News - Microsoft U-turn: gives devs early access to Windows 8.1 RTM

[HEXUS]

Also the near-final Visual Studio 2013 Release Candidate is made available.

Read more.

[Noxvayl]

It seems Microsoft has been making lots of U-Turns this year. I'm happy for companies to learn from mistakes but Microsoft are making mistakes that they were avoiding before. I suspect their "new strategy" has called for their old methods to be re-evaluated but how did they manage to think so many things would be accepted by their customers as better service than they currently receive. It seems to me that they are finding out just how much they can get away with.

I have little confidence in Microsoft going forward, the only reason I don't have zero confidence is because a new CEO could possibly turn things around.

[kingpotnoodle]

Why does everyone whinge and call it a U-Turn when they listen to the community? You all bitch and moan about things you don't like and then bitch and moan more when they react and alter their stance. It's just plain silly, have you all never changed your mind about something?

Well done Microsoft for listening to a good suggestion and making it so.

[crossy]

Why does everyone whinge and call it a U-Turn when they listen to the community? You all bitch and moan about things you don't like and then bitch and moan more when they react and alter their stance. It's just plain silly, have you all never changed your mind about something? Well done Microsoft for listening to a good suggestion and making it so.

If it was something that was an nominal decision then I'd agree with you. But to not give devs early access to a new OS release before their users strikes me as a nonsensical decision. Yeah okay, you might be able to say that "the changes are so minimal that apps wont't be affected" but even allowing for this, it's devs who can make or break a new OS, so you NEED them on your side.

Not too bothered about early access for the volume licensers, as long as TechNet folks (who tend to be the movers and shakers in the IT depts) get their access. And no, I'm not a TN subscriber - wrong OS for me.

This goes down under the heading of "easily avoidable mistakes" in my book.

[TheAnimus]

I think Microsoft are struggling with some MBA or similar management that's come in at a fairly senior level. Luckily they appear to be learning that they are wrong.

It reminds me of the story about the sesame seeds on burger buns.

[Noxvayl]

Why does everyone whinge and call it a U-Turn when they listen to the community? You all bitch and moan about things you don't like and then bitch and moan more when they react and alter their stance. It's just plain silly, have you all never changed your mind about something?

Well done Microsoft for listening to a good suggestion and making it so.

Listen to the community ask them to do the same thing that they have been doing for years... There is a difference between moaning and pointing out that Microsoft are making mistakes that they never used to, things they should of already established as good practice are now being stopped and then re-instated when the community tells them they were right the first time.

Microsoft have gotten it right with releasing their operating systems before but this time they got it wrong, why? They didn't just make the change without any thought going into it. The concerning thing is the fact that they somehow thought it would be better to do things that way, and are continually thinking it is better to act in a way that does no benefit their customers only to then change their minds when their customers voice concerns. There is a big difference between incorporating feedback into what you do and consistently getting decisions wrong and having to be convinced that they are wrong after they have been made so that what ends up happening is beneficial to their customers.

You respond as if Microsoft have made a good decision and then had their customers point out that a little extra would be better and implemented that. They aren't incorporating feedback into their actions, they are doing things that have a negative impact on customers(or announcing that they will) and then retracting that when the customers complain. Effectively they are providing a worse service until customers complain and then falling in line with what is acceptable which is a concerning way of operating.

[pollaxe]

I wish they'd rethink/u-turn their Technet retirement.

[Saracen]

Why does everyone whinge and call it a U-Turn when they listen to the community? You all bitch and moan about things you don't like and then bitch and moan more when they react and alter their stance. It's just plain silly, have you all never changed your mind about something?

Well done Microsoft for listening to a good suggestion and making it so.

First, it's neither "whinging", nor "bitching and moaning", when people that are expected to part with their own money, and often, fairly significant sums of it, point out that unless they are offered an acceptable product, they aren't parting with their money for it.

As for u-turns, so far I've seen 'reactions' from MS to "bitching" that I'd put into three camps :-

1) genuine reassessment of decision

2) partial reversal

3) mere spin and PR labelled as a u-turn.


An example of 1) would be this announcement, that I'd regard as a sensible reversal of a bone-headed decision in the first place.

An example of 2) would be the XBOne reversals, where some concerns have been addressed, and some haven't. Personally, not enough of my objections have been addressed. Some have, but not enough for me to buy. This isn't "bitching". It is a personal evaluation of MSs decision to make some strategic decisions, for what they no doubt regard as good reason, and only time will tell if they called it right. But as a single consumer, I can only do two things :-

a) decide to buy, or not buy. In this case, not. YMMV.

b) when someone raises it on a forum, put forward MY viewpoint. This is not whinging or bitching, but commenting .... which you may have noticed is actually the point of a discussion forum.

Now, case 3). An example of that would be the Win8 "Start" button. MS's ludicrous and pathetic "u-turn" over that is nothing of the sort. It is sheer spin. The point is the functionality of the button, and the underlying issues, and plonking back a button that doesn't do what it did before is dissembling and deceit. THAT is a whinge, and probably even bitching.

But here's the thing.

MS are absolutely entitled to change strategic direction, and try to leverage tablet sales off the back of Windows existing userbase, because they (belatedly) see the writing on the wall and the emerging prevalence of tablets and smartphones for many (but not all) PC functions, and the impact on traditional desktop sales.

But users are absolutely entitled to decide that they don't like it, and/or aren't going to buy into it, and also to say so.

Personally, I've used a lot of MS products since early versions of MS-DOS, and have generally stuck with them, though I did skip certain releases (Win ME and Vista come to mind), but I do and did embrace Win 7, even though upgrading isn't appropriate for all my machines. Win 8 I don't like, or rather, MUI I don't like, and will only use where I need to. And if forced to embrace MUI in later versions, or migrate away from MS, I'll migrate. For some uses, I already have. Win 9? I'll decide about that when we see it, just in case it is to Win 8 what Win7 was to Vista.

So, whinging and bitching? No, expressing my opinion on decisions MS make that have an impact on my computing life, business and personal. If nobody said what they thought about MS decisions, MS would rightly be entitled to conclyde that nobody objected. The furure is actually valuable to MS, because it tells them that some of their users don't like their decisions, and that it's more than a tiny number of malcontents. MS can then take the pulse of overall reaction, and together with direct feedback from major accounts (some of which I know has been, erm, blunt) and decide whether to, and how to, change .... or not.

Even whinging is feedback.