First Public Beta of DS Pro is *DONE*

The last signature has gone on the sign off document.  The team is gathering early feedback on the product and everyone is starting to get a warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment.  Releasing software is fun.

To a certain degree it is always a gamble.  You are gambling that people will find your software useful.  You are gambling that you can achieve the quality customers expect.  You are gambling that you can provide the solutions for the problems scheduled by the sprint.

At the time of shipping a lot of the stars need to align.  If I was to compare shipping software to something I would compare it to the game of football - absolutely everyone needs to play their position and know what other people are doing or the entire process doesn't work.

Project Management needs to clear up the obstacles and take the paper work load off the technical staff.  Development needs to produce features and minimize bugs.  Quality Assurance needs to define the right test passes and run them to show the quality of the product.  If any one of those disciplines doesn't play their role correctly the product doesn't ship.

While all these people are involved in any part of the software process it is only during shipping that you see the hard decisions being made and the trade offs play out.  When I was at Microsoft it was a pleasure working with people who have gone through this process many times.  Everyone knew what to expect and what tradeoffs meant.

DS Pro team uses Agile, iterative approach.  It works out great because people get to practice making tradeoffs every single month.  Every month you have to deliver something useful and every month people understand how to cut features, what resources are needed, who needs to do what and by when.

Some people think that you can teach this through a book.  I don't believe so.  You need to experience this first hand before you start getting a feeling of what's important and why. 

Asides from technical issues every new group of individuals poses it's own challenges.  We started out with people taking really hard positions on certain issues and over time they realized that the most important thing is how we play together in order to deliver innovation to the market place.

We are currently in a position where we can make a lot of people's lives easier.  While there is a potential for a profit it is also important to realize that if we can't get our act together we miss an opportunity to improve someone's quality of life.

Windows Vista Review

Tuesday was the day after “Vista Launch.” Some people say
that it’s good; some people say that it’s bad.  Whatever it is I think that
most of my friends are most likely going to find their local software maven and
ask for an unfiltered opinion.

As some of you know as of June last year I am not longer
engaged with Windows Division of Microsoft so I have absolutely no pride to
defend with my review.

How do I know??

Besides participating in the development and design of
certain parts of Windows Vista I have installed the final version of it on my
old home laptop to try it out.  The machine is an old Compaq Presario 2500 with
the following specifications: Pentium 4 2.4 MHz, 1G RAM, 40G drive space.

The highlights

Search everywhere

I personally have a lot of files and programs installed. 
Unlike the regular user who might have just a browser and an office suite I
have some financial software, development tools, various graphics tools and
other things I find interesting.

I also do not like to put my files in folders.  Sure I have
a few folders where I keep big categories of files such as Music, Pictures, Tax
Returns, Book Materials etc…. but I don’t sort things into folders like some
people do.  Most of the times on Windows XP I sort things by date and just look
at the things I have worked on last.

Search is built into the start menu and in every folder view
in Vista.  I find it extremely helpful.  I no longer have to think about where
I should go to find a program or to open a document.  I go to the search box
and start typing what I think that file should be named.  This feature I think
is absolutely terrific.

There is Google desktop and Windows Desktop Search for
Windows XP, but those tools aren’t seamlessly integrated into the Windows and
they are not integrated that well into the start menu.  I for example like
using the keyboard so I like the fact that I can start searching my programs
right after I hit the “Start” key.

Another place where I really appreciate the search is
control panel.  There are so many different options there that when I just need
to zoom in on the printing I want the system to let me go straight there.

Increased security

Windows Vista protects your computer a lot more the Windows
XP did.  Some things that were optional in Windows XP; in Vista they are
required.  The system stops you when you are installing software that can alter
your system, when programs try to send information to the internet, when
registry gets altered.

Yes this was possible with XP but you had to configure 3^rd
party software or Windows Defender, but most people didn’t want to bother with
it until it was too late.  Now we have everything built in so casual users like
my parents get it from the start! Being protected by default is great.   

This is a true story:

I downloaded a ZIP file that was supposed to include a trial
version of a DVD decoder.  Upon installation Vista told me that the setup was
trying to send things to the internet.  I stopped the installer and went to the
company website instead of the shareware website to get the authentic
installation.

Once I got the authentic install it didn’t try to send any
information to the internet.  I have avoided a possible spyware program!

Hardware support

Hardware support is currently a weakness of Vista.  Unless
you have a system you purchased in 2006 I would not advise you to upgrade to
Vista.  Old hardware that is not shipping now is most likely not going to get
drivers.

My old Compaq laptop needed a new wireless network card, the
integrated network card stopped working.  What used to be DirectX video card
now is not fully utilized and I can’t use Aero user interface.  The best thing
is of course to purchase Vista with a new computer.

Microsoft has provided a great tool – Windows Vista Upgrade
Advisor – for those who want to see if the current system will run Vista. 
There are some reports that even after running the tool people have experienced
problems, but the tool is evolving all the time.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx

The verdict

I think most of the people are going to naturally do the
right thing – get the new operating system with a new computer.  Is it better
then Windows XP? Absolutely!  Is it a must? Not yet.