Ballmer's beltway bomb

9 March 2007 By David Vise

A government agency’s ban on upgrading to Vista is the result of serious mistakes in the software giant’s strategy. Microsoft s flawed new products have imperilled its onceunassailable market position and given IBM, Google and others a fighting chance.

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The US Department of Transportation has banned upgrading to Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer version 7. In a memo, Chief Information Officer Daniel Mintz and Senior Procurement Executive David Litman harshly critiqued Microsoft's new offerings.

"Based on our initial analysis (from internal recommendations and analysis by Gartner Group), there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft products," the memo says. "Furthermore, there appear to be specific reasons not to upgrade." In that regard, the memo mentions the cost of upgrading and incompatibility with earlier versions of Microsoft's office suite.

In a statement, Microsoft said, "We respect the customer's decision. As with any of our other Federal customers, it's our job to help DOT maximize the value of its Enterprise Agreement through the adoption of our technology. We are engaged with large, strategic customers across government at every level, and are working closely with them."

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