Exactly, and it was the right move too. It's saved MS lots of money, and eliminated a function that just wasn't necessary. The users can do the QA; why should MS pay money for professionals to do it? My Microsoft stock price has done great as a result of smart cost-cutting moves like this, and also adding more advertising to the OS.
And it isn't like the users are going to stop using Windows anyway. Some of them will whine and make empty threats about switching their OS "if they keep it up" but nobody actually believes them because they've been keeping it up for almost 10 years now.
Exactly. MS has finally figured out these people aren't changing OSes, probably ever, no matter how much MS abuses them. So why shouldn't MS do this stuff?
QA elimination was a Terry Meyerson decision. There's a multitude of reasons he was asked to step down (allegedly).
But then why didn't they put QA back in place after he left?
Presumably because it was a cost saving measure and they agreed with the cost savings, but I wasn't in the room where it happened. So all I can do is speculate unfortunately.
Finding someone to blame for a mistake is much easier than fixing it.
Thank you for the clarification/correction. I see that Myerson is now a corporate raider at the Carlyle Group. Fitting destination for such a capital fellow.