Open letter to Gates: If the crash was not planned, maybe it should have been infoworld.com
Norm, in the spirit of Andy Grove, we have this point of view on the famous Comdex crash.
Dear Bill: Last week's very public crash of Windows 98 at Spring Comdex was brilliant. You again demonstrated your mastery of public relations. With one "accident," you were able to get a huge amount of press. You changed some sentiments about you and Microsoft and also set the stage for corporations to follow your proposed path to NT 5.0. That repositioning is a classic move that has made you the world mogul you are.
Chris Capossela, your Windows program manager who was drafted to demonstrate Windows 98, performed like a star. I particularly liked the banter between the two of you when Windows 98 crashed after Capossela plugged in the Universal Serial Bus port scanner. Your "That's probably why we haven't shipped Windows 98 yet" was good; and Chris' "We still have work to do" set the stage for you to lay out a Windows NT 5.0 migration pitch.
I wonder. The whole thing did have a faint whiff of a setup, with the cheerful (canned?) banter by notoriously hot tempered Bill. A big demo, with everybody watching, you usually do things that have worked 100 times in rehearsal. And most of what I've read about Windows98 has been good. Kinder, gentler II (or III, I loose track)? On the other hand, USB has been kicking around for years, waiting for decent drivers from Microsoft. Maybe the wait isn't over yet. The same thing with USB was supposed to be happening on a smaller scale at the last Comdex. Remember that one, with Dancing Bill? I can't remember if Win98 was scheduled for a Christmas or New Year's launch then.
But this third time was the charm. You showed the type of media handling that has made Microsoft a household name. Your crash was on nearly every nightly newscast, as well as in the next day's newspapers. It even made such popular TV shows as "The Today Show" and "Regis and Kathy Lee." Heck, you even made David Letterman's Top-Ten list, (which wasn't any worse than that silly "Quiz Machine" segment you did when you were on his show).
Dang, I'll have to look that one up. I used to tape Letterman, but gave up when I got 2 months behind time shifting. Guy after my own heart, smart mouth and all that.
Beyond just gaining visibility, the crash gave the corporations a clear message to wait for NT. You've talked and talked about how Windows 98 isn't a corporate product (and I know you are anxious that any corporations that do embrace Windows 98 won't upgrade to NT until at least 2001 -- contradicting your grand OS plan). But given year-2000 pressure and fears, some have even been tempted to forego your OS direction warning and install Windows 98 this summer.
So last week's crash gave some teeth to your comments. It showed corporations that although Windows 98 looks nice, it isn't a Windows 95 bug elixir. Besides, although it boots faster and eases the interface, corporate apps will probably run slower. So you are hoping that corporations will continue to use Windows 95 for another year or so, then upgrade to NT when it finally comes out. I am sure that you won't let Dave Cutler have a public crash of NT within a month of its release.
Maybe it's true. It might explain the anti-hype run up to the Win98 launch, very un-Microsoft. On the other hand, also very un-Microsoft to leave money on the table. That stuff about things running slower has me wondering about the "sucks less" business too, though at this point I prefer living with slower but more reliable NT.
Cheers, Dan. |
