Arrogance from MS's part, lack of true leadership & vision, and plain
stupidity seems to plague the software giant...
just read below and weep about how bad Microsoft handles some software
developing.. Now multiply this by a factor of about a million,
and you can imagine how bad things were with vista.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/05/13/windows-live-messenger-9-0-beta-program-frustrates-testers
The first Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta build was released in November
2007. The release brought the ability to sign into Messenger from up to four
computers at once, the ability to choose customized sounds for your sign-in
and for your contacts, URLs in Personal Status Messages, and Animated
Display Pictures. However, features requested across the many Messenger
programs such as Tabbed Conversations and the ability to decline a group
conversation invite were nowhere to be seen.
Since the first beta release, there have been no new builds, no information
leaks... effectively nothing. Something is just not right in the Windows
Live Messenger department, and the beta testers are feeling it too. An
anonymous tipster e-mailed me that the third top-rated suggestion in the
Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta program, is entitled "Unsatisfied with this
Beta Program." The suggestion, which is more of a complaint, is a very
lengthy one, but here's the core of it:
I've been browsing through the various bug reports and suggestions that have
been submitted to date, and one after one they are all being marked as
either Won't Fix or Postponed, and I can safely say that with my experience
with these WLM Beta programs, that whenever a suggestion or Bug is marked as
Postponed, it never actually finds its way in. So I think I speak for many
when I say, what's the point? Why do you run this program if you just
continuously disregard our feedback? It's obvious that when you start these
programs, that you already have a clear image of what you want and don't
want to implement into the client, so why bother? And why waste our time?
This entry was posted on January 1, 2008, and has since accumulated many
supporting comments. Microsoft has not made a response to it; it's been over
four months now. Taking this into consideration, along with the fact that no
new builds have seen the light of day, I would wager that Microsoft is hard
at work on a refresh build.
It's quite sad to watch Yahoo redesign its messenger client and truly bring
out some great Vista-only capabilities while Microsoft sits on its hands. As
a Windows Live Messenger user, I hope that the beta testers have made the
software giant realize that it needs to get its act together.