Mac BU: Office 2008 on track
updated 03:10 pm EDT, Thu June 14, 2007
Office 2008 on track
In a brief interview with MacNN discussing the departure of general manager Roz Ho, the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) of Microsoft told us that the division is squarely focused on delivering Office 2008 in the second half of 2007, and the placement of new general manager Craig Eisler does not signal that the project is off track. Meanwhile, is still a mystery where exactly former MacBU GM Roz Ho is headed in Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division.
Microsoft told MacNN simply that "Roz is working on special projects that take advantage of her many years of technology experience at Mac BU and in other roles." Officials would not specifically state whether Ho was headed to the Zune, Xbox or Surface projects, adding "Roz maintains an active involvement within the E&D division, but not directly to the Mac BU."
The first priority for Eisler is getting Office 2008 out in the scheduled second-half of 2007 time frame. "Right now Craig is focused on getting ramped into his new role and the overall focus on the group is delivering Office 2008 for Mac in the second half of 2007," officials told MacNN.
Meanwhile, the Microsoft MacBU remains the largest Mac OS X development house outside of Apple, with a current head-count of about 180 employees.
MacBU is not the largest
06/14, 03:41pm reply
Despite the article states that "Microsoft MacBU remains the largest Mac OS X development house outside of Apple, with a current head-count of about 180 employees", Software MacKiev (http://www.mackiev.com) now employs for about 300 exceptionally skilled Mac developers, testers and graphic designers.
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
Re: macbu is not the ...
06/14, 04:46pm reply
Are all of those 300 people full time employees?
hayesk
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
whatever...
06/14, 08:44pm reply
...as far as I am concerned, the McBU developers *USED* to be skilled programmers, but have not become largely insignificant, and only churning out more or less useless code to meet the needs of marketdroids, instead of their customers.
ZinkDifferent
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
full-time
06/15, 02:29am reply
Yes, they are full time employees.
Endorphinity
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2007
MacBU = 180 employees
06/15, 09:33am reply
Never, in the field of software development, has so little, been produced by so many, for so long.
Apologies to Sir Winston Churchill, and brickbats to Microsoft.
John Lockwood
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2000
Office 2008 - phooey
06/15, 09:41am reply
...The first priority for Eisler is getting Office 2008 out in the scheduled second-half of 2007 time frame.
In the words of Rhett Butler -
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
Office 2008 = no VBA, no right-to-left text support in Word, no proper Outlook client, no proper collaboration with Office Sharepoint, etc., etc., etc.
John Lockwood
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2000