Re: Re[2]: too many "Out of Office AutoReply"

[Theodore Tso <tytso at mit.edu>]

On Fri, Jun 29, 2001 at 04:08:20AM -0400, Gene Gaines wrote:
> Why in god's name would any email program worth 2 cents
> not have this feature?

That's easy; for a long time (although this seems to be less true
today), Microsoft apparently had a strong bias of trying very hard to
hire the best and the brightest --- of people fresh out of college.
Heaven forfend that they actually hire people with industry
experience.

As a result, a lot of things which most people would consider common
sense and common practice don't actually happen until after the first
couple of versions of the program are released and people scream
bloody murder.  (After all, good vacation hueristics have been around
for well over a decade.)  

However, when MS Exchange finally has this feature, no doubt their
marketing folks will trumpet how they "invented" it.  After all, this
is the sort of thing which is why they claim they need the "freedom to
innovate".

						- Ted