Why "Vista" Nick White Left Microsoft

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this week Nick White, Product Manager for Windows Vista and blogger at WindowsVistaBlog, announced that he was leaving Microsoft. Geek.com previously interviewed Nick about what SP1 for Vista was all about, so they sat down with him yesterday to get the details behind his departure, his proudest moments at Microsoft, a few regrettable moments, and more."

For those not into RTFA

For those not into RTFA here is a summary: Proudest moment: Dodging the chair as I ran out the door Details Behind departure: DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS... need more be said?

Re:For those not into RTFA

Except for the fact that neither of the things you mentioned were so much as alluded to in the article, that's an awesome summary :)

It's actually just about how he likes to blog, he's generally positive on Microsoft, claiming that they allowed him complete freedom to write whatever he wanted to in his blog. His reason for leaving was basically that he thought the new job with some start up was a 'big opportunity' for him.

Eeenteresting

So he sounds like a reasonable guy, and from what he says he was allowed to be honest and make his own decisions.

Unfortunately it's one of the laws of PR that a dishonest PR person can claim to be honest just as easily as an honest one.

Ah well. I have faith in humanity! I believe him.

Re:Eeenteresting

"Ah well. I have faith in humanity!"

Can you please give me the contact info for your drug dealer ? I want some of whatever the hell you're on.

What a bunch of convoluted nonsense

The new gig is not about me blogging, itâ(TM)s about helping bloggers do what they do best â" shape opinion through the sharing of information â" hand in hand with helping companies understand the role they can play in that conversation.

Mmmmm, the lovely taste of vomit. I never knew 'shaping opionion' by 'sharing information' was what 'bloggers do best'. That statement is even more ironic considering only a few paragraphs earlier he said:

Listen to your readers â" theyâ(TM)re the reason you get a paycheck. Case in point[blah blah blah](

I won't argue with whether Vista is good or bad, because what galls me about this interview is not the debate over Vista but the man's presumptions about his audience and the supposed purpose of marketing being to '[change] the prevailing âoewisdomâ around [the product], one user at a time[...]'. And one does this by 'to explain things in terms that didnâ(TM)t sound like spin but rather presented the facts without being leading, and in a manner that respected our readersâ(TM) intelligence.'

Because, 'I learned that companies ignore or attempt to manipulate public opinion around their products and services at their peril.' And we know Microsoft (or any other corporate "blogger" (I'm sorry, let's call him what he is: Shill) would never do such a thing - right? I mean, Lord help the company that tries to 'manipulate public opinion' with lies - whoops, I mean market-speak.

Asshole.

Re:What a bunch of convoluted nonsense

Merriam-Webster also defines shill as "one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter".

Re:What a bunch of convoluted nonsense

Would you quit shilling for Merriam-Webster?

--

I was ugly and had no penis until I tried Ma Rainey's Moleskin Cookies!

And we care why?

Marketing writer leaves Microsoft... and this becomes a /. story?

Re:And we care why?

Well, if an economist quits department of treasury, or a priest quits church, is something to note, someone is quitting from a place which main speciality is what does that person.

And now that kind of things happening to a company that is part of /. culture... yes, is stuff that matters.

spin spin spin

name recognition, name recognition,
rolodex, rolodex,

blah. why are there even MORE stories about this on slashdot. it was obviously hype to benefit nick, benefit his new employer, and then play down the MS leaving angle to make somewhat/all nice with his old employer. everybody wins. even slashdot. go go gadget newscycle.

everybody except me, im the idiot taking the time to click the link and write this little rant. and you're the idiots taking the time to mod me -1 troll and +5 underrated.

  *headdesk*

Why is he leaving?

Considering it's MS, my guess is, he knew too much.

How you interpret that now is up to you, I think both ways could be true.

Save your time - he said nothing

I read the whole article and nothing was actually revealing probably because he failed to say anything negative whatsoever about his former company (and everyone has something negative to say about their employer), yet he offers no real reason why he left but it's supposedly an interview about his leaving Microsoft... Sorry for the run-on sentence.

My take

Marketing Droid speaks Marketing Noise, to people who really don't care.

"Did you ever post something that Microsoft wished you hadnâ(TM)t?

The first post I put up was on the use of BitTorrents to distribute Beta 2, and I gave it a rather sensationalistic title. It got senior managementâ(TM)s attention, and from there we had a blank check to engage anyone we needed in order to get the story in time for it to be relevant to our readers. So while it was perhaps a risky route to go in the short-term, it was that story that ensured our blog was apportioned the resources necessary to get the job done right. In short, Iâ(TM)d do it again and in the same way (only Iâ(TM)d blame it all on my managers :) )."

If you read this, he never answer the freakin question, as asked! In fact, he said he'd do it again. I don't know if that was sarcasm, which doesn't work well in written form, or what.

Why can't people ever answer the question? Seriously. Crap crap crap. I just wasted 5 minutes

The real reason...

The real reason why Nick White left is because too many people kept calling him "Vista" Nick White, and as soon as the ladies correlated that, like Vista, Nick White underperformed and was overhyped, they left him like a chubby kid at fat camp.

Very boring article, don't bother to RTFA

Someone who has held a position like that is unlikely to fight back and burn bridges by slagging off Microsoft. In fact you would think he still worked there given the positive spin his article provides.

There's no way he'd ruin his career by giving us any dirt on Microsoft and Vista, future employers wouldn't like that. He's probably signed an NDA anyway.

New job training astroturfers

This quote, at the end caught my attention:

Q: "Are you going to be blogging for BuzzCorps?"

A: "The new gig is not about me blogging, it's about helping bloggers do what they do best - shape opinion through the sharing of information"

So he's moved on to a far more luctrative career in training astroturfers. Great.

Re:Vista windowing

And That is why Nick quit!

Proudest Moment:

Vista wins the coveted "Glass Turd" award.

Most disappointing moment:
Vista wins the coveted "Glass Turd" award.

Windows 7? Going 2 for 2.

I'll give them another chance:

Despite my very unpleasant experience with Vista (before I went back to XP), I will still take a look at "Windows 7", and I'm sincerely hoping that Microsoft gets it right this time. Windows XP has been one of the more successful products I've used on a c

Re:I'll give them another chance:

How is 5 years "nearly a decade"?

You caught me. I was trying to inflate the nearly 7 years I've been using Win XP into almost a decade in order to... well, I guess make it...look better... or something.

Did I mention that when I bought my first copy of XP, I had to run across the parking lot ducking sniper fire?

Re:

And Vista(TM) which I use every day makes me more productive(TM). It must be all the forest creatures who fly in to help with the housework.

Re:Propaganda

I can't believe the propaganda is so blatant!

I'm glad you brought that up.

Here is an example;
"Frankly, I think Windows Vista has gotten a bum rap, as I use it every day - even after having left MS - and I would have a hard time using anything else and still be as productive."

He gave the reason I gave up on Vista. I couldn't get anything done. In a meeting I tried to show a DVD. It started OK but stopped to ask if I wanted to upgrade my AV. The stupid computer asked me to upgrade now, even though we were doing a presentation and had no network connections at the time. I wounder if it would have crashed if I told it to upgrade.

We wrote documents and tried to send them to the laser instead of the default inkjet printer. Couldn't find any way to do it without changing the default printer. Later a Google search told me to use the big round logo. It's really a button. Who would of guessed?

The Ubuntu install went fine. I was able to log into my network, attach to printers, edit documents, burn CD's, edit photos, scan documents, etc. on the default setup. Vista was full of shareware requesting upgrades for everything. Almost nothing worked. It couldn't log into my servers, I couldn't select printers without a Google search, and movies stopped after playing for 15 minutes for a stupid dialog box.

With lots of training and system customization, I might be able to become productive on Vista, but the first attempts very poor.

Re:Propaganda

Hmm, let's think about this:

- The DVD playback software doesn't sound a Vista component itself, although it's hard to tell from your description.

- "stopped to ask if I wanted to upgrade my AV" - Anti-Virus? That sounds like a 3rd party component rather than a piece of Vista.

- The "big round logo" is a part of Office 2007, which is not part of Vista. It looks exactly the same on XP.

- The "Shareware requesting updates" are not part of Vista and were installed by your computer manufacturer.

Sounds like you got a crappy OEM machine and none of these are really Vista issues ...

Re:Propaganda

too bad you posted AC. Most of your points are correct.

My point is a new Visya machine out of the box from most retailers is not production worthy. It needed an Office Application. Office 2007 has it's own issues. Sorry I mentioned it. My Linux machine came with an office application installed and it worked, was intuitive and the minor bugs were easy to figure out. The biggest annoyance was the default printer paper setting of A4 instead of Letter. It did not require a Google search to fix.

The stopped to ask, I do blame on Vista. When updates are available in Ubuntu for a background task, it simply winks the toolbar item, not stop the foreground task like it did in Vista. This is a Vista fault. I've seen the same task done much better elsewhere.

The Shareware requesting updates being installed by the computer manufacture is a problem with Vista. They should not need the DeCrapifier right out of the box to fix a new machine.

The fix is here;
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/home [pcdecrapifier.com]

Re:Propaganda

Erm... It's the way most people get a copy of Vista. The license permits this crap... So out of the box, it arrives very badly broken. This is Vista's fault. That crap should be on an included CD just in case you are interested in any special offers....

I would point out that a few years ago Microsoft got a minor rap across the knuckles for refusing to allow OEMs to install non-Microsoft software.