Comments on: Q&A: Windows boss weighs in on version 7 plans

In an interview with CNET News, Bill Veghte talks about Windows 7 and gets a little protective of Vista while telling consumers his company's software is a good deal when money's tight.

[admin44]

Excuse me, but Veghte comes across sounding like Sarah Palin stumbling through yet another bad interview with Katie Couric. If he is representative of the type of "leadership" that is in charge at Micro$oft, it's no wonder they are steadily losing market share to Apple.

[Neanderthal75]

Excuse me, but don't you mean this Microsoft Veep sound much more like Ms Caroline Kennedy, during her run to be appointed to Hillary's Senate seat?

'Ya know'?

I must also point out that once Palin shed the shackles of the incompetent boobs (literally and figuratively) of the McCain Campaign Elitists (miscreantbs all), she proved herself to be highly articulate and well versed in subject matter for any governor currently running a large state.

Couric, being just another Obama worshipper, was not interested in ethics, morality, objectivity, nor honesty (she is after all, a journalist); she was interested in a 'Gotcha' moment. Mind you, the McCain Handlers were quite probably hoping, if not actually helping, Couric would indeed 'get' Palin.

Microsoft is now, what it has been after a decent first decade of the company: Power Mad Monopolists who use with glee, their Captured Audience also known as End Users.

Cheers

[kwhsy82]

This guy barely speaks English. LIke what on earth does this mean? I copied from above:

I think it's huge innovation when you realize that on average over a third of the time people have four or more windows open. If I can dramatically simplify that, that's innovation...And so when I look sort of against the backdrop of history and sort of the current economic landscape, I think we've got -- we have a tremendous value proposition to bring to market."
What's the huge innovation, that 4 windows are open? Windows 7 somehow makes it easier to have 4 windows open? And all this is "against the backdrop to history"? Is that his desktop background, the backdrop of history? And this will all be resolved by a "tremendous value proposition?" From incoherent to overblown to marketing-speak babble in a paragraph!

The guy just seems to be desperately attempting to parrot what Bill and Steve say.

[Sporlo]

lol I was thinking the same thing reading the last paragraph :D

It seems that whenever someone is in these situations, they're so intent on defending their cause that half the time they're not actually answering the question, and instead they find some abstract way to link it back to praise for their cause.

[massfat]

He's saying that by simplifying windows for it to be efficient in completing everyday tasks, Microsoft has already innovated greatly. The opening 4 windows at once is an example of how their taskbar helps users to do things more efficiently. He's also saying that in these times, people look for value in being efficient, and that looking at the past economic situations, we can see that people always want to be more productive in such an environment, and so windows brings to the market a huge value in terms of innovation and ability to provide an efficient means of completing a task.

[gems-Family]

I must fall in the "or more" part of that statment. I have 7 (seven) applications open at the moment on this 2GB Core Dual system I have at work. I have 3 applications open at home, plus whatever the wife and children open while I'm not there.

The difference between work and home? Half the memory and half the processor power. That will be corrected before the end of 2009, but it sure makes the home based development project a tad slower.

[Sporlo]

"The difference between work and home? Half the memory and half the processor power. That will be corrected before the end of 2009, but it sure makes the home based development project a tad slower."

what? how is that related to the article or other people's comments?

[MaggieRed]

The responses to this story should be interesting. Hard to argue with direct quotes. I hope the guy is exceptional at management and engineering, because he certainly has not mastered the English language.

[rhsc]

That's often how it works with engineers

[contentcreator--2008]

In fairness, there's a huge difference between conversational speech like this and prepared written material like you might present at a keynote or to investors or whatever. If you literally write down what you say, you'll be surprised. It works out a lot better when you can write things down, hence the big market for teleprompters.

The response on innovation was weak. But fundamentally operating systems are a pretty stagnant and very evolutionary market, whether it's PC or Mac.

[autuumn]

I get the feeling that I've heard all of the responses before, and I have, and I'm not inpressed with any of them! Sure, he's nt going to say that Windows 7 is less than stellar or that their not doing their best, I just hate reading what I call canned scripted responses.

[massfat]

I think you should be more sick of the questions than the answers. When somebody asks you a question, you have to give an answer, or you can ignore it. Therefore, the problem isn't the answers, but the questions.

[ppgreat]

"The next release is always (going to be better) and that's called innovation."

" I think it's huge innovation when you realize that on average over a third of the time people have four or more windows open."

innovation (noun)
change, alteration, revolution, upheaval, transformation, metamorphosis, breakthrough; new measures, new methods, modernization, novelty, newness; creativity, originality, ingenuity, inspiration, inventiveness; informal: a shake up.

I'm not sure if Vista SP3 or having 4 windows open qualifies.

[massfat]

Yes it is innovation, even if it is commonplace now. The fact is, the more common such a feature becomes, the more innovative it was to begin with, to cause it to become common.
Unfortunately, I doubt there will be a Vista SP3, as Windows 7 has already proven to be a revolutionary OS that will replace all previous OSes shortly. SP2 of Vista will likely be the last.

[Sporlo]

"This release is all about listening to customers, and we certainly have features and capabilities that you're familiar with, and now in the beta, a couple million people banging on it over the next couple of months."

Doesn't seem like the focus is innovation if they want us to be familiar with everything. Innovation also entails the introduction of new [insert noun here], as well as change.

And this is completely unrelated, but: "a couple million people banging on it over the next couple of months." I'd have NEVER imagined that anything sexual could (I hope accidentally) make it's way into an interview about Microsoft.
I don't hope to be banging Windows 7 anytime soon..............

Ok yeah obviously he didn't mean it that way, but there are limited meanings for bang, the closest one being associated with coming in contact with something very suddenly (people trying out the beta for the first time).

[massfat]

Your quote proves the point. The release is not about innovation, it's about listening to customers. He never said it was about innovation, although there is innovation in the release.
As for the banging, it can also refer to hammering it and finding out where the weaknesses are.

[DCDummer]

I liked Ina's questions. The answers were grammatically challenged, but yes, you have to take into account it's a transcript and everyday language isn't script-perfect.

I suppose you also expect that most of it will be dry, since Veghte is obviously limited to pre-determined talking points and can't let corporate info slip. Still, I'd have loved to read all answers as sharp as the one about consumer pitch, where you can imagine him reciting exactly the info he came to the interview to convey!

I also wish the word 'innovation' wasn't so overused. Microsoft needs to find a clear line on what innovation means, because Ina was right in the last question to assert Apple is mostly associated with innovation. It isn't features that haven't been in Windows before, it means features or approaches that haven't been used *anywhere* before. Microsoft, I think, is more about accessibility than innovation, but it does offer some "innovations," usually, with most product released. On a question about innovation, I think it sounds pretty bad to vaguely refer to a few problems you're trying to address without naming any actual features or changes.

[massfat]

Bringing accessibility is an innovation. Without accessibility, there would be no point in the innovation. As well, by bringing accessibility, you are inherently innovation methods for people to access something.