Bloggers to Microsoft: Take your time with Vista

Given that the next version of Windows is more than two years late, you'd expect that people would be calling for Microsoft to get its act together and release it soon as possible. Not so.

Several prominent bloggers are more or less begging Microsoft to delay Vista beyond its scheduled consumer release in January. Robert McLaws, an IT consultant (and member of CNET News.com's Vista Views reader panel) has been tracking the operating system's progress since it was still called Longhorn way back in 2002.

In a blog posting on Monday, McLaws presented a convincing argument why Microsoft should put the brakes on Vista's release schedule and issue a third beta test version.

His conclusion: Vista just isn't ready. Microsoft's managers in charge of the system--principally Jim Allchin, who leads Windows development--need to "give your people a little more time to get it right. You'll be lambasted for it. But it doesn't matter what 125 people in the media will say. 700 million Windows users will thank you."

Other veteran developers, Windows users and former Microsoft employees quickly chimed in.

Blog community response:

"There's some truly great stuff in Windows Vista, but current builds are not at the quality level they need to be at for a release candidate to appear in the next few weeks. If management insists on hitting an arbitrary January ship date, the results will be disappointing at best, and potentially nightmarish. Jim, are you listening?"
--Ed Bott's Windows Expertise

"This sucker is just not ready. Too many things are too slow and/or don't work. I've been on the betas of every Windows OS since Windows 3.1 and Vista is starting to feel good, but it doesn't feel good enough to release to the factory in October. It feels like it needs a good six more months than that, which would mean a mid-year release next year."
--Scobleizer

"When I get the final version of Windows Vista, I want it to blow me away. I want it to be the best version of Windows I have ever laid eyes on. I want it to be quick, responsive, and pleasantly surprising when I least expect it. I want it to be a solid, finished, and polished release. If adding another beta and delaying the launch is what it takes to get there, so be it."
--MasterMaq