Normally I ease out information from my confidential sources regarding upcoming products and corporate changes, but this time there is so much good material from source code-named 10CC that I must run it all at once…good reading. But these ARE raw notes.
Dispatch One:
The infamous July 4th massacre goes public…
If anything, taught me that there is a pretty damnable shy weak-kneed tech press out there, as I heard this info weeks ago, and I wasn’t even hardly paying attention. Lots of people missed exclusives. :)
Links:
They trying to spin it as ‘customer feedback’ and ‘security’, but that’s bull…as this just erases what they sold every developer on at the PDC. Just the hype machine got caught and all the OEMs started to get worried. And Avalon missed the mobility trend. And developers got worried per developing for an OS not out there, with zero-market share, so now they downwinded Indigo, when they said they would NEVER do that.
Damn, if this doesn’t make everything Scobie has said from his hire point until now a total farce. :) — 10CC
Dispatch Two
50 million reporters covering MSFT and things are
STILL hazy. That SAYS something about that company. :)But the way I see it…
Avalon in? Not exactly.
Arrgh, now my MSFT sources are saying Avalon “lite” is
in and the “decoupling” only means a send to other
OS’es (XP and 2003) so the developers don’t balk. So
it is a KILL of the big and a GO with the small. They
sure aren’t making it easy to follow. WinFS out for
sure, Avalon reduced and shipped to other OSes
(reasoning mainly per mobility devices,
laptops/Tablets). Was supposed to be an ‘upgrade
feature’ FOR Longhorn but that is not reality. Mary Jo
is indirectly jabbing at Andy. But it was RIGHT at the
time, just all in the MSFT ever-changing jelly-jam
jar. WinFS out, Indigo and Avalon “lite” in. And now
that the bits all be downwinded to other OS’es, sorta
takes away desire to upgrade TO Longhorn.Oh!!!!! This was all decided over the July 4th time
frame…internals calling it the “Longhorn Fireworks
Display” as I guess it got heated, as Gates and Jim
went temper-tantrum serious. BONUS SCORE! Nice
anecdote! 100% true!WinFS – out. Roadmap hazy. Pay no attention here.
Avalon normal – out
Avalon “lite” – Longhorn, XP, 2003
Indigo – In, tho XP and 2003 need a ‘refresh’ or
‘service pack’ to make work, I hear.So see? Avalon is out, but yet in. Gawd. I swear these
MSFT people have no grounding on road-maps or any
sense of reality. The hype of PDC took over, chief
people to blame: Longhorn Evangelists, Scobie and the
buzz-up MSFT bloggers. PR was quite muted overall (in
comparison), it was the bloggers deal really. Gotta
work in a slice per how the bloggers fostered a false
illusion.Jim doesn’t want it called Shorthorn? Duh, stupid of
him to even mention it, as now EVERYONE will call it
that. But I have a better idea, how about XP 3? :) XP,
XP SP1, XP SP2, XP 2 (there will be one! Now for
sure.) Hence, Longhorn is XP 3. :) It’s “polite” but
yet jabbing, rather than a grand revolution it is just
a creep-up, as is normal.–10CC out
Dispatch Threee
Random notes. Need water! Help me.
Synthesis of my info…
I think everyone knew WinFS was overly ambitious. Not
much debate over that. I see Avalon really in the
driving seat here.Avalon – Longhorn only tech. Upgrade incentive
feature. Bloggers and Evangelists pegged it all up.
3D, way better than Apple. Wheee, future so bright
gotta wear Avalon shades. Come to PDC, Come to PDC,
see the future. Longhorn Sky Captains and the World of
Tomorrow!External Developer balk. Why develop for something
3 years away with no market share? You mean things in
Avalon (and WinFS) won’t work with 2003 and XP? And we
don’t have Indigo? You MSFT guys literally crazy or
something?Decision made to extend all tech to other OS’es.
Internal Avalon’ite developers balked, said that’s
pulling the rug out from under us. You said we didn’t
have to worry about legacy. XP and 2003 will need
post-SP2 upgrades! Haven’t you thought about that?
Another 2003 and another XP? Or Service Pack? What,
what, what? We will need Indigo and WinFS in other
OS’es too. Ok, you can have that, we already sorta
made that decision too. But Avalon is out unless you
guys can do it for other OS’es. Some people went: Hey,
can you guys make it for SP2? That will start the ball
rolling. Or is that pushing it? Some said pushing it,
will push SP2 back to Oct/Nov. Others went: forget
this nonsense, more people worried about Security.
Pull up pants and just get it out, you toads.But while all SP2 testing and such going on. Given a
month. Wait, not doable. Can’t make for SP2. Just ship
SP2 as it is now. And then let’s discuss this. Need
more time. Given time to ‘reduce’ for other OS’es and
a side of making work for mobile: laptop/tablet units.
Not done.July meeting: WinFS out, Avalon out. All OSes decision
sorta already made, but made formal here. But Avalon
to be released separate as part of “WinFX developer
technologies”. No real debate over WinFS (well cept
from temper-tantrum Gates mainly) and everyone agreed
Indigo extension was a good idea. Only point of
contention was Avalon. Avalon out, married with WinFS.Avalon team waiiiiiiiit. THAT IS NOT FAIR! Don’t treat
us like the WinFS people. Don’t call us “Windows WinFX
developer technologies.” You threw us a monkey wrench
per the other OSes, we can do this, just need more
time. We want to be in Longhorn. Pretty please?Ok, you are back in. But hurry up please. Some
deadline.Tons of developers ‘hear’ all this. Chaos in the
ranks. Political battles between Avalon and Jim. Jim
trying to say ‘cut’ to spur them on. Avalon’ites
fighting back saying not dead yet. Developers leak
info. Avalon people not happy.PR hits. Still chaos. Avalon in or out? Depends on who
you ask.Jim slights them in his letter to employees. Frosts
more Avalon’ites…”WinFX developer technologies WHICH
INCLUDE the new presentation subsystem “Avalon”.“In addition, our intention is to broaden the delivery
of the Windows WinFX developer technologies – which
include the new presentation subsystem “Avalon” and
the new communication subsystem “Indigo” – to Windows
XP and Windows Server 2003.” – Jim Allchin–10CC .. if you never hear from me, you’ll know why.
Several California cities and counties, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, sued Microsoft on Friday. What’s the deal with this John? Could CA be dumping MSFT and doing a switch to Linux like Munich? The big idea seems to be, “It’s anticompetitive, it’s predatory, and it denies consumers, and in this case taxpayers, the benefits of innovation that a free marketplace should provide,” which is the the ongoing battle cry against MSFT.
A few points from a hack.
1. As for anticompetitive, I don’t think the information technology future will be shaped around the OS. It is a interesting concept, but the OS isn’t really that big of a deal anymore. It seems crazy to wait around for MSFT until 06. The future is today. Building business structures around the Internet opens up more competitive advantages for both business and government.
2. Predatory. Here you are dealing with price, value, costs and innovation issues. MSFT claims Linux is more expensive based on the total cost of ownership. Then, who owns the software? The big expense factor is license fees. As far as value is concerned, I think it is the applications that determine this. Using Google as an example, here is a case where a company delivers value with Linux as a core technology. Google is innovative, so there is proof that innovation can occur outside of the MSFT axis. Building technology around the Internet instead of the OS is accelerating the development of new applications. This adds both value and speed for growing information based businesses, which most businesses are. MSFT can’t just dictate what customers will do and when they will do it. They can try, but I don’t think it will work.
3. Government systems appear to offer the best opportunity for expanding Linux. It could be Munich, LA, Buffalo or whoever. At the United States Federal level, the Dept. of Defense is deploying Linux for a number of reasons. Strategy counts here. There is more. See: ‘ The right of passage no one noticed’. June 10, 2004 by Tom Adelstein
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7622&mode=thread&order=0
Here’s the lead in: ” Earlier this year, a major open-source event came and went without much community notice and with little media attention. A Cabinet-level federal agency released a software product under the GPL, making it the first tool of its kind to be licensed by the US government free of charge to public and private sector organizations. ”
The government doesn’t revolve around the operating system. If MSFT were to dry up and blow away next week, Washington DC wouldn’t miss a heartbeat over it. We know the Internet is here for good. I think you will see the most Linux growth in the public sector. Companies that are locked in to MSFT face the same pressures MSFT does. One pressure MSFT does not seem to face is competitive. But that can cut both ways. Those companies who stick with MSFT are likely to do so until the end. The date of the end could be postponed until 2007. Who knows what LA or SF will be using by then? Not even MSFT can say.
Maybe you should consider a separate topic for SP2 as the “upgrades” proceed?
My lovely wife, the half of the family gainfully employed in IT, tells me that whole chunks of the banking industry are frantically [1] trying to avoid SP2; [2] keep staff from inadvertently running Windows Update; and [3] trying to sort out compatibility with the very specific flavors of software they run.
We’ve finally been permitted by Microsoft to upgrade to SP2 at home. It takes a while for anything to get round to New Mexico. So, all four machines are done: 2 desktops, 2 laptops. The only hiccup was getting SP2 to recognize the Wi-Fi G+ network. Logging onto the router apparently solved that. But, since I’m as paranoid as anyone else, I’ve allowed the addition of MSFT’s new firewall to the array — maintaining my usual combination of 2 hardware and 2 software firewalls.
Since lots of hooks have changed, I expected Zone Alarm Pro to bug me for a while. Not too bad. But, wouldn’t it seem logical that Microsoft might at least recognize portions of Windows XP are legit? The SP2 firewall tried to block Windows Fax process, this morning!!!
An additional SP2 hiccup recurreth: on several occasions, now, when booting up my laptop, XP tries to take over from Linksys’ software — realizes I haven’t put WXP in charge — refuses to let the Linksys software hookup to Firefox and gives me an error message about there being 3rd Party software interfering with my Internet connection.
It, then, offers to repair everything — which usually means it just finds an IP address all over again on the wi-fi network. Last time it happened, it didn’t even succeed at that. After I finally got it to shut off — it wouldn’t even let Task Manager onto the desktop — I rebooted; cancelled the MSFT crap before it could get into the repair loop; just double-clicked on the Linksys icon on the toolbar — and, phew, it took over from there.
Onward and upward into Firefox.