Posted on 05/02/2005 12:13:45 PM PDT by shadowman99
In a Web log post announcing the Team 99 restart, Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble explained the team's history.
"Longhorn got its name from the bar that's between Whistler and Blackcomb up in British Columbia. 99 is the road you drive from my house to get up to the Longhorn bar. So, Team 99 is the team that'll take us to Longhorn's launch," he said.
Scoble also provided some details, but admitted Microsoft was in the early stages of planning Team 99 and no formal process was established. "All will need to sign NDAs cause there are things in Longhorn that we don't want to leak out, but they'll be your proxies. They'll tell us where we're screwing up, what we're doing well, and will be world's top authorities on Longhorn."
"All members must be bloggers," Scoble added.
The creation of Team 99 follows a black eye Microsoft took last week during its yearly WinHEC conference in Seattle. The company invited top bloggers and Windows enthusiasts to get the first peek at Longhorn in over a year, but the release was largely met with criticism and disappointment.
Furthering the frustration among attendees, Microsoft ordered all screenshots of the Longhorn build taken down, citing a clause in the beta licensing agreement. "Microsoft has handled this situation extremely poorly, and it's not appreciated," enthusiast Paul Thurrott wrote in his Web log. "Way to throttle back the enthusiasm even further, guys."
But Jupiter Research senior analyst and Microsoft Monitor author Joe Wilcox questioned whether Team 99 is the right approach to heal the rift between Microsoft and its loyal fans.
"Microsoft is right to court enthusiasts, but I don't believe that a structured Team 99 is the right approach," said Wilcox. "At one time enthusiasts were the greatest Windows evangelists, and Microsoft courted them with user group programs and free software. Those efforts have all but disappeared and the free software incentives along with them."
"Blogs could be a highly effective way of evangelizing Longhorn, but I wouldn't recommend creating an orchestrated team of outsiders, presumably bloggers, as evangelists," added Wilcox. "The best evangelism will occur naturally, from people truly excited about the software."
"Longhorn got its name from the bar that's between Whistler and Blackcomb up in British Columbia"
Now how many of you knew that...
They also filmed the Coca-Cola add "Santa Packs" up at Whistler
A little BC, Canada trivia for you...
Maybe they ought to get some of the guys from the Longhorn bar to beta test it. They don't need free software, just free booze.
Cheap bastards! MS isn't going to build enthusiasm by having bloggers blab about Longhorn. Users have to get their hands on the software.
And it's not like MS hasn't spent big bucks on release events before. I attended one for Office 2003 a couple of years ago. They must have spent beaucoup bucks on that one - free food, free workshops, free fully-working software. When did Gates run out of money?
The graphics portion of Longhorn is the most interesting to me. Weaving in 3d hardware is non-trivial and could cause problems with older apps. I haven't run Longhorn but from some of the descriptions I've read, the 3d layer is very high level. This usually results in a piggy implementation.
I don't think that LH will have a true 3d interface and I've never seen a useful one. I'm not smart enough to come up with one myself but I have thought about it quite a bit. My apps use the 3d hardware but mainly to produce a 2d display at very high speed. Designing a useful 3d interface might require a completely different method of interfacing to a computer. Having things partially or totally obscured in a 3d world limits the "discoverability" of the interface.
Never trust a new software suite or operating system until after at least the first service pack is out.
Free is free, and besides, I'm a tech writer who's used to working with buggy software. (I do NOT use Word to write documentation!) ;^)
I do not mind it for a test or play system. But for serious work I want something I trust.
3rd-rate software given away free is still 3rd-rate software.
Go Linux and don't look back, you'll be turned into a pillar of viruses.
all american choice for ms shills is named after a canadian bar.....
I've been with Linux since RedHat 5.1
Don't work for Team 99 or Microsoft in any capacity, but my job security is looking pretty good these days. Thanks.
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