Why "Vista" Nick White Left Microsoft

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this week Nick White, Product Manager for Windows Vista and blogger at WindowsVistaBlog, announced that he was leaving Microsoft. Geek.com previously interviewed Nick about what SP1 for Vista was all about, so they sat down with him yesterday to get the details behind his departure, his proudest moments at Microsoft, a few regrettable moments, and more."

Comments

I'll give them another chance:

[PopeRatzo]

Despite my very unpleasant experience with Vista (before I went back to XP), I will still take a look at "Windows 7", and I'm sincerely hoping that Microsoft gets it right this time. Windows XP has been one of the more successful products I've used on a computer, and it's provided me with a platform for nearly a decade of productivity.

I think there's still a lot of life left in the concept of a Personal Computer Operating System. I use a PC to produce media, and that's not something I expect to be doing on a network appliance or cell phone any time soon. I'm going to be needing a standalone computer that runs my applications for a while still, and it would be great to have a few flexible and versatile professional, commercial operating systems to choose from, especially ones that will run the hardware of my choice and my favorite applications.

Corporations, even big ones (especially big ones) will have turnover at the top over time. This means they can change, for the better and for the worse. I've seen Apple go both ways in my adult life, for example, and I'm sure we all can point to corporations that have improved and those that have started sucking.

Vista was an unmitigated disaster for my productivity needs. XP is a great success, good enough that it has earned my trust enough to at least check out the next OS they put out.

It's very easy to hate Microsoft, but I can still hope they get it right next time.

Re:I'll give them another chance:

[PopeRatzo]

OS X. Another system that pretty much just works and works and works.

I like OSX, too. However there are so many high-end audio plugins and VSTi that don't yet work on an Intel Mac that I can't fully use it yet. I have other reasons for not making a Mac my main production machine that are admittedly more idiosyncratic. One of them is that I'm really uncomfortable associating with religious zealots. I had a bad experience when a neighbor saw me carrying my old dual G4 into my house and decided that we were somehow "sympatico". He thenafter started sending me environmental flyers and rang my doorbell to show me his new Gen3 iPod. It reminded me of the South Park episode where Kyle's parents buy a hybrid car and move to San Francisco and start hanging around other self-absorbed people and smelling their own farts. *shudder*

Plus, my favorite pro audio adapter for music production is still an RME PCI card, and there's only one model Mac that will allow me to install it, and that happens to cost more than 5 grand. I really wish Apple made more than one model of full-size personal computer. So for now, I'm "stuck" using 3 Core 2 Duo machines. They are networked, so I can make use of Reaper's ReaMote capability to spread the rendering of audio over all three of them. It lets me work at very high bit and sample rates.

I just pray to the FSM every night that someday I'll be able to run OSX on my own hardware. I love the interface, I just don't want other people to know I'm using an Apple product. Bad things can happen.

Re:What a bunch of convoluted nonsense

[ILikeRed]

What piece of shit software are you using that can not handle simple English text and insists on inserting (TM) trademark symbols where I assume you meant single quote mark? And, yes - it is a serious question - I have seen it in other places - just wonder what piece of Software is responsible for such garbage in something so simple as plain text entry.

Re:Propaganda

[Technician]

I can't believe the propaganda is so blatant!

I'm glad you brought that up.

Here is an example;
"Frankly, I think Windows Vista has gotten a bum rap, as I use it every day - even after having left MS - and I would have a hard time using anything else and still be as productive."

He gave the reason I gave up on Vista. I couldn't get anything done. In a meeting I tried to show a DVD. It started OK but stopped to ask if I wanted to upgrade my AV. The stupid computer asked me to upgrade now, even though we were doing a presentation and had no network connections at the time. I wounder if it would have crashed if I told it to upgrade.

We wrote documents and tried to send them to the laser instead of the default inkjet printer. Couldn't find any way to do it without changing the default printer. Later a Google search told me to use the big round logo. It's really a button. Who would of guessed?

The Ubuntu install went fine. I was able to log into my network, attach to printers, edit documents, burn CD's, edit photos, scan documents, etc. on the default setup. Vista was full of shareware requesting upgrades for everything. Almost nothing worked. It couldn't log into my servers, I couldn't select printers without a Google search, and movies stopped after playing for 15 minutes for a stupid dialog box.

With lots of training and system customization, I might be able to become productive on Vista, but the first attempts very poor.

He said nothing, because ...

[celtic_hackr]

he makes his living by being a voice on the internet for companies. You don't go to an interview and bad mouth you're previous employers. It's the quickest way to end your career opportunities with the company interviewing you. Which is another reason why no one seeking or thinking about ever wanting to seek employment should blast their former employers in publicly accessible forms like postings on the internet. If you are one of the top three coders in the world, you can probably say or do anything and not have to worry. But if you are just another advertising agent, you'd better not make any enemies or make any public anouncements like "So and So is the worst company in the world". So, nothing unusual that a salesman doesn't have anything bad to say about a company he was a salesman for.
Doh!

MS Speak

[Whiteox]

If you read the FA, you might of picked up a bit of MS Speak:

Whether I'll be missed is a question better fielded by the audience of our blog and the members of the community influencer program I managed. I come across MS Speak every now and then. Some of it surprises me for its arrogance, and some shows how insular the MS culture can be.

Re:Propaganda

[Technician]

I would point out that a few years ago Microsoft got a minor rap across the knuckles for refusing to allow OEMs to install non-Microsoft software.

Now vendors should get a rap on the knuckles for installing any software that isn't a full functioning product. You want to install a photo editor, fine, but it better not expire. Only subscription based services such as AV updates should require a payment to get the signature file updates. Nobody should have to sweep off all the declined offers. They should auto uninstall completely and restore the original file type associations on failure to accept the sales pitch.

A photo editor on my wife's machine broke the ability for the photocopier software to use the scanner. Attempting to photocopy something simply launched the expired trial editor. Uninstalling the editor left windows looking for the missing photo editor.. Umm how about letting the photocopier get the scan? The anti-consumer action should be banned. We use Ubuntu with the scanner now. Windows is broken by a trial software package.