Microsoft’s Windows development vice-president, Israeli Moshe Dunie, will soon be out of Microsoft. This report comes from Internet magazine ZDNet. According to Microsoft, Dunie has decided to take a year’s sabbatical. But sources in the sector maintain that he is actually being fired due to repeated delays in the launch date of the NT 5.0 version of Windows. Dunie made no comment.
Dunie has been employed with Microsoft International for eleven years. He reported directly to senior vice-president Jim Allchin and managed the development of the Windows operating system and Windows NT. He is now handing over the reins to Brian Valentine, former development head for Microsoft’s Exchange Server and head of the company’s server applications department.
The Microsoft spokesperson said "Dunie decided to take a sabbatical once he got the product [windows 2000] to a critical point with Beta 2. He’s planning on spending time with his family". The spokesperson said it was unclear when the sabbatical would begin officially, but that it would most likely be around the beginning of 1999.
According to developers associated with the company, the reason for the move is the repeated delays in the launch date of the NT 5.0 version of Windows, recently renamed Windows 2000. "All anyone wants to talk about these days is ‘Where is NT 5.0?’", said a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider who requested anonymity.
Windows 2000 is due to be released to developers at the Beta 3 stage in the spring, in a delay of several months. Microsoft announced that the product would be on the market in 1999. The delay came in for sharp criticism by customers, business partners, competitors and analysts, all blaming Microsoft for having whetted their appetite for the next generation operating system, well before the product was stable enough to be distributed.
Senior Microsoft officials, however, denied that Dunie has been fired due to the NT delay. "Moshe has put his heart and soul into Windows", says Yusuf Mehdi, director of Windows marketing. "He’s missed every major event with his kids in the past two years with his work on Windows 2000… We have a product that’s feature-complete. It’s the right time to make the transition".
According to Microsoft Israel, Dunie will be back with the company once his sabbatical is over.
Published by Israel's Business Arena December 14, 1998