Weekend Wrap-Up: Microsoft's Bad Week

A few quick notes on fallout from the week's (maybe the year's) biggest tech news--namely the delay of consumer and new-PC availability of Windows Vista until 2007:

* David Richards, he of the "Up to 60% of Windows Vista needs to be rewritten" story, now says that a source at Acer Australia has confirmed his original story, although the new article remains fuzzy about exactly what Richards is talking about. Meanwhile, Dave Winer has one of the best posts of many explaining why Richards' claim is so removed from the realities of software development ("It's akin to believing that all the US troops in Iraq could come home for the weekend and then on Monday all be back in Iraq fighting the insurgents").

* This blog post by Phil Sim is worth a read if you want the backstory on David Richards. (Summary: He's a well-known Australian muckraker who often leaps to conclusions...but even when he's wrong, there are often nuggets of truth in there somewhere. For what it's worth, though, Microsoft has officially denied most or all of the salient points in Richards' first article, including the notion that it's redeploying XBox 360 programmers to fix Vista's Media Center features.)

* As Elizabeth Montalbano reported on our site, Microsoft has also delayed consumer availability of Office 2007 until January (businesses with license agreements will be able to get it in October). This is less of a big whoop than the Vista delay--the availability of Office (or lack thereof) for the holidays won't have a big impact on the industry--but you've got to wonder if the delay is a marketing decision, or if Office development is behind schedule, too. In any event, Office 2007 is in some ways a more intriguing product than Vista, so I'll be glad when it's out.

* Like the press release announcing that Vista would miss the holidays--which said that development was "on target," never used the word "delay," and seemed to point fingers at hardware manfuacturers--the Office 12 press release displays a pretty Orwellian reluctance to say what's actually happening. It speaks of the timetable being "confirmed," when in fact the notion that much of the world won't get Office 2007 until 2007 is at odds with Microsoft press materials from a month ago, which spoke of 2006 availability. PR that tries to spin bad news is par for the course, but it's unusual to see it in such a profound state of denial about what's happening.

* Microsoft was going to hold a reviewers' workshop for the press in May, covering Vista, Office 2007, and other products. It has--no shock here--been canceled.