From the “what are they thinking” file, Microsoft announced the Vista versions. What a complete and total mess. Seven configurations? Actually, 9 if you count two more non-US releases. I can’t believe how out of touch Microsoft appears to be. They think this is a good thing? And some clueless pundit has the audacity to suggest that this is “not confusing after all”? How upset are users going to be when they realize that they have the full version of the software on their DVD but they can’t use it? I guarantee that your average consumer doesn’t get the nuances of software licensing and will react negatively.
Vista just feels like a failure of epic proportions. It is so incredibly late, derivative of work everyone else has done, effectively requires new hardware, and will now be confusing to buy. The sad thing is that the masses will still buy into this fiasco. What’s so hard about having a basic/advanced home edition (with or without Media Center) and a basic/advanced enterprise edition? But of course this is the company that can’t even launch a game console cleanly.
Besides the end user confusion, it is a nightmare for developers. We already have checks in Network Magic for home and pro versions. Now we will have to look at a much larger matrix of possibilities. It’s a big testing impact. Sure, we can probably switch to more of a service based mechanism (i.e. does service X exist) instead of SKU’s. But I seriously doubt software vendors will want to ship the software without actually testing those exact configurations.
People want choice - but not too much choice. The “good, better, best” model seems so much more natural and effective. Imagine how confusing the Dell configuration pages will be.
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