Saturday, March 25, 2006

More than half of Microsoft Vista needs re-writing

MICROSOFT appears to be in a state of panic, ordering 60 per cent of its new operating system to be re-written amidst a major shake-up of its troubled Windows division.

The news follows another delay with reports of a staff revolt over the way that management has handled the development of the operating system.

According to a Volish denizen speaking to smarthouse.com, orders have come down from on high to rewrite more than 60 per cent of the consumer version of Vista in a bid to get it ready for the 2007 CES show in Las Vegas.

Vole has shifted programmers from its Xbox team to help resolve many problems associated with entertainment and media centre functionality inside the OS. They are also working with Intel's Viiv team engineers and it is believed that Viiv could also be stalled to line up with Vista’s launch.

At the centre of the problem appears to be the Media Centre code which will not be optional. Apparently they cannot get it to work properly in its current format and will have to make a lot of changes to the code to jack it in.

Meanwhile Vole has moved to sort out management problems in its Windows division and restructured the lot.

Steven Sinofsky has been promoted to senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live Group to take control of the division. He is one of the Volish "rising stars" and is famous for getting a team to work properly.

Smarthouse has dug up an internal memo on the changes from Co-President, Platforms Products & Services Division Kevin Johnson to his executive staff. He said that he had made a lot of the changes after talking to staff. One of the people who seems to have had his job changed is Johnson’s other Co-President, Platforms Products & Services Division Jim Allchin. Although his role in Vole has not changed, apparently he will have to report to Johnson from now on.

Although there are some musical chairs, no one appears to have been fired or demoted for a cock-up which has effectively cost Vole 40 per cent of five billion dollars.

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