ZDNet: MS: Losing its product focus?

“What began for Microsoft Corp. as an elegant blueprint for
migrating to a unified NT platform has become a muddled strategy
marked by product delays, internal pressures and legal attacks.

Over the past two years, Microsoft has reworked its product
roadmaps so often that many IT managers wonder if the company will
ever be able to deliver on its promises for the Windows 2000
platform.”

“$64,000 question: When to ship?
Clearly, the company faces a balancing act: At what point is the
quality of a product high enough to fend off more delays?

It wasn’t so long ago that Microsoft could comfortably ship
bug-infested products followed by an ongoing stream of fixes. But
the company is now being held to a higher standard, both internally
and externally.”

“‘We were going to switch over whole-hog to Windows 2000. We’ve
now scaled that back quite a bit to make it more of an incremental
upgrade,’ said an IT manager at a major aerospace firm. ‘And we do
have a group looking very closely at Linux. There’s interest
upstairs in looking at options.'”

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