Rewrite of Windows Vista underway? Hogwash!

Scoble, any word on this then?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/03/24/76795_HNvistaprobsworse_1.html

Microsoft’s idea of transparency and “keeping us informed” is to feed the public outright dishonesty and expect the masses to “eat it up”. They sure can dish it out, but heaven forbid somebody gives it back to ‘em.

Mr Scoble. Surely you realize that anyone within Microsoft you talk to will know that you are effectively the PR department for the company to a certain segment of the customer base.

You can’t expect to get complete candor in that situation. You’re not really on the inside any more.

And not to be a snark, but are you really still psyched about the Origami boxes? Cuz if you are, you’re the only one I can think of.

I appreciate your enthusiasm though.

Alex: I am psyched by the Origami boxes. And you are totally not being truthful. The booth at Mix06 with the Origamis was mobbed almost the entire time that the show was on. Obviously there’s a lot of interest in the concept.

And “not being on the inside?” Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. And, anyway, in a world of anonymity anyone can post here and provide facts to the otherwise. It’s very easy to verify whether an OS is getting rewritten. Talk to Neowin. They tear apart every build of Windows Vista looking for changes in the compiled code.

bonch: that’s a couched headline if I ever saw one. If the headline that started this post was couched similarly we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

That’s sorta like the difference between saying:

Bonch won a million dollars
Or
It’s possible that Bonch won a million dollars

One blaring clue to the credibility of the Australian report: not a single other journalist has been able to confirm the report that Windows Vista is undergoing a major rewrite. Journalists are often like sharks: we can smell a drop of blood in the water from miles away. If this report had any confirmability (I think I just invented a word) AP, Reuters and others would have fallen over themselves with original reporting. But there were none — just stories sourcing the single Australian report. Look at the media outlets best connected to this Vista delay story; If MSFT really was rewriting Vista, they would soften the blow by leaking the news to a favorite WSJ reporter, for example. So far, that hasn’t happened.

Now, just because this Australian report seem to lack credibility, doesn’t mean Vista is in trouble. Already we are hearing the release dates may not be as firm as the pr folks would like you to believe. But this is multiple sourced and has a higher level of credibility.

Alex, I have to agree with Robert this time.

The Microsoft Ultra-Mobile PC booth was busy even when almost all attendees were in sessions. This was the first opportunity I had to see many of the models, although I’ve been pulling information as I could for my Web site devoted to UMPCs.

expecting vista to come out atleast before man is put up on the moon

lifetech: >Now, just because this Australian report seem to lack credibility, doesn’t mean Vista is in trouble.

Vista will be judged by how good it is. Windows 2000 was even later than Vista (I was on the beta) and it went on to be one of the best versions of Windows ever and that’s how it’s remembered.

I’m using Vista on my Tablet PC now and I like it a lot. I can’t stand using XP anymore, even though Vista is a bit rough on some machines due to lack of driver support.

I notice that the guy said 60% would “have to be” rewritten. He didn’t say 60% WOULD be rewrittten.

Basically, it’s another way of saying that the project has failed. You’ll ship SP4 and call it “vista”, and you’ll probably fool a lot people, but we know how throughly the Evil Empire screwed the pooch on this one.

“Windows 2000 was even later than Vista”

Nope. Longwind is six years late, and that doesn’t change just because you admitted it last year and announced a new, later ship date.

J. Random. Lying isn’t gonna make you any better. I joined Microsoft before Longhorn was ever going to be released. That was three years ago.

Saying “have to be” is totally false too. Vista is running just fine on my Tablet PC. If that much code needed to be rewritten then my machine wouldn’t even work.

This is far more than a new service pack. A service pack doesn’t have a new networking stack. It doesn’t have new UI. It doesn’t have a new audio stack. It doesn’t have sizeable kernel changes.

You know what? I think you all are being paid by a competitor just to try to cause crap in my comments. That’s OK. You’re not trustworthy NOR are you credible. Have a nice evening.

Scoble, glad to see you’re taking the initative on publicly rebuffing this story.

This story just has no basis in fact, as soon as I saw it I ran it through several people before writing what I did on BetaNews. I don’t have the source list that some people may have inside Microsoft, but those I talked to who do say this is just impossible by the amount of work it would take to rewrite that code.

It’s a shame more outlets in the tech media aren’t calling this out for the BS that it is. To those who are coming on here and just spewing the anti-Microsoft line… before you do, think of what you’re saying. What SmartHouse is saying is fact could not possibly true. It’s taken 5 years to get the code right for Vista.. rewrite 60 percent of it.. and Vista wouldn’t be out until 2008, if not later.

J. Random Poster -

Six years late? You thought Longhorn was going to ship before XP?

Seriously dude, put down the crack pipe.

It’s surely no surprise that these false reports were published while Mix06 was going on. These dodgy journos would have realised that most influential bloggers and anyone likely to dispell these myths were busy away at Mix06. That gave them more of a chance ot get these rumours out there before they were trounced on.

Update: I just talked with Frank Shaw, vice president at Waggener Edstrom (Microsoft’s main PR company), he says this article is absolutely not true.

What’s less credible than a journalist? A PR flack!

Mr Raymond Vardanega, the Marketing Director, of Acer Australia has confirmed independently of SmartHouse Magazine that Microsoft is having major problems with its Vista operating system. He said “The decision to delay Vista into the consumer market will have an impact on hardware sales particularly in the Media Centre market. We have been told that Microsoft has bought in programmers from the Xbox team to work on the problems. We have also been told that up to 60% of the code will have some form of re writing or changes made. We are told that Microsoft is concerned at the impact that the delay will have on hardware manufacturers. We have raised our concerns directly with Microsoft”.

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Computing/Software?Article=/Computing/Software/S8Q8K2Q6

Wow! All journalists should be perfect!
If only the same standard were held to doctors… and presidents…

> Sidebar: this is irresponsible journalism. The journalist who wrote this should
> be fired. Plain up.
>
> Comment by scobleizer

Robert, the line should have read “…doesN’T mean Vista is in trouble…”

doodoo, this Australian report which loosed a whirlwind was not journalism as I define it. No second sourcing, no attempt to get a MSFT exec, or even a PR flak, on the record.

The Wash Post, back in the days, spent a few sleepless nights because woodstein’s scoops weren’t being followed by the NYT or anyone else. I’m certainly not comparing this Australian bunch with the Wash Post, but there is some comfort in moving within a pack. If next week this rumor remains unconfirmed by any other news organization, we can safely put this “story” to rest.

Let’s not take rumor-mongering and pass it off as journalism. We have enough problems maintaining a level of public credibility.

After some research, I see SmartHouse has had some other un-sourced stories originally pooh-poohed. A couple years back, they broke the story of Apple moving to the Intel platform and just recently they published a Taiwan hardware company saying an iPhone is upcoming. This could be another — I’d just feel more comfortable if someone else picked up on the story. We’ll just have to see next week.

doodoo: doctors get sued all the time for malpractice. Politicians need to run again every four years. They are held to a much higher standard than this guy over in Australia is.

Sorry Scoble, but I can’t believe that you can’t believe such headlines get written. How bad does the Vista delay debacle have to get before you accept that almost any bad news story on Vista development becomes credible. For me, we are already beyond that point.

I’m not really too bothered one way or another on this story, but if the best Scoble can do to refute is to refer to an individual who:

A. Is a PR operative, and
B. Doesn’t actually work inside MS

..the it’s Scoble whom I can’t believe!