I was one of the engineers on the call documented here from last weekend. This was the Friday night from hell.
I won’t rehash the technical details of what happened. If you want to know the tech piece of it, head to the link. There’s no need to restate it – besides, it would bring back memories that might cause me to draw my own blood and scrawl nasty proverbs on the wall.
Needless to say, we learned a lot about 2007 that night, which will be good for the time that we run into this issue in production (because we will – and so will you). However, there is that feeling once again that someone shipped Exchange 2007 far too early.
There’s another conference call about this very subject tomorrow night that should prove to be interesting and enlightening. Here’s to hoping that Microsoft is listening to my coworker there (because they sure as hell don’t read my blog, I know that). My coworker tends to get a little emotional about things like this, but given how much of his life he has sunk into supporting Microsoft, perhaps he has license to feel this way. I certainly feel as though I have some license to register complaints as well.
Look, in the past it was always known that products would ship first and patch later, but at least the software was usable in some form or fashion. I wouldn’t even call Vista or Exchange 2007 usable in the “can be used” sense of the word. This type of product mismanagement is going to get the the core of Microsoft and, couple that with running them in circles, may continue to be their undoing.
Even Bill Gates knows Microsoft can’t be around forever and one day will be unseated.
But ya know, enough about tech. I’m feeling the urge to do some artsy stuff. I really am. I hope to share more of that with you soon. I’m doing my best to find myself there… where I left myself years ago… on that street corner by the garage, under the coffee sign, with a cigarette that makes my trenchcoat smell quite bad. I’m there and waiting to come and visit you again. I have things to share.
I have a lot of digging to do first.