCookie — Who are… THE CRAZY ONES.
. .. … …. …..
Judges, will you accept?
@ CYxodus
Zune Tang™ is our resident noob detector. Your skepticism was well played.
Other.