I never said you specifically made those comments. I was just asking a question. There is no "deadline" for VFP. They have set a general release date of the end of the year, but there is nothing to say that they can't release sooner than that or later than that. If, due to a two sentence post that simply asked if anyone had heard of a definite release date, they lose sleep, make errors, and release early, then maybe they'd better find a new product manager and maybe new developers, too. You put way, way too much importance on a simple question I asked!

Your example of Longhorn has no bearing on this. And so what if they are deciding to release without some features? Maybe that will make for a more stable OS on first release. And is it not reasonable that they can get a new OS out in 4 years time? Don't the investors have a right to say (if they truly did, as you claim) that maybe MS might want to not bite off so much and get a product out the door so that they can get revenue in the door? Why is that so bad? And the example also has no bearing because we have no idea how stable (or not) Longhorn will be, so therefore we have no idea if this "pressure from investors" will in any way affect the stability of the product. And, furthermore, if the Longhorn product was unstable, would you accept an excuse from MS where they said "well, it's really the investor's fault." The bottom line is that if MS releases any product with bugs in it, then it's their fault. Not mine, not yours, and not the investors.

>Russell,
>
>If you read my message again, you will see no comments to the thread as such. But, since you raise the question I feel obliged to answer. Yes, I really think someone at Ms is losing their sleep when they are constantly reminded that the deadline is approaching. I don't think they need any reminders from us, they are very well aware of the situation. And yes, I also really think the pressure may cause MS to release a product either without some already announced features, or with serious bugs still not fixed. Just observe what was recently announced about Longhorn, it will be released without one of the key features, namely the new file system. But in this case the pressure did not come from the users, it came from the investors, but the result is the same. I have learnt over the year that if you put pressure on people, they get nervous and do errors, but if you encourage them, they don't.