Gates: Why we streamlined Longhorn

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I hope the meeting goes well.

By Mr. Gates description, top management talked with customers, etc. and made their plans. They had confidence in the staff who were going to do the work.
Quoting:

This is the first time we've actually given a date for when we'll ship the Longhorn operating system. It's always risky in a software project, especially one where the compatibility requirements and the scope of the features of what we deliver in versions of Windows are incredibly broad, but we've made enough progress. We've got enough methodology in place that we decided that was the right thing to do.


Apparently, WinFS is just about the most major, difficult part of the effort, and the staff involved already said they couldn't meet an '06 date:

The WinFS bunch had announced '06 was impossible:
The WinFS team, in terms of its progress and performance, is doing very, very good work, but it couldn't take the additional features and make an '06 schedule. That's professional engineering on its part, to stand up and say, "No, if you want us to have those features, we're an '07 deliverable."

No criticism on this point. The system's working when a promise for something 2 years out is still said to be impossible.
But the problem is, the WinFS group were not directly involved in the design and deadline decisions. Probably not a problem. But an odd admission for Bill Gates that he won't be certain about whether his announced plans are fully reasonable until after a meeting:

Then we have other groups, like WinFS, where we're way out in front, and there's nobody to compare ourselves to. Making sure that they see how we're committed to the vision and how we're going to support it and the way we use it with our other products--that's important. I think we're doing a pretty good job of that. I'm talking with the WinFS group next week, and I'll hear what their questions are and make sure that there isn't any doubt about our excitement and commitment.

In fact, notice he's worried about hether the staff on WinFS will feel that they've been bypassed in some way.

Not to exaggerate, nothing that can't be solved apparently, but Microsoft itself is not fully aligned with the plan announced.

Me, I notice that they're talking about purchaseable versions of Windows on a 2 or 3 year cycle, with WinFS in the version after Longhorn. That means some people may consider Longhorn an interim release.
To be continued, obviously.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 08/30/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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