Quit yer beggin’, ya bastards!
Oh, we had some great fun in the office the other day. A couple of Microsoft reps came through the office to talk to us about Sharepoint and a push for a security seminar. We’re a Gold Partner, so this isn’t a rare occasion.
One of the first things they want to talk about though, is whether we are ready and have all the tools we need to push Vista and Office 2007 upon our loyal customers.
You could just smell the desperation dripping off these guys.
Word has come down from on high that every rep needs to pimp Vista and Office 2007 for all they are worth, and these guys have heard a few too many pep talks.
We all looked around the room at each other for a moment, shrugged, looked back at the speaker and said, “Nope.”
It took a few minutes for them to realize that “Nope” also meant we had no plans for pimping Vista for a while yet. Then came the hard question: “Well, why not?” with a huge undertone of ‘You guys are Gold Partners, you should be singing in the choir!’ and, ‘Ye Gods, I don’t want to hear this again!’
The answer: “Because we can only name one software package that is Vista-ready – and that’s Office 2007.
Because there are tales of potential volume-licensing nightmares in the air.
Because the 5 different versions of Vista are a nightmare to decipher, and it looks like the one our customers will need (not want, need) is the most expensive version.
Because we’re afraid if we do install it anywhere as an upgrade to existing hardware, that computer will be just two failed components away from needing a new license – if the existing hardware can even run it.
Because of this, any roll-out would have to be on new hardware, and that hardware is going to be expensive to get the bonus features enabled – now you’re talking tens of thousands of dollars just to get a new OS.”
So no, we’re not pushing Vista yet.
December 19th, 2006 at 5:48 am
Screw Vista. The only reason I’m not running linux right now is because I’m lazy. As soon as my OS starts disabling my computer every time I swap out a component, I’m deleting every microsoft product on my hard drive.
The folks who produce comparable software for linux servers should be salivating right about now. As soon as businesses start losing money because a piece of crap microsoft product accuses them of software piracy and shuts their servers down, market share grabbing opportunities are going to be legion.
December 19th, 2006 at 10:12 am
Okay, I admit it, I am using Office 2007, that is because I wanted to see how difficult it was to develop for and also because I ran out of 2003 licenses :-D It’s a bit annoying and is the pig of all memory pigs. Also, when you save something to 2003 standard, it fails (the whole xaml thing) anyhow, it could be worse, I could have Vista installed on my machine. Hell, I am afraid to put Vista on a copy of Virtual PC, I think I shall wait until I get another PC to do my Frankenstein act on…..muwahahaha