Micoshaft kills vista

Erik Funkenbusch

It makes sense in other ways too. Microsoft has learned from the Linux playbook. They have been doing a controlled version of "release early and often" used by companies like Red Hat (Fedora) and SuSE (OpenLinux) as well as other major distributions.

The main advantage is that CTPs are only given to those who have signed nondisclosure agreements in which the signer agrees not to publish any evaluation results without Microsoft's prior written consent and approval. This gives Microsoft very direct control of exactly what types of coverage Vista gets in the press.

The biggest problem with this is that it eliminates the opportunity to feedback from the general market, to find out what more general users like and dislike about a product. It eliminates the ability to identify features that are most wanted by the general public as well. A bit of unfavorable press in April might lead to a much bigger sales in November because critical "missing" features would be added or better tailored into the market..

This actually does make a lot of sense. Microsoft is getting much more aware of how fluid the industry has become. Even when Vista goes GA most customers will still be looking for Support Packs and "security fixes" before they even consider rolling it out. Many won't even allocate budget until 2008.

Absolutely. Microsoft has learned what Linux discovered about 15 years ago, that releasing as much as possible as early as possible, and collecting as much feedback as possible, ultimately leads to a much better and more stable product.

It would be great if the initial release came out more like the version after SP3. Windows XP still needs to release SP3 - something that won't trash most of the back-end.