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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."
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?
And That is why Nick quit!
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
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*
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.
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.
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.
The truth shall set you free!
Hmm, let's think about this:
...
- The DVD playback software doesn't sound a Vista component itself, although it's hard to tell from your description.
- "stopped to ask if I wanted to upgrade my AV" - Anti-Virus? That sounds like a 3rd party component rather than a piece of Vista.
- The "big round logo" is a part of Office 2007, which is not part of Vista. It looks exactly the same on XP.
- The "Shareware requesting updates" are not part of Vista and were installed by your computer manufacturer.
Sounds like you got a crappy OEM machine and none of these are really Vista issues
too bad you posted AC. Most of your points are correct.
My point is a new Visya machine out of the box from most retailers is not production worthy. It needed an Office Application. Office 2007 has it's own issues. Sorry I mentioned it. My Linux machine came with an office application installed and it worked, was intuitive and the minor bugs were easy to figure out. The biggest annoyance was the default printer paper setting of A4 instead of Letter. It did not require a Google search to fix.
The stopped to ask, I do blame on Vista. When updates are available in Ubuntu for a background task, it simply winks the toolbar item, not stop the foreground task like it did in Vista. This is a Vista fault. I've seen the same task done much better elsewhere.
The Shareware requesting updates being installed by the computer manufacture is a problem with Vista. They should not need the DeCrapifier right out of the box to fix a new machine.
The fix is here;
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home
The truth shall set you free!
Did I mention that when I bought my first copy of XP, I had to run across the parking lot ducking sniper fire?
You are welcome on my lawn.