Five years ago, which is probably about when Microsoft started announcing shipping dates for Vista, Bill Gates wanted to play with Windows Movie Maker. Thanks to the power of Windows XP and Microsoft's online support, it took him over an hour in frustration downloading software, installing it and rebooting and, in…
We're on to Round Two in our worst-tech-job contest. We've whittled down 10 terrible gigs down to five:
Who's the man responsible for cuts to internal spending at Microsoft? Here's a hint: he's feared, hated and respected by Windows developers: Steven Sinofsky, the SVP of Windows and Windows Live development, who's been mooted as a successor to Bill Gates. Sinofsky used to run Microsoft Office development, where he…
After being kicked out of D6 — kicked out of mere proximity to D6, really — I learned I didn't miss much. Want a summary of Bill Gates's presentation at D6 of Windows Seven, Microsoft's supposedly exciting new operating system with multitouch features similar to the year-old Apple iPhone? "Windows Seven is…
CARLSBAD, CA — Next month, Bill Gates is retiring from his day job at Microsoft. That means his appearance tonight at the D6 conference is his last hurrah. To go out with a bang, he is debuting Windows Seven, John Paczkowski reports on the conference's AllThingsD website. Details are scant, but we've heard Microsoft…
"We're considering bypassing Vista and going straight to Windows 7," GM technology chief Fred Killeen told BusinessWeek. He said that replacing Windows XP with Vista would require the company to buy too many machines. "By the time we'd replace them, Windows 7 might be ready anyway," he said. Fred, Fred, Fred — if…
Out of 250 surveyed companies, 87 percent report owning Apple computers. That's up from 48 percent In 2006. In BusinessWeek's story on Apple's creep into corporate cubicles, Dimension Data CIO Mark Slaga explains how Apple is gaining ground without really trying: "Steve Jobs doesn't need a sales force because he…
Mark Hamburg, pictured here accepting a Photoshop Hall of Fame award, on being hired away from Adobe to work on user experience at Microsoft: "Given that I find the current Windows experience really annoying and yet I keep having to deal with it, this opportunity was a little too interesting to turn down." [News.com]
In 2001, Brian Valentine, then a top Microsoft executive, was pumped about Windows XP, as a spoof infomercial shows. By the time Vista was getting ready for release, his enthusiasm had waned. The reason? Some believe he was pining for Gianna Puerini, a sales manager who had left Microsoft for Amazon.com in 2003. In…
There you have it: Microsoft gets to produce an awesomely cheesy video to pump up the sales troops — but in a way that lets them pretend to be air-quotes cool, resistant to such straightforward come-ons. PR then strategically leaks it, lets the blogosphere react predictably, and finds a gullible square of a tech…
Want to install Safari on your Windows PC? Hope you don't mind violating Apple's Software License Agreement. Apple's lawyers messed up when they copied and pasted the license for using Safari for Windows. From the text of the SLA:"2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions. A. This License allows you to install and…
Microsoft has cut the price of the U.S. consumer versions of Windows Vista. The Ultimate Edition fell from $399 to $319 and the Home Premium Edition went from $159 to $129. The Register nails it: "It's hard to believe that millions of Windows XP users were just waiting for Vista to get a little cheaper before…
A pile of internal emails (PDF) between Microsoft execs have surfaced as part of a suit against the company. The suit alleges that the company mislead customers in 2006 labeling PCs "Windows Vista Capable." And to judge by the emails from Microsoft execs, Microsofties agreed with the plaintiffs. One exec, Mike Nash,…
The departure of Brian Valentine, a 19-year Microsoft veteran before he left in 2006, has always been a bit of a puzzle. In August of that year, Microsoft management told his staff he was taking a new job within the company after shipping Windows Vista. A month later, he left for Amazon.com. Now, Amazon.com has…
Maybe the news got lost in the hubbub surrounding Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo, but last week Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer finally admitted the company needs to do a better job marketing Windows Vista. To demonstrate Microsoft's new marketing plan with a visual metaphor, Ballmer and Co. hired circus performers to…
If Microsoft's $44.6 billion Yahoo bid tells us anything, it's that Vista doesn't matter. But some in Redmond have not gotten the memo: "New customers should feel great about buying Windows Vista today," blogs Microsoft executive Mike Nash. The source of his optimism? Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been released…
Like a developmentally disabled child getting praised for his classroom manners, Microsoft has won praise from the judge overseeing its behavior after an antitrust case. Though Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has extended her period of oversight until November 2009, citing an "extreme and unforeseen delay in the…
On December 30 and 31, Mac OS X accounted for 8 percent of computers browsing websites monitored by Net Applications, up 6.8 percent from November. Windows Vista? 10.5 percent. [Computerworld]
The Web is deriding Microsoft's decision to rename PlaysForSure, its digital rights platform, as "Certified for Vista." It's actually a rare sign of intelligent life in Redmond's marketing cubes. PlaysForSure never spawned the hoped-for army of iTunes killers, and Microsoft itself created another format for its own…
