A Little About Me
My name is Robert McLaws. I'm a 25 year old technology writer from Mesa, Arizona. I currently reside in northern Phoenix, where I am a contract software consultant. I started this website (well, back then it was called LonghornBlogs.com) in October of 2003, and since then it has received several awards, including PC Magazine's Top 100 Sites of 2004, and CMP Media's Top 10 Tech Blogs of 2005.
That month, Microsoft put out the first public build of Vista (then codenamed "Longhorn", the reason for the site's name), and I had been testing and writing about it ever since. While not the firemost authority on the software, I have definitely logged enough hours with it to be considered Vista expert, and I take pride in the fact that there are several dozen parts of Vista that are better because of my beta testing and feedback.
So what's up with your blog title?
I get asked that question quite a lot, so I'll explain it here. Last year, I wrote a post that I became pretty well-known for, about how Windows Vista was not ready to become a candidate for release, and that they needed to add a third beta to the schedule. I didn't bash Microsoft for not doing a good job, as I didn't feel the need to kick them while they were down. I tried to keep the piece positive, and load it with actionable feedback. It started a very good conversation across the net, and while most people agreed, Micosoft proved me wrong by shipping a much more solid RC1 than people anticipated.
Anyway, Paul Thurrott, another Windows author whom many people respect (and I actually admired, at one point), wrote a piece in which he attempted to discredit me because of my age, while simultaneously agreeing with my stated position. Here's the quote (any emphais is mine):
There's been a lot of speculation and opinion about Windows Vista lately. Many claim that Microsoft's next generation operating system isn't ready and can't be made ready in time for the software giant's self-imposed October 2006 Release to Manufacturing (RTM) deadline.
Who are these people? And what are they really worried about?
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Others have said that Microsoft should add a Beta 3 release between Beta 2 (which, yes, was lousy) and Release Candidate 1 (RC1), which presumably will ship by late August or early September. But that's just arguing semantics. Who cares what the next milestone is named? What we should worry about is that the next milestone be more representative of the final product than was the previous milestone. Based on my experience with the last two interim builds, that will definitely be the case.
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And then there are the online pundits, many of whom are barely old enough to legally buy alcohol. These guys are classic. Let's just say that a lack of experience and a strongly worded opinion don't result in the most coherent of arguments and leave it at that.
So what's left?
I can't speak for any of these people, but I do listen to what they have to say. I even agree with some of it. But I've been working with Windows Vista for a long, long time, and I've seen how it's evolved. Heck, I've been working with Microsoft OS betas for over 12 years now, and while it's very clear that Vista hasn't exactly followed a trajectory that's at all similar to any of the other betas, it's also true that each OS beta has its own vibe. We might call Windows Vista a "train wreck" for simplicity's sake. But it's getting better. Seriously.
Is Windows Vista ready? No. God, no.
I was extremely offended by this, because it's one thing to disagree with me based on the merits of my argument, it's quite another to insult me because of my age, and then agree with me! Then he seals the deal by asserting that he's God's gift to Windows, an assertion he continues to make to this day. I thought I had a big ego, but Paul's ego is so big that it has it's own gravitational pull. For someone using his age to justify how right he was, it was a pretty immature thing to say, and I lost all respect for him that day.
So when I redesigned the site, my blog title became a toungue-in-cheek reference to that article. Instead of letting it piss me off too much, I chose to turn it around, and put the joke on him. I've actually been able to buy alcohol for the better part of this millenia, and that really doesn't have any bearing on my intelligence, my understanding of business, or my observations of Microsoft. But some people think it does, and that's ok. I work best when people underestimate me ;).
And now you know... the rest of the story.