Why all the secrecy about Vista SP1?
Taken from : http://windowsconnected.com
One thing I have always loved about the computer industry is that if you’re the big kid on the block, you’re always wrong. No matter what you do, you’re wrong. No matter how you approach things you’re wrong. And, most specifically, you are obligated to share everything to everyone, immediately. Such is the attitude with the industry and Microsoft. Well, I’m coming to the aid of Microsoft by trying to point things out from their point of view.
First, does Apple pre-release information about upcoming products or OS releases/features? Absolutely not. In fact, Apple is notorious for being highly secretive, to the point of leaking false information (even internally) firing people for even breathing a product name, suing blogger’s who dare mention something they’ve heard, etc. (The iPhone is a perfect example.) And yet, with Apple, and the iPhone specifically, did you hear outrage at Apple’s secrecy? No, everyone thought it to be ‘cool’, and it helped hype the product beyond appropriate levels. Now, while I find Apple’s approach sometimes excessive, I don’t dis-agree with secrecy about your upcoming technologies, nor am I against creating hype. In fact, I am all for it. So why is it ok for Apple and other companies to do so, but not Microsoft? Why would Microsoft be secretive about SP1, and other future product releases? I think Microsoft has learned their lesson. Here’s some reasons why.
Windows Longhorn is announced, and Microsoft does some very early concept demo’s of what they want to pull off. 3D accelerated interface, instant desktop search, sidebar, WinFS, .Net Framework 3.0 (with components such as WPF, or Windows Presentation Foundation), etc. What happened? Well, first off, they bit off more than they could chew. A lot of the technology they wanted to deliver, they just couldn’t pull it off in time. This was caused by a few issues, one of them being how they approached the initial development project of Longhorn just wouldn’t work so they had to scrap it and start over. (This was a huge cause in all the technologies that slipped from Vista RTM.) The other main issue that came from talking about their project concepts was that competitors took those ideas and ran with them faster than Microsoft could deliver the OS. Of course, I am referring to instant desktop search among others. Of course the competition was able to beat them to market on these concepts because Microsoft was going to deliver this concept in a future OS release, not as a stand alone app as their competition did.
So, with just these few examples, is it not evident that Microsoft has learned that it does nothing but hurt you to release your concepts and hopes for a project early on? Bungie, now a Microsoft subsidiary learned this lesson a long time ago, and very rarely leaks anything related to it’s ‘Halo’ titles until those concepts have come to fruition and the release is imminent.
So, again, why all the secrecy about Vista SP1? I have a few thoughts. First, something I learned very early on in my career. If you want to make a great impression, under promise, and over deliver. I personally would guess this is Microsoft’s main thoughts about Vista SP1. There are rumors flying about that Microsoft is also looking to plug ‘leaks’ now with Vista SP1, so they know who not to trust with early information regarding Windows 7. I think this is a fantastic idea. So why do we in the industry feel that Microsoft ‘owes’ us early information about product releases and concepts? And why are we so hypocritical that we don’t demand the same from every vendor? I think everyone out there who’s complaining (and you know who you are) about how Microsoft is ‘mis-handling’ the information release regarding Vista SP1 needs to take an honest look at yourselves and ask, “Why do I feel so entitled when it comes to Microsoft?” I’m not sure who’s at fault for creating this entitled attitude. Perhaps it’s Microsoft’s fault because of how they’ve freely handed out information in the past. What it comes down to is that it’s irrelevant how it happened, we just all need to get over it and let Microsoft try and protect it’s IP for a change, at least until they are confident in releasing information.
So, what do you think?
Filed under: Software