Digital Home Thoughts: Lunch With Jim Allchin

On Monday the 8th of January, I had the unique opportunity to be at an event for the Featured Communities where we given a "thank you" lunch by Jim Allchin and some members of the Windows Vista team. The organizers wisely rotated Jim around positions in the room for different courses of the meal, allowing everyone to get some face time with the man responsible for Windows Vista. Jim is a quiet, likable guy who was easy to talk to. I have to admit to getting a little frustrated with the people at my table who felt it was more important to talk at Allchin rather than ask questions and listen to what he had to say - how often would someone get an opportunity like that? Sometimes geeks can be really socially dysfunctional.

I told Allchin about my painful migration from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, and how many hardware vendors took that opportunity to not release drivers for their old hardware, instead selling new versions of XP-compatible hardware. Allchin said this time around, things would be different - come January 30th, we should see an unprecedented level of cooperation from hardware and software companies who want to make their products work well with Vista. I also found out Allchin is a Battlestar Galactica fan, which made him even more cool in my books. I asked him if he was talking about what his plans were after January 30th (his last day at Microsoft is the Vista launch day), and he simply smiled and said "No". I heard from another person that he wanted to work on recording an album, and as a fellow musician I wanted to talk to him about that - but then he was moved to another section of the room. Well Jim, if you need a vocalist for your album, just drop me a line ;-) (I play bass too, but my skills have atrophied over the years and I know much better bass players I'd recommend).



Each of us were presented with a crystal-looking (but made-of-plastic) award thanking us for our contributions to Windows Vista. This is apparently the same award (with different text of course) that Microsoft employees get when the ship a product. A cool memory! Allchin also stood up and gave a short speech about the importance of beta testers, and how vital the feedback was from Featured Community members who had lived with Vista from early on. I felt a little guilty at this point, because I hadn't "lived" with Vista from early on - but I've always asked questions and given feedback at these events, so hopefully I helped out somewhat.

The Featured Communities events apparently will not end with Windows Vista, so I'm looking forward to future events - since I already had a morning event with Bill Gates, maybe now it's time for dinner with Steve Ballmer!

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. While in Vegas, he never did try the veal.