But Windows 8.1 isn't even released yet. It says clearly "Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview should be installed on a test machine. Following the preview period, it is not possible to upgrade to a licensed working version" http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dn237246.aspx?...
So they haven't shipped it to zillions of customers yet, and the incompatibility did get caught in time, it's just that you'd have much preferred to fix it before your big privileged vendor customer found it. Do I have this right?
Company I work for has oversight over supported 5million workstations.
We just finished qualifying windows 7sp1 and ie9.
As soon as ie10 rolled in came the calls why doesn't this work in ie10.
Well our answer was its not supported yet. We didn't approve this update and its not in the qualified release notes that were distributed.
Unfortunately with a complete system app that requires dedicated workstations, you can't keep up with the latest and greatest right away.
We skipped windows 8 and are evaluating windows 8.1
If you are making a massive system app, customers shouldn't have expectation it would work on versions/updates not specified as per a contractual obligation.
If you are simply making addons, you should be in constant communication with the vendor so you support X if they are going to support X. Otherwise you gonna lose business...
We have 3rd party vendors that are being dropped in our new release because they don't support it yet.
For the big players we are working with them so we are going live with them
I'm not sure I could complain, but we are a super vendor with all the privileges, we are still about 6-12months behind MS releases at least.
Its all about setting expectations. And you can't officially support something that hasn't been GA'd yet.
This is not what happens if you are a top security firm such as Symantec and Trend Micro and your business is securing the latest operating system released.
True. Each software has their own cases in keeping up with releases.
The software you specified has business in first to market/support. Their whole business is keeping up with the latest threats/releases to keep customers protected... BUT its not the best counterexample because not every version of their software supports anything. Eventually their software would become incompatible with ZZZ releases and you would have to purchase their new software to stay compatible.
Sometimes stuff you make just works out of the box or with minor adjustments and workarounds that are or aren't supported officially. Sometimes you will have to reinvent the wheel which could take awhile.
You need to set a clear expectation of what is. And appropriately communicate what wasn't but now is... Lol
Businesses are not purely rational, brands deal with subjectivity all the time. Your customer can understand your explanations and then jump to another vendor that meet their expectations.
No. The timeframe for solving incompatibilities is much reduced because they don't provided us from an earlier release and we are MSDN customers! we always received early releases.
Perhaps you've heard about the compressed release cycle the Windows and Windows Server teams are planning to maintain going forward. This is my first cycle here, but my impression this is not the old slow-roasted dogfood system that we had in the past. It's a new thing for everyone. I assure you that you aren't the only one finding it a challenge.
That's the whole point - to have your software compatible with it the moment it's released. The only way to check is to have access to earlier versions sooner and be able to work around the incompatibilities. By favoring some vendors Microsoft makes it easier/cheaper for them to have better 8.1 support than it is for you.
So they haven't shipped it to zillions of customers yet, and the incompatibility did get caught in time, it's just that you'd have much preferred to fix it before your big privileged vendor customer found it. Do I have this right?