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A federal judge today unsealed internal Microsoft e-mails that have been used to support the plaintiffs' case in the lawsuit over the "Windows Vista Capable" program. Snippets were previously read aloud in court, but the full messages go further to reveal extensive hand-wringing, at the highest levels of the company, over Windows Vista's hardware and software compatibility problems after the operating system was launched.
PDF, 17 pages) started with an e-mail to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer from board member Jon Shirley, who explained that he upgraded one of his computers to Windows Vista only to find it was experiencing compatibility problems with two of Microsoft's own MSN applications. Shirley wasn't upgrading his other computer because of a lack of hardware drivers. As many early Windows Vista users know, Shirley wasn't the only one experiencing those kinds of problems, especially in the initial months after release.In addition to some of the previously reported excerpts -- including executive Mike Nash's complaint that compatibility problems turned his $2,100 PC into nothing more than an "email machine" -- that thread led to a revealing message from Steven Sinofsky, then the newly installed Windows chief. In the message, Sinofsky offered his take on what went wrong with Windows Vista's launch, and how the company should change its approach in the future.
This is particularly notable given Sinofsky's public silence during the past year. It will no doubt be closely examined by people looking for clues about Microsoft's strategy with Windows 7, the code name for Windows Vista's successor. Read on for the full text of Sinofsky's message:
From: Steven Sinofsky
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:08 PM
To: Steve Ballmer
Cc: Bill Veghte, Jon DeVaan
Subject: RE: VistaI think folks are working on this now and we just need time.
Basically I think three things worked against us:
No one really believed we would ever ship so they didn't start the work until very late in 2006. This led to the lack of availability. For example my home multi-function printer did not have drivers until 2/2 and even pulled their 1/30 drivers and re-released them (Brother).
Massive change in the underpinnings for video and audio really led to a poor experience at RTM, especially with respect to Windows Media Center. This change led to incompatibilities. For example, you don't get Aero with an XP driver, but your card might not (ever) have a Vista driver.
A lot of change led to many Windows XP drivers not really working at all -- this is across the board for printers, scanners, wan, accessories (fingerprint readers, smartcards, tv tuners), and so on. This category is due to the fact that many of the associated applets don't run within the constraints of the security model or the new video/audio driver models. For example, OrlandoA [Microsoft executive Orlando Ayala] is not on Vista because there are no drivers for his Verizon card yet. Microsoft's own hardware was missing a lot of support (fingerprint reader, MCE extender, etc.)
People who rely on using all the features of their hardware (like Jon's Nikon scanner) will not see availability for some time, if ever, depending on the mfg. The built-in drivers never have all the features but do work. For example, I could print with [my] Brother printer and use it as a stand-alone fax. But network setup, scanning, print to fax must come from Brother.
The Vista Ready logo program required drivers available on 1/30. I think we had had reasonable coverage, but quality was uneven as I experienced.
Intel has the biggest challenge. Their "945" chipset which is the baseline Vista set "barely" works right now and is very broadly used. The "915" chipset which is not Aero capable is in a huge number of laptops and was tagged as "Vista Capable" but not Vista Premium. I don't know if this was a good call. But these function but will never be great. Even a 945 set has new builds of drivers coming out constantly but hopes are on the next chipset rather than this one.
The point Jim [Allchin, the previous Windows chief] had of declaring a Release Candidate was because he sensed people were not really working under a deadline in the ecosystem. This helped even though we knew we had more work to do on our side.
So far I am surprised at the low call volume in PSS [Product Support Services]. I think we have a lot of new PCs which helps and the hobbyist people who bought FPP/UPG [Full Packaged Product or upgrade] just know what to do and aren't calling, but I know they are struggling.
All of this is why we need much more clarity and focus at events like WinHEC [Windows Hardware Engineering Conference]. We need to be clearer with industry and we need to decide what we will do and do that well and 100% and not just do a little of everything which leaves the IHV [Independent Hardware Vendors] in a confused state.
That was a year ago, and a lot could have changed in the time since, but the general sentiment seems to confirm the notion that the Windows team, under Sinofsky, will be more selective in what it tries to tackle.
Ballmer's response to Sinofsky was telling: "Righto," the CEO wrote.
We're still sifting through the e-mails, and we'll report more as warranted. If anyone else is interested in examing the entire set, here it is: PDF, 158 pages. At more than 3.6 MB, it may take quite a while to load. Feel free to post in the comments if anything stands out. You'll see that certain portions have been redacted by the court.
Update, 4:45 p.m.: Many of the messages released today debate the status of the Intel 915 chipset -- which was given a Windows Vista Capable designation despite not being able to run Aero glass and other advanced Vista features. Microsoft executive John Kalkman gave more background on that decision in a February 2007 e-mail to Scott Di Valerio, then the executive in charge of Microsoft's relations with computer makers.
Kalkman wrote:
In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics embedded. This in turn did two things: 1. Decreased focus of OEMs planning and shipping higher end graphics for Vista-ready programs and 2. Reduced the focus by IHV's to ready great WHQL [Windows Hardware Quality Labs] qualified graphics drivers. We can see this today with Intel's inability to ship a compelling full featured 945 graphics driver for Windows Vista.
That and other messages make it clear that the lowered requirements for the "Vista Capable" designation angered HP and other Microsoft partners.
Microsoft issued this general statement today on the unsealed e-mails:
The emails reflect part of an active discussion about how best to implement the Windows Vista Capable program. What the e-mails don't show is the comprehensive education campaign Microsoft led through retailers, manufacturers, the press, and our own Website. The campaign armed consumers with the information they needed to choose a PC that would run the version of Windows Vista that fit their budget and their computing needs.Throughout this process, Microsoft employees raised concerns and addressed issues with the intent to make this program better for our business partners and valuable for consumers. That's the sort of exchange we want to encourage. And in the end, we believe we succeeded in achieving both objectives.
Ultimately, we provided choices to consumers, giving different options at various price-points to meet their needs. In tandem, we implemented a comprehensive education campaign through retailers, manufacturers, the press, and our own Website. This campaign gave consumers the information they needed to choose an affordable computer that would run the version of Windows Vista that best fit their lifestyle.
Update, 6 p.m.: Retailers too were irked by Microsoft's "Vista Capable" campaign.
In a Feb. 23 2006 e-mail, Robin Leonard, a Microsoft employee, wrote that Wal-Mart is "extremely disappointed in the fact that the standards were lowered and feel like customer confusion will ensue. They would like to see Microsoft reconsider the program and allow for the use of 2 different logos; one that is strictly a Windows Vista Home Basic Capable, and the other Windows Vista Capable."
She continued, "Please give this some consideration; it would be a lot less costly to do the right thing for the customer than to spend dollars on the back end trying to fix the problem."
A day later, Leonard wrote that Wal-Mart had gone directly to Hewlett Packard and asked the company to "try and affect their production lines for the Spring assortment as much as possible and pull the logo from the base unit."
In response, on Feb. 27, Steve Schiro, a Microsoft corporate vice president, home and retail division, wrote that "this feedback has been consistent from all retailers around the world."
P-I reporter Joseph Tartakoff contributed to this post.
Posted by TriplePac at 2/27/08 7:42 p.m.
I thought I dodged a bullet by waiting for the "real" Vista instead of "capable". HA! My new laptop is exactly what was refered to in one of the correspondences; a stupid e-mail machine, & not a very good one at that. Updates from MS or the Laptop mfr, Itunes, adobe, & many others are bogged down & are bogging down the laptop in turn. Autodesk won't even make a lower end CAD program for it. Yesterday, it started an update I didn't even want to initiate on shut-down so I had to walk to my car & drive off with this stupid laptop running in my hand to get to work. Is MS trying to get me fired? And yes, I have contacted MS. "Not our fault, see mfr " they say... My home unit is XP & doin' just fine.
Posted by Will in Seattle at 2/28/08 11:15 a.m.
So, basically, MSFT chose to screw the consumers by helping Intel make their quarterly earnings.
This is why many of us have been ditching WinVista and going with Mac or Linux implementations instead.
Decisions have consequences.
Posted by Alanuno at 2/29/08 1:38 a.m.
Maybe this is Microsoft's gift to the world, that some may find liberation, (or enlightenment or something).
Posted by johnnytheman at 2/29/08 11:22 a.m.
Apple's Leopard OS X 10.5 is Apple's "Vista."
New users have been plagued by the same sort of idiocy that Vista users have.
Programs that are long time mainstays on Apple like Adobe.
Music production technology like Pro Tools - simply DO NOT WORK or BARELY WORK with lots of issues.
If there is one thing that can be discerned from the comments by the Apple fans who constantly say "switch to Apple" its that they use their Apple for simple stuff like web-surfing, email social networking Etc. That stuff Vista handles quite well.
The problem is both are super overkills for that kind of work. It's like buying a Ferrari or Porsche to drive 2 blocks to the corner store to buy a quart of milk.
Anyone who is using it for more is telling the Apple version of Microsoft's Vista tale of whoa and misery.
If you are an Apple user and have NOT upgraded to Leopard. You really are comparing apples to oranges.
You want to switch to Apple now, you get Leopard, and it is just as big of a disaster as Vista is for Microsoft.
Fortunately for Apple, the Vista disaster is many times bigger and hogs the headlines - as it should. It is a major mistake.
The big mistake Apple made was to copy the Vista mistake, and thus robbing itself of an opportunity to capture disgruntled Vista users who finally decided to give up on the OS.
They should have stuck with the previous OS during Microsoft's Vista roll-out. If they had they would probably have doubled their market share by now.
The source of the problem is the widely held belief in technology industry that people are so stupid, that they'll never get any change for the better so there is no reason to make sure it's ready to go before its release.
Enough people who consider themselves "knowledgeable" have sheepishly allowed the computer companies to turn the insulting excuse that as an "early adapter" you should expect a butt-load of problems, into a compliment for being "ahead of the curve."
What a joke. Sure all "new things" can be somewhat problematic, but software companies have taken this to new extremes, and as long as people are willing to "accept it as normal" we the public will continue to deal with "not ready for release" releases like Vista and Leopard.
Linux is great IF you are an "advanced computer user" who is the type who likes to build his own systems, but that's only 5% of the public or so. For the rest, Linux would be their worst nightmare.
XP is the obvious solution for Microsoft users.
Now if you hated XP, then try something else, but all OSs have a learning curve.
Posted by fletc3her at 2/27/08 5:30 p.m.
Seems like this helps the case a lot. Microsoft made decisions based not on consumers ability to get the full Vista experience, but based on the needs of Intel to be able to sell the older chipset without people knowing that it was obsolete as far as Vista was concerned. The "education" angle is pretty silly because it undermines the point of having a Vista compatibility logo at all.
But, Microsoft demonstrated very clearly with the "Plays for Sure" campaign and lack of Zune compatibility that they don't really invest anything in these programs except for marketing. They do not back up their consumer eduction with engineering to fulfill the promises. I can't see any excuse for Zune not being a "Plays for Sure" device.