Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Thursday 28 February 2008, 7:27 PM
Unsealed Microsoft emails reveal pre-launch Vista pain
As part of the process, the judge has just unsealed a court document (from the Seattle PI website. Big PDF) containing 168 pages of internal Microsoft emails. This is dynamite stuff, and I'm still wading through it, but so far I've learned that Microsoft really shafted HP, Jim Allchin was so far out of the loop he wasn't even at the funfair, and that the biggest fly in the ointment was Intel.
Briefly: Intel's 915 chipset had embedded graphics that weren't up to Microsoft's standard for Vista Ready (or Capable or... there are a lot of variations. Read the emails for the incredible semantic convolutions involved). Intel put a great deal of pressure on Microsoft to change its qualification level so that Intel could continue to sell its chips and make its numbers. Microsoft caved in (having promised other vendors, like HP, that it wouldn't), and the world was full of Vista Ready laptops that weren't. Really, they weren't.
But there's tons more. Read these emails If you want a crash course in the sort of juggling act Microsoft put on as it steered Vista towards the gate, dealing with OEMs and retailers, press and analysts, advertising and marketing, across multiple markets and with more conflicting interests than the United Nations. There's enough in here to keep an entire army of hacks and bloggers busy for months, so get in early.
And you'll never look at that Windows sticker on your laptop in the same light again.
PreviousComments on this post
Interesting that the Intel 915 was one of the "problem children" in all of this. As you know, I spend quite a bit of time testing and working with a variety of Video chat programs; in my experience, there are almost always problems with systems using the 915 chipset.
By the way, the very first thing I do with any new computer is peel off the "Windows" sticker, and the "Intel Inside" sticker, and so on...
Before I put Vista on my laptop (aware that I had 915 graphics) I ran the upgrade advisor, told me that all was good but would need new drivers for my printers - I can live with that.
Truth is, AERO won't work, the new movie editor won't run, and had problems with various other video based applications. Over a year on as it's still no better.
Here's a heart-rending request from Microsoft to the court: Please put all of this on hold because it might cause Microsoft and their OEM's unnecessary embarrassment, and would jeopardize Microsoft's goodwill with members of the potential class-action suit.
