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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."
I will not RTFA. Because I just don't GAFF.
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"Vista" Nich White to join goatse team. Click here for details.
For those not into RTFA here is a summary: Proudest moment: Dodging the chair as I ran out the door Details Behind departure: DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS... need more be said?
When you move a window around in Vista (or XP etc.) the sides of the window flicker, even when you try this on a high end machine. In Mac OS, it never happens, no matter how low resourced the computer is.
Why the hell havent they fixed that? It's easy.
I can't believe the propaganda is so blatant!
So he sounds like a reasonable guy, and from what he says he was allowed to be honest and make his own decisions.
Unfortunately it's one of the laws of PR that a dishonest PR person can claim to be honest just as easily as an honest one.
Ah well. I have faith in humanity! I believe him.
Mmmmm, the lovely taste of vomit. I never knew 'shaping opionion' by 'sharing information' was what 'bloggers do best'. That statement is even more ironic considering only a few paragraphs earlier he said:
I won't argue with whether Vista is good or bad, because what galls me about this interview is not the debate over Vista but the man's presumptions about his audience and the supposed purpose of marketing being to '[change] the prevailing âoewisdomâ around [the product], one user at a time[...]'. And one does this by 'to explain things in terms that didnâ(TM)t sound like spin but rather presented the facts without being leading, and in a manner that respected our readersâ(TM) intelligence.'
Because, 'I learned that companies ignore or attempt to manipulate public opinion around their products and services at their peril.' And we know Microsoft (or any other corporate "blogger" (I'm sorry, let's call him what he is: Shill) would never do such a thing - right? I mean, Lord help the company that tries to 'manipulate public opinion' with lies - whoops, I mean market-speak.
Asshole.
Marketing writer leaves Microsoft... and this becomes a /. story?
name recognition, name recognition,
rolodex, rolodex,
blah. why are there even MORE stories about this on slashdot. it was obviously hype to benefit nick, benefit his new employer, and then play down the MS leaving angle to make somewhat/all nice with his old employer. everybody wins. even slashdot. go go gadget newscycle.
everybody except me, im the idiot taking the time to click the link and write this little rant. and you're the idiots taking the time to mod me -1 troll and +5 underrated.
*headdesk*
seems to me that he left because he was blogging about the making of vista, and now that's over. his job is done. i found it interesting that he's moving to a "word of mouth" style marketing firm. i guess that it still is true that even with all the advertising we see everywhere in our lives, word of mouth is more effective.
read my comics, please, at http://www.funfactorycomic.com
He just ran out of RAM
Vista wins the coveted "Glass Turd" award.
Most disappointing moment:
Vista wins the coveted "Glass Turd" award.
Windows 7? Going 2 for 2.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Considering it's MS, my guess is, he knew too much.
How you interpret that now is up to you, I think both ways could be true.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I read the whole article and nothing was actually revealing probably because he failed to say anything negative whatsoever about his former company (and everyone has something negative to say about their employer), yet he offers no real reason why he left but it's supposedly an interview about his leaving Microsoft... Sorry for the run-on sentence.
Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
He had me at:
"PR had a voice in what content appeared on the blog but they were only one stakeholder among many."
It was the only statement he made that had any substance. And if you think for one minute there never has been, isn't, never will be a muzzle on this dude:
[geek] "What feature did you want to see in Vista that was dropped at the last minute and why?"
[nw]"I came onto the Windows team too late to have an informed opinion, and what I do know should probably remain non-public information. Sorry."
Pffffft.
-- Karma whore? You betcha. --
Marketing Droid speaks Marketing Noise, to people who really don't care.
:) )."
"Did you ever post something that Microsoft wished you hadnâ(TM)t?
The first post I put up was on the use of BitTorrents to distribute Beta 2, and I gave it a rather sensationalistic title. It got senior managementâ(TM)s attention, and from there we had a blank check to engage anyone we needed in order to get the story in time for it to be relevant to our readers. So while it was perhaps a risky route to go in the short-term, it was that story that ensured our blog was apportioned the resources necessary to get the job done right. In short, Iâ(TM)d do it again and in the same way (only Iâ(TM)d blame it all on my managers
If you read this, he never answer the freakin question, as asked! In fact, he said he'd do it again. I don't know if that was sarcasm, which doesn't work well in written form, or what.
Why can't people ever answer the question? Seriously. Crap crap crap. I just wasted 5 minutes
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
It was time for a change and the opportunity was too good to resist. And I managed to convince my wife that we're in a place where we can take on a little more risk
and Did Microsoft ever keep you from posting something? No, the decision to post or not post content on the blog was always my decision and the buck always stopped with me. That was part of what made the role great and kept it interesting for 2 years. or What are you most excited about in the roadmap for Vista? 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. I'd call this the ANTI-slashdottish article. When he announced his departure, people on this place began speculating about how the poor gut "got sacked" or "was tired of defending Vista crap", etc....It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
utterly and miserably failed, when "Vista" is part of your nickname.
The real reason why Nick White left is because too many people kept calling him "Vista" Nick White, and as soon as the ladies correlated that, like Vista, Nick White underperformed and was overhyped, they left him like a chubby kid at fat camp.
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.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Someone who has held a position like that is unlikely to fight back and burn bridges by slagging off Microsoft. In fact you would think he still worked there given the positive spin his article provides.
There's no way he'd ruin his career by giving us any dirt on Microsoft and Vista, future employers wouldn't like that. He's probably signed an NDA anyway.
Nah, it went like this:
...give you a bad review and make you work on something menial like minesweeper.
...send your car to the pound. With your dogs inside.
...paint your head green and call your aunt really nasty names.
...put milk in your toilet, and feces in your tea.
...spill orange juice in your refrigerator and hide your towels.
...make you have a serious surgery and install Vista on your life support systems.
...open a can of beans and make you drink the juice.
...make you light your grandmother's farts on fire on chili night.
...eat lots of spam and sing pirate songs.
...sail to the Bahamas and make you come right back without getting on the beach.
...plaster pictures of you getting your nostrils raped on myspace.
...send you to NYC dressed like an 17th century nobleman.
...start taunting you in languages you don't speak and show you our knees.
MSFT: Nick, Vista was a complete flop. We are holding you responsible. You can either leave and say that you were chasing another opportunity and save face or we'll...
(your choice)
I'll bet it was a picnic.
blah blah blah
This quote, at the end caught my attention:
Q: "Are you going to be blogging for BuzzCorps?"
A: "The new gig is not about me blogging, it's about helping bloggers do what they do best - shape opinion through the sharing of information"
So he's moved on to a far more luctrative career in training astroturfers. Great.
Jeremy
That's likely why I went and installed Linux - the word-of-mouth for Windows just simply wasn't there.
But now there is a whole emerging INDUSTRY leveraging the idea of word-of-mouth!
Just think: This new industry could make this whole recession thing go away by spreading the word! American innovation remains strong! (spread the word!)
Can someone point out the regrets? I couldn't find any. Neither could firefox.
Before you design for reuse, make sure to design it for use.
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!
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Wow, I'm really interested in this! What were the details behind his departure from Microsoft... I'll bet it was something really juicy...
Uh.
I tied my bathrobe for this?
Sigh. Nickrolled.
My biggest problem with Microsoft, HP etc is that they default to LETTER size.
There are far more people in the world that use A$ paper than Letter.
Why don't they (Software suppliers) offer and option to set the default paper size and which (English Dictionary to use for that matter) at install time?
I have lost count of the number of documents I had had fail to print over the years when some dumb ass HP printer accepts the Letter sized job from office and then does not know what to do with it.... Instead of using the A4 tray.
Q: Did you ever post something that Microsoft wished you hadn't?
A: The first post I put up was on the use of BitTorrents to distribute Beta 2, and I gave it a rather sensationalistic title. It got senior management's attention, and from there we had a blank check to engage anyone we needed in order to get the story in time for it to be relevant to our readers.
bite my glorious golden ass.
How exactly is this redundant? I have no idea what it's talking about either.
Fucking mods.
It was nothing but a bunch of softball questions answered with corporately loyal rhetoric. The whole thing can be summed up:
He was a blogger for Microsoft and whose job it was to report news about Windows Vista's superior functionality. Every experience he had was great, challenging, and emotionally rewarding.
I don't like spin, and that's all this "interview" is. I'm not in the market for any bridges or swampland.