Allchin says farewell in e-mail to co-workers

He vowed to work hard until he retires at the end of 2006

By Computerworld staff

September 20, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Recommended

Computerworld - At the same time it unveiled a major reorganization today, Microsoft Corp. announced that Jim Allchin, group vice president of platforms at the software company, would retire at the end of next year.

This is the e-mail in which Allchin spelled out his thoughts on retirement to co-workers.

Subject: Follow-on thoughts -- about me and more

By now you should have seen the mail from Kevinjo and me to the new organization. I wanted to take a moment and send a note to the "old" platforms team to share some of my private thoughts about this change. I apologize in advance for so much email today.


Jim Allchin, group vice president of platforms at Microsoft Corp.

When I first met Bill he told me that no matter how good the software I built was, I would never be able to touch as many people as I would if I came to work at Microsoft. It was true then and it is even more true now. This is the place to be.

Today, we have the opportunity to not only reinvent the way software is developed but also to greatly improve the richness of the experience our customers have with our software. As someone who has spent most of his life working in computer science, I truly believe we are just at the beginning of the software revolution.

After Windows Vista is in the hands of customers, however, it will be the right time for me to shift my attention to other priorities. About 2 1/2 years ago a medical event in my life caused me to take a step back and evaluate all my priorities. I am fine now, but I made a decision then to retire at the end of 2006.

Make no mistake about it. I love this company. And I love the progress we are making. Windows Vista will be awesome. We're getting good feedback on Beta 1 and the PDC was a great success that you can all be proud of -- these are exciting times. We are making solid progress with our Mobile business and we are going like gangbusters on the Server and Tools front with stunning new products coming from all the product teams including Windows Server, SQL, Exchange, BizTalk and Visual Studio.

We've learned some hard lessons over the last few years and my hope is that we will use those lessons wisely. My dream is for a much more agile, quality driven engineering organization with fewer roadblocks and more open highway to

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

IT Management

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

Do You Know the 7 Steps to Successful Data Migration?

Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.

WHITE PAPER

Total Cost of Ownership of Server Computing Vs. PCs

Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.

WHITE PAPER

IDC White Paper: Linux in a Global Recession

Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.