

Windows Phone 7 Part Deux - Microsoft respond to developer - dll
http://blog.dantup.com/2011/03/windows-phone-7-part-deux

======
Skroob
"[…] in reality, bigger companies move slower. I don't really think this is a
good excuse - if policies and processes mean it takes 5 months to release an
update, then the policies and processes need improving. If a big company can't
work as efficiently as a small company, then the big company should act as
smaller companies."

This seems really naive to me. If Microsoft could just "act as smaller
companies" on directive, they wouldn't be in the mess they're in.

Of course, on the other side, a MS employee simply stating that big companies
move slower like it's an unchangeable law of nature gives a little insight
into the problem as well.

~~~
mxavier
He missed an opportunity to make another point here. Surely it isn't easy for
a large company to behave like a small one or that they move slowly. However,
being a large, seasoned company with all kinds of bureaucracy should at least
buy you the ability to set realistic deadlines and meet them. Announcing a
critical update to your platform and then failing to deliver it _four months
late_ is a small-company mistake, and mistake is being really generous.

~~~
contextfree
They tried to set a realistic deadline - they internally estimated they'd have
it out in January, but were _usually_ careful to pad that out to "early 2011"
or "in the coming months" in public. Unfortunately they slipped a couple
times.

------
CoffeeDregs
Great quote: "Brandon pointed out that the real issue here was that the parts
of the software that allow sending of logs to Microsoft are removed from
retail builds of the OS - only developer builds are able to do this."

Everything else (Android, Windows 7, Firefox, iOS, etc) ships with this
functionality, so I was trying to figure out what would cause Microsoft to
strip it out. Seems like an interesting Rorschach-esque blot of their
culture/thinking. Under-confidence because of all of the lawsuits from the
past? Hubris because Windows will dominate? Poor product management? Fear of
the reactions from the corporations they'd try to sell this phone into?

~~~
recoiledsnake
My best guess is that they simply didn't have enough time(after all it's
almost all pretty new code and building OSes is very hard) to strip out the
user info.

They didn't want to end up potentially violating privacy. Hell, even their
sending logs feature on Windows results in accusations. For example of a
brouhaha, see this [http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-
WGA-20-Windo...](http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-
WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-
Microsoft-58752.shtml)

Read some of the comments on here:

[http://yro.slashdot.org/story/07/07/02/139251/Vista-is-
Watch...](http://yro.slashdot.org/story/07/07/02/139251/Vista-is-Watching-You)

------
kenjackson
I actually think MS has this totally backwards.

They need to get updates out more quickly... quarterly. This "No Donuts"
mentality is wrong. Google got it right.

And they need to talk less about the updates. A nine month heads up on a
smartphone update is counterproductive. They really need to just spend less
time talking about stuff that isn't ready to go.

The need to turn the crank quickly and announce w/ two week windows.

With that said, I think they may have backed themselves into a corner with
their OS distribution model. I don't think they can support this number of
phones (and this is just the first wave of them). At least it appears that
they can't. If they can't figure out how to make this work, they may need to
drop to one, maybe two, phones (different configurations of the same phone is
fine though). Otherwise this platform is dead.

~~~
daeken
> This "No Donuts" mentality is wrong. Google got it right.

The name "No Donuts" has nothing to do with Google, but with someone who
didn't bring donuts to a meeting. (One source:
[http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/09/windows-
phone-7...](http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/09/windows-phone-7-nodo-
update-for-htc-hd7-makes-unofficial-debut/) )

~~~
kenjackson
Thanks, good to know. That gives me a little hope that at least they don't
have a philosophically backwards position with respect to update frequrency.

------
Derbasti
Nice to see Microsoft responding so fast.

I guess this shows how HN and other sites can create enough publicity to make
issues heard.

~~~
rdl
If you were in bizspark (free) I am pretty sure you could get just as fast a
response -- email Joel Franusic (@jf).

------
hanifvirani
After the initial positive reactions that WP7 got, everyone expected Microsoft
to really push the envelope and arrive in the smart phone market. I think the
Nokia deal has got a lot to do with the unexpected loss of momentum. I still
feel that Microsoft is going to emerge as a strong competitor in the smart
phone arena. They are going to take some time, but they will get there. The
Nokia deal is going to be a big win for them.

~~~
contextfree
I doubt that had anything to do with it - so far their schedule for rolling
out the major update this year seems to be a repeat of their schedule for
rolling out the initial release last year (initial demo at MWC, developer info
+ initial CTP at Mix in April, eventual release in October, November) which to
me strongly suggest they've always intended to be on an annual refresh
schedule, with only minor out-of-band updates.

------
bryanwb
I suspect that WP7 continues to have update issues because it is built on top
of the Windows CE kernel. the MS-skeptic in me thinks that it probably a bad
foundation for a high-performing device, but this view is not based on any
actual knowledge of Windows CE. Would love to hear from someone who actually
knows about Windows CE.

~~~
daeken
Windows CE -- from a kernel and userland foundations perspective -- is quite
solid. It's a hard-RTOS, it supports pervasive SMP as of 7, the kernel is
modular as hell and well designed, and it's _very_ performant. There's nothing
in the CE design that would make updating difficult in the least.

~~~
bryanwb
very interesting. Then they have fewer excuses for not getting their updates
out

