Author: Ed Bott

Tech journalist. Author of 25+ books. ZDNET Contributing Editor since 2006. Contact info: https://edbott.com/contact-me/

Worst non-review ever!

I continue my quest to find the Worst. Review. Ever.

There have been many worthy candidates, but today’s entry from Om Malik deserves special praise.

Microsoft sent him a Zune for review. So instead of sitting down and actually opening the box, he reads a bunch of other reviews and in the time he could have been, you know, writing the review, he pens this:

It is now 10.09 AM and the box remains unopened. The reviews have soured me on the device already. Is there a point to another review of the device, given that the gigabytes of coverage already devoted to Zune? What do you think? Should I open the device, and give it a shot? I have a new Lenovo laptop sitting next to me, loaned by Lenovo people just for this specific review. (Now that laptop is seriously sweet, despite the WindowsXP!)

Gee. Maybe you could answer some of those questions if you actually opened the box. And your credibility might go up a notch if you formed your own opinion independent of all those other reviews you read.

I’ve never seen a more graphic representation of the Silicon Valley Echo Chamber in action.

News flash! My esteemed colleague Carl Siechert notes that Om has opened the box and updated his post. Carl calls special attention to the sentence I’ve bold-faced below:

I have opened the box, and set up the Zune and have played around with it for an hour or so. I need a few more hours to do an in depth review, but the initial reaction has been mixed. The device when it come to looks and usability is definitely though not quite as smooth as iPod, is still pretty intuitive. The software side of things, well that is another story. But need more time to make an honest assessment. More tomorrow!

Carl says, “He should’ve left it in the box.” Me? I am sincerely hoping that Om will give us a detailed account of the back-in-the-box experience when he packs the device up to return it to Microsoft. That would be the perfect counterpoint to this and this and this.

…Further update. That “more tomorrow” part? Hah. That was Thursday. It’s now Sunday. Not a word.

This has been another episode of Short Attention Span Theater.

Why the wait? Here’s why.

In today’s e-mail newsletter from Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post, he notes that Windows Vista and Office 2007 have released to manufacturing and asks a legitimate question:

Neither of those products will be in stores until next year. Vista will make its retail debut Jan. 30, while Office doesn’t have a date more specific than “early 2007.” (I’d love to know what Microsoft will be doing with this theoretically finished release between now and then: Rewriting help files? Redesigning the box? Picking out ads?)

Here’s the legitimate answer:

Part of the delay is pure logistics. Getting disks pressed, documentation printed, boxes shrink-wrapped, and everything on retail shelves takes time. PC makers need time as well to verify that the final bits work with their hardware and utilities.

But the most important gating factor is waiting for third parties to get drivers and applications ready. Releasing a new Windows version involves a large ecosystem of devices, applications, and utilities. Many of the companies responsible for those products don’t want to release beta versions of their products.

As Microsoft’s Barry Goffe, Director of Windows Client Product Management, told me earlier this month: “Once we RTM, it takes a while for OEMs to write their drivers, build their PCs, and so on. A bunch of [device manufacturers] have deprioritized their driver work because they’re betting we’re going to keep slipping. The best way for them to bump up the priority will be for us to ship. It’s a little dose of reality for these guys.”

Vista Mythbusters

Welcome, Digg visitors! If I may be so bold as to suggest that you actually might want to click the links and read the FULL posts before commenting? Just sayin’. (Oh, and thanks to commenter Nick for some excellent design suggestions, which I have incorporated.)

Over at ZDNet, I’ve been publishing a series called Vista Mythbusters. The goal is to debunk some of the nonsense (both from Microsoft and from its many detractors) that has been written about Windows Vista in the past few months. Here’s a summary of what I’ve published so far. Be sure to follow the links to read the full story behind each myth.

Vista Mythbusters #1: It’s not a hardware hog
Lo and behold, Vista really does run on older hardware, with some relatively minor upgrades. And if you want to buy a Vista Premium Ready machine, you can get it for less than you might think.

Vista Mythbusters #2: Dual-core and 64-bit support
Once a week I read something from someone who is shocked, shocked to discover that the Vista Home Basic license prohibits its use on dual-CPU machines. They think that means they can’t use a dual-core machine. They’re confused. Click the link and read the full story. (Yes, every edition of Vista runs great on a dual-core machine.)

Vista Mythbusters #3: Will Microsoft dump XP to push Vista?
Eventually. But probably not until after April 14, 2009.

Vista Mythbusters #4: Yes, Microsoft really is price-gouging
I explain why the price of Windows Vista Ultimate doesn’t make sense.

Vista Mythbusters #5: Aero isn’t rocket science
Your old video card might choke on the fancy Aero interface, but you’ll be shocked at how cheap the upgrade is and how even low-end new PCs support it.

Vista Mythbusters #6: Is Vista really more secure?
Everything you always wanted to know about UAC and IE7 Protected Mode.

Vista Mythbusters #7: How much DRM is too much?
Vista contains a form of DRM that has never before been in Windows.

Vista Mythbusters #8: That license isn’t so bad, after all
The Windows Vista license is written in plain English. But you wouldn’t know it to hear some of the practically paranoid interpretations of it. Here’s some counter-balance.

I’ve got two more installments in the pipeline and will probably hold off on the last one until just before launch day, January 30, 2007.

Office 2007, Windows Vista (nearly) ready for download

I’ve read reports from two Microsoft bloggers (Maria Johansson from the Asia Pacific region and Daniel Melanchthon from Germany) that TechNet and MSDN subscribers can download the final released copies of Office 2007 and Windows Vista, complete with product keys, this week. The official dates are today, November 12, for Office 2007, and Friday, November 17, for Vista.

In fact, Maria’s post says that Office 2007 should be available for download, but I’m not seeing it when I log on to my TechNet Plus account.

(… Update 2:30PM Pacific: It’s there now.)

Of course, the RTM bits for both products are already circulating around various BitTorrent networks, with reports of one crack that exploits a weakness in the beta activation code that should be blocked within a matter of days. And so the arms race officially begins.

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Vista sounds unveiled

This comparison is beautifully done.

Windows Vista system sounds comparison

(And no, this one’s not a joke. This is a two-minute compilation that compares the Windows Vista sounds with their XP predecessors. QuickTime or Flash, take your pick.)

… Oh, and be sure to turn your speakers up. The Vista sounds are much softer and less jangly than their XP counterparts. That’s not an artifact of Long’s presentation; that’s how they sound.

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It’s spam

As I noted last month, spam is up. But it hasn’t been accompanied by any increase in originality. Here’s the latest from my Junk Mail folder:

Really enticing subject lines there. 

… And from a different spam, this excerpt:

Hey, aphanipterous harebottle

Those farmers hear the girl crying.

After Checking our records, our office is willing to offer you unbeast Hovenia anywhere from 373K at 6.53% to 788K at 5.72% Fixed. ferly overprosperous hippodamous Those fishermen keep the room warm.

I think they want me to apply for a mortgage. With this pitch, what sort of hit rate can they possibly get?

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Vista behind the scenes

 Nice piece by Ina Fried on ZDNet News:

That list includes rank-and-file Windows employees, as well as some of the company’s top brass. Allchin and his technical assistant, for example, are still trying to find bugs that the servers and development teams have missed.

“I’m doing video calls with my mom in Boston,” Allchin said. “I’m doing remote assistance to jump into a machine, and then I ‘remote desktop’ from that machine to another machine.”

Elsewhere, Allchin is testing a multimonitor set-up with four displays, including some in portrait mode. Paul Donnelly, who manages part of Microsoft’s Vista test operation, has been doing the same thing for some time. As the finalization deadline has neared, he has added more systems to his office. As of last week, he had nine machines crammed into his office. He is among those who nearly always picks up the daily build.

That’s pretty close to what I’ve got here. Over the past few months I’ve had five or six physical machines doing Vista testing and up to six virtual machines at any time. It’s hard enough keeping up with weekly builds; I can’t imagine what it would be like to keep daily builds running on that many boxes

Windows Vista on sale January 30

From the official press release:

Microsoft is hosting a series of events around the world on November 30 to officially recognize business availability of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Exchange Server 2007 and Windows Vista, and we announced today that the worldwide general availability launch is January 30, 2007. [emphasis added]

OK, I guess that means I win the pool. From two months ago:

Vista fans, circle January 30 on your calendar.

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