Jim Allchin's open letter to developers | The Coffeehouse

Stephen

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/letter/default.aspx

Windows Vista: Now is the Time!

Are you ready for Windows Vista? We know the world is! Barring any unforeseen quality issues such as bugs around data corruption, resiliency, or security, we remain on track for business availability of Windows Vista later this year, with our consumer launch in January. Those of you who have started using RC1 can see how stable the product already is. We are very close to being done.

Windows Vista is going to give you, developers, new opportunities on a scale you haven't seen since Windows 95. Industry analysts predict that some 200 million people will be using Windows Vista within the first 24 months of launch. We're rapidly approaching launch, and then millions of people will be looking for applications. People will flock to software that is new, compelling, and "cool." You have GOT to be ready for this opportunity. We have invested heavily in both the .NET Framework 3.0 and traditional Win32 APIs in Windows Vista. With Visual Studio you can create applications that are visually stunning, connected, workflow-enabled, and secure. You can get a preview of some of the great features in the upcoming next release of Visual Studio that will make development for Windows Vista even more powerful. And the new line of Microsoft Expression products will make it much easier for developers and designers to collaborate on creating great experiences for Windows.

More than 1,000 companies are engaged in our early adopter programs, and some of the initial work I've seen has simply blown me away. People will just love these applications - from new DX10 games to cool Sidebar gadgets to new rich visual enterprise applications. Some of these apps are mind-bogglingly cool. And, some of the best work is being done by small companies that many of you probably haven't heard of, so the opportunities for changing the world are clear. We've created a showcase so you can see what some of your peers are doing.

What do you need to do to be ready? First of all, make sure your application is compatible. We have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, but some of the system enhancements, such as User Access Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, may require code changes on your part. You should work hard to run as standard user.

We've got tools to help you:
The Application Compatibility Cookbook will give you in-depth information on the new capabilities in Windows Vista and how they may affect existing applications.

The Windows Vista site on MSDN includes the latest technical material and gives you pointers to our upcoming worldwide launch events.

Visit the Innovate on Windows Vista portal to get access to tools, resources, and Windows Vista logo program information. I strongly encourage you to apply for the Certified for Windows Vista Logo.

If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your Microsoft representative, post to MSDN Forums, or send us feedback directly.

As I said, the opportunity will be tremendous. If you want to ride the wave we're creating with Windows Vista, the best way is to have your application ready by the time we ship! And that is very soon.

thanks,
jim

Jim Allchin
Co-President, Platforms & Services
Microsoft Corporation

Rossj

Stephen wrote:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/letter/default.aspx

Windows Vista: Now is the Time!

Are you ready for Windows Vista?

Is it just me? My first reaction was ...

"Been ready for half a decade mate, don't mind us if we don't all rush at once to help you sell your platform...."

Hang on I'll go get coffee and read it again ...

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

Jim wrote:
Windows Vista: Now is the Time!
Are you ready for Windows Vista? We know the world is! Barring any unforeseen quality issues such as bugs around data corruption, resiliency, or security, we remain on track for business availability of Windows Vista later this year, with our consumer launch in January. Those of you who have started using RC1 can see how stable the product already is. We are very close to being done.

I've seen a number of threads about bugs (especially with device drivers) about RC1 on this site alone, I don't think "stable" is the word.

Jim wrote:
Windows Vista is going to give you, developers, new opportunities on a scale you haven't seen since Windows 95.

Yep, more opportunities to discover bugs and whatnot Smiley

Jim wrote:
Industry analysts predict that some 200 million people will be using Windows Vista within the first 24 months of launch.

That's two years away, and most of those 200 million users will be running programs that would easily run on Windows XP (similarly how most programs today run on Windows 2000)

Jim wrote:
We're rapidly approaching launch, and then millions of people will be looking for applications.

"I've just bought a new OS, oh I must buy NEW APPLICATIONS FOR IT!"

...err..no!

Jim wrote:
People will flock to software that is new, compelling, and "cool."

"Report by Ric Romero, more at 11!"

Jim wrote:
You have GOT to be ready for this opportunity. We have invested heavily in both the .NET Framework 3.0 and traditional Win32 APIs in Windows Vista.

Well yeah, nice work and all that, but they're not really selling points for Joe Average.

Jim wrote:
With Visual Studio you can create applications that are visually stunning, connected, workflow-enabled, and secure. You can get a preview of some of the great features in the upcoming next release of Visual Studio that will make development for Windows Vista even more powerful. And the new line of Microsoft Expression products will make it much easier for developers and designers to collaborate on creating great experiences for Windows.

Cue obligatory self-advertisement section.

Jim wrote:
More than 1,000 companies are engaged in our early adopter programs, and some of the initial work I've seen has simply blown me away.

Fair do's. But note use of "some", not "most" nor "all", also note "initial work". Windows Longhorn seemed cooler, at least to me, initially, as do plenty of Pre-Beta games I've seen/worked with. By the time it hits RTM time constraints and the legal dept. have killed most of the cool things off.

Jim wrote:
People will just love these applications - from new DX10 games to cool Sidebar gadgets to new rich visual enterprise applications. Some of these apps are mind-bogglingly cool.

People love "cool" enterprise applications? Wow, I never thought CRM development was so exciting!

...and isn't DX10 going to be backported to XP anyway? (The SDK runs fine on XP)

Jim wrote:
And, some of the best work is being done by small companies that many of you probably haven't heard of, so the opportunities for changing the world are clear. We've created a showcase so you can see what some of your peers are doing.

Waaay to make me feel bad about myself.

Jim wrote:
What do you need to do to be ready? First of all, make sure your application is compatible. We have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, but some of the system enhancements, such as User Access Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, may require code changes on your part. You should work hard to run as standard user.

We've got tools to help you:
The Application Compatibility Cookbook will give you in-depth information on the new capabilities in Windows Vista and how they may affect existing applications.

The Windows Vista site on MSDN includes the latest technical material and gives you pointers to our upcoming worldwide launch events.

Visit the Innovate on Windows Vista portal to get access to tools, resources, and Windows Vista logo program information. I strongly encourage you to apply for the Certified for Windows Vista Logo.

If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your Microsoft representative, post to MSDN Forums, or send us feedback directly.

Fair do's. Oooh, why not get C9 listed on the MSDN forums?

Jim wrote:
As I said, the opportunity will be tremendous. If you want to ride the wave we're creating with Windows Vista, the best way is to have your application ready by the time we ship! And that is very soon.

We know... we know.

Zeus
Why is the caption missing??

Meet Mr. Positive = W3bbo Perplexed

DarthVista
...

Jim wrote:
First of all, make sure your application is compatible. We have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, but some of the system enhancements, such as User Access Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, may require code changes on your part. You should work hard to run as standard user.

That's right. Because Microsoft has made tremendous investments in Vista, you need to break your company's budget to keep up. If you can't, then you have issues, my friend. How hard is it to rewrite your software?

A ways back, I took a tour of a nearby Weather Service office, and the tour guide stated they are pretty much using Linux now. From the screens I saw, they had little Red Hat logos, KDE logos, and only on two computers I saw a Windows start menu. I was absolutely crushed. Just because they run some of the fastest hardware in the world (for computing weather models) doesn't mean we (as advocates of the Windows platform) shouldn't try to win them and others back.

Mad

Viva la Vista!

rjdohnert
You will never know success until you know failure

Hey Beer, you just keep getting funnier and funnier

DarthVista wrote:

Jim wrote:First of all, make sure your application is compatible. We have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, but some of the system enhancements, such as User Access Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, may require code changes on your part. You should work hard to run as standard user.
That's right. Because Microsoft has made tremendous investments in Vista, you need to break your company's budget to keep up. If you can't, then you have issues, my friend. How hard is it to rewrite your software?

A ways back, I took a tour of a nearby Weather Service office, and the tour guide stated they are pretty much using Linux now. From the screens I saw, they had little Red Hat logos, KDE logos, and only on two computers I saw a Windows start menu. I was absolutely crushed. Just because they run some of the fastest hardware in the world (for computing weather models) doesn't mean we (as advocates of the Windows platform) shouldn't try to win them and others back.

Viva la Vista!

littleguru
<3 Seattle

Rossj wrote:

Stephen wrote: http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/letter/default.aspx

Windows Vista: Now is the Time!

Are you ready for Windows Vista?

Is it just me? My first reaction was ...

"Been ready for half a decade mate, don't mind us if we don't all rush at once to help you sell your platform...."

Hang on I'll go get coffee and read it again ...

Same here... Hmmmm. It's weird: first they promised us "heaven", now we are back on "earth" with quite a lot features stripped out. We were ready from the beginning, we were ready since Channel 9 has been created, we were ready even before.

Vista is getting better, but it seems as if Vista isn't ready yet.