In a long post titled “Our commitment to Windows quality,” published on Microsoft’s website and sent via email to millions of members of the Windows Insider Program, Windows boss Pavan Davuluri laid out a laundry list of changes Microsoft plans to make in Windows 11, starting this month.
What’s most remarkable about this post is what it doesn’t contain. Here’s how Davuluri kicked things off:
Every day, we hear from the community about how you experience Windows. And over the past several months, the team and I have spent a great deal of time analyzing your feedback. What came through was the voice of people who care deeply about Windows and want it to be better.
That paragraph belongs in the non-apology Hall of Fame, with a cross-reference to “Friday news dump” – a classic PR technique that aims to minimize media coverage of the awkward news being released.
This is fear. They screwed up on requiring you to purchase new hardware for Windows 11. Now everyone who held off so far will purchase those cool looking, inexpensive Apple Neons.
It’s more than just the hardware.
They screwed up by finally forcing everyone onto an objectively shitty OS. Every other time MSlop has dropped support for an OS, they’ve had at least two others to choose from, and one of them was passable.
They screwed up by letting AI vibe code updates, which were then vibe tested and vibe deployed. The last 3 “patch Tuesdays” have been absolute nightmares of system breaking bugs.
They screwed up by sloppily forcing AI in to every aspect of their OS, and then (allegedly) bragging about how the next one is just going to be an AI.
They screwed up by not recognizing that AI is not popular among the common user. There are like 3 people at my workplace who actually use it, and the main thing they use it for is to add fluff to a chat message to turn it into an email.
They screwed up by putting a “line go up” business moron in charge of the company, who then pup more “line go up” business morons in charge of the projects and departments. It’s no wonder that the new outlook sucks and is not fully featured, despite being the “default” outlook for year. It’s no wonder new teams is buggy, inconsistent, bloated, and always changing for the worse. It’s no wonder why all the perfectly functional menus and features of 10 have been hidden by slick and useless facsimiles in 11, while confusing and clunky elements of Win95 still lurk in the shadows.
If Microsoft wants to get back on top, they need new leadership. An apology changes nothing, action does. The current man in charge and his posse of yes-men flat out lack the character and understanding to make a good product that people and businesses want to use. They’ve been coasting on the momentum of being the top dog for 30 years, but that source of market force is not infinite.
Nup, we’re sticking with Linux. It was the elevation we really needed.
This is, like, 95% in response to the Neo. MS hardly gives a shit about your or my opinion but they do care about the common computer user who sees it as just another appliance.
Meanwhile, Apple made a laptop\appliance that’s capable enough to do the things these people care about in a very affordable and attractive package without really mentioning AI, the cloud, or people losing their jobs.