Comments on: Windows chief bows out
special feature As Vista hits store shelves after a long five years, Microsoft veteran Jim Allchin heads for retirement.
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"During testing, he and Windows executive Dave Fester bemoaned how Vista handled music-related tasks. Not surprisingly, the competitive target was Apple.
"What is this?" Fester asked. "I am so confused as to what we are doing here. We just look so disconnected. We look so disconnected compared to the Mac."
Allchin responded, "I agree. I can't argue. I agree."
His critiques that day echoed the blunt, urgent e-mails Allchin sent in 2003 and 2004 while Microsoft was readying Vista. In one missive to Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, Allchin noted that he would buy a Mac if he didn't work for Microsoft, saying that Microsoft had lost its way."
Sounds like a Macintosh endorsement to me. Right from the head of the Vista OS team!
I refuse to pay for this crap anymore and use it, but of course I can't tell this to the face of my employer. Do I worry that they will loose market share and I loose my job ?
Not really, have over 10 years of Unix, Linux and Mac experiance, Accounting, electronics, many things, I can always find a new job.
What matters the most is proper Karma in the Corporate world, maybe it would be better if MS lost.
Don't really care about making it big here at all.
I've finished reading this article and some of it is a rehash of what Jim Allchin's been saying months ago. In fact, that famous quote from one of his emails about him buying a Mac if he didn't work for Microsoft, was mentioned in numerous articles on the internet about 2 years ago. Just a guess but that MAC comment was also meant to shake things up at Microsoft, sort of like a "wake the heck up call and focus on what's important", aside from him being disappointed with the progress of Windows development.
Also Jim Allchin sounds like a guy that doesn't "pull punches" so to speak when talking about how Vista was doing quality-wise during development and testing. If something sucked in Vista he would say it, regardless of his position with the corporation. That's someone that Microsoft needs to get their act together because quite frankly, the quality of their software is poor. And now he's gone. Hopefully someone who replaces him will have the same attitude, otherwise windows won't last for very long with the way things are going.
Granted, I had no idea who Allchin was six months ago (which probably isn't saying much since I also didn't know who Steve Jobs was prior to two years ago - which is apparently strange being a Mac-user), but I've heard a lot about him recently and it seems Microsoft may be losing one of their Most Valuable Chiefs.
As always with Microsoft, the new products look great but in reality they are useless. BTW, my All in wonder 9800 Multimedia card is not supported By Vista too.
Allchin: If I didn't work here, I'd buy a Mac
If there's one rule you'd think would be drilled into executives' heads, it would be this: Don't say anything in e-mail you don't want seen publicly.
That advice is being driven home for retiring Microsoft exec Jim Allchin. Groklaw has reported that an Iowa lawsuit turned up a 2004 memo of his sent to Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, in which Allchin states that "Microsoft had lost sight of what customers need and that he himself would buy a Mac, if he didn't work for Microsoft."
Allchin has a bit of a reputation for being brutally honest, and trait that has sometimes gotten him into trouble. (He once referred to the iMac as "warmed over Mach kernel," and confessed that a Microsoft Internet strategy wasn't "fleshed out yet".)
He tried to explain the Mac comments in a blog posting, saying that he was "being purposefully dramatic in order to drive home a point," and that "Windows Vista has turned into a phenomenal product, better than any other OS we've ever built and far, far better than any other software available today."
But the original comments were enough to set off the bloggers, who reacted with glee to the faux pas.
Stop by on your way home from Redmond One, Jim!
Have a great retirement...
=8-)
In fact, Vista was done YEARS AGO. MS just had to wait until 2007
for hardware fast enough to run it. ;-)
The above is all in jest of course. Actually, I think you'll enjoy the
features of Vista. I've been enjoying them now for 18 months.
Happy Vista! :-)
Like maybe Mac, Linux and/or BSD.
You just might understand then.
This is a consumer issue. We are actually doing Microsoft a favor by showing them that competition is actually a good thing.
- Why Allchin really left.
- by tfosorcim December 20, 2007 11:41 AM PST
- "That's the way we design our system to be--hard to use,..." [Jim Allchin]
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(25 Comments)'His critiques that day echoed the blunt, urgent e-mails Allchin sent in 2003 and 2004 while Microsoft was readying Vista. In one missive to Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, Allchin noted that he would buy a Mac if he didn't work for Microsoft, saying that Microsoft had lost its way.'
"He asks tough questions and he has high standards," said Mike Sievert, the corporate vice president in charge of marketing Windows. Sievert said he gets, on average, four e-mails a week from Allchin containing suggestions of things that need to be better.
'Allchin was also pushing for changes up to the very last minute, arguing that if there were bugs to be fixed, they should be.'
"(If) there's a fix, I want to put it in," Allchin maintained. "It should be clear that date means not much to me, that quality is much more important."
'Inside Microsoft, a new guard is taking over Windows management. The overall unit is now headed by former sales chief Kevin Johnson.'
'Ballmer has made it clear he doesn't want Microsoft to ever go five years between Windows releases again.'
...and the way to do that, Stevie boy, is to (a) get rid of anyone who's not a yes-man, and (b) put a sales guy in charge...