taking one for the team

ok so we had bit of a hiccup in this post. I was trying to edit it and it got deleted instead. go figure. so here is the guff again.

yesterday I was invited to the microsoft get ready launch for vista and office 2007. 2000 kids in shorts and t-shirts wanting to be sold the marketing hype. me in a suit feeling out of place, overdressed and potentially wasting my time.

obviously the point of the day was enlist all the punters into the get ready scheme. and while I have been outspoken against office 2007 beta 2 and vista in its early releases, I have come around at least to office 2007 (it has some nice features, new ui and with the tech refresh it no longer crashes on simple functions). I will admit to three things here:

1. I have been using office 2007 beta now for 5 months and it is now quite a solid product

2. this does not change my view about the requirement to upgrade in my environment for all users based on the new functionality – I still don’t think that it adds any more value overall in our environment

3. I have not played with vista since, although when I have the chance I will be reinstalling it on another machine

apart from all of this, the biggest thing for me was the attached/unattached approach that

basically microsoft were going on about innovation, gen y, the need for a more collaborative environment and so on and so forth.

when the vp from gartner got up, he started talking about the movement of value in the s+p 500 over the past 20 years or so and that microsoft had been working to build a new set of products to meet the marketspace. not once did he point out anything good or bad about the software from a gartner point of view. but the mere fact that he was a guest speaker for the keynote presentation means that gartner:

. has most likely financially benefitted from their presence on stage from microsoft

. has most likely placed in the minds of a number of people there that gartner subliminally supports vista and office 2007

. has now in one sense made it impossible for them to perform an honest appraisal on vista and office 2007 in the near future

. has, in my opinion, broken the rule that analysts in the gartner space have – fence sitting for the sake of the vendor. when you play in this space, you make the call on the goods and the bads

I was at best, suprised by gartner’s appearance and statements. at worst, I was appalled that someone who was meant to be unbiased would perform such an act.