Heh. Seems like Microsoft won't be getting the transparency thing anytime soon. ;-)

What's NDA? I only know DNA... :-P

>>What's NDA? I only know DNA... :-P

Non-Disclosure Agreement

This is not about transparency at all - this is about features of a product that won't be out for 18 months. Do you expect Google or Apple to do something even close to this?

Microsoft can bring about world peace and they would still be blamed

Look, it's Microsoft trying to buy themselves underground support, rather than making a decent product, releasing lots of details and letting it happen by itself. :| Losers.

Pual Thurrot is probably MS's most important independent-ish blogger, and he's being pissed off about this whole longhorn fare too.

And while on the topic of transparency, why not be transparent about how much influence Google has on Mozilla Foundation and how much moeny they're pumping in. And the features they've requested might be cool to know as well

"And while on the topic of transparency, why not be transparent about how much influence Google has on Mozilla Foundation and how much moeny they're pumping in. And the features they've requested might be cool to know as well"

*clap* *clap* *clap*

By request of signing NDA MS actually admits they can't keep a pace with competition, especially the open source one as it would "steal" their ideas and implement them earlier. Once you're closed source beast you can't afford to disclose your road map as eg. MoFo does, don't you?

Its really funny to see microsoft do all these things! I guess, they have become a bit tooo transparent! May be they should have silently formed team 99, and started working on the goal (like yahoo is currently doing !!! What say guys???? ). Would have been better. Isn't it ? ! :)

NDAs are a fact of life for large corporations. Why is Microsoft being bashed for this? Apple and Google use them as well. And I'm pretty sure that Microsoft will agree that they can't keep pace with open source, but then they have to justify their products to PAYING customers. Hell, Firefox teams gets bashed when it has bugs and it's free.

Anyway my REAL problem with this idea is why is he asking for developers? Surely it's should be USERs, people who whilst they may not know how to code, are power users of Windows and know what works, what doesn't, and what they'd like.

Chuck a bunch of developers in the room and we'll end up with a whole lot of very smart and clever ideas, that only 5% (less?) of the customers will use.

Granted you make a good point Asa but if you read the thread a bit more Robert Scoble states that "NDAs are gonna be probably pretty minimal and would just require keeping quiet until a specific date. I can't see a situation where it'd be more than a few weeks."

[url=http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=64036]Not a direct link, scroll down the page[/url]

Seriously though Asa I think you would be a very choice at providing good/critical feedback I hope you consider doing it.

I would hate for Microsoft to have to sue bloggers for leaking information on an impending product launch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4435809.stm

Q.E.D. I believe.

Ten, I doubt they'd let me participate and if there's an NDA required, I certainly won't participate.

- A