Yeah: Core Microsoft Office System Products Are Complete, Released to Manufacturers

We Shipped!!!! Finally after almost six years of writing code and (mis) managing, Office System 2003 RTM today and it includes InfoPath (along with the glorious date picker control!)

Various phonecam images (I've got to say, the low-quality is almost artistic):

• A splashing of Andre sparkling wine about to happen
• DonGa with a good splashing of Andre
• BillG talking

It was my first ship party at Microsoft and it was a fairly well-behaved affair. Sure, there was some sparking wine being popped open and splashed around (I was an early victim [thanks Prakash], but I was armed with my own bottle and gave a good war-whoop as I chased my attacker and sprayed him in good, sticky revenge).

After Bill Gates commended Office for getting this release out (especially using Dr. Watson crash analysis data to make this a solid release), the RTM horn was blown by Jeff Raikes and the geeks went w-i-l-d

There is a tradition of dunking folks in one of the fountains, typically your general manager, head of development / test / and PM. Well, all but one of those folks seem to be out of town this week (hmm). I certainly didn't think I'd be getting dunked. I'm glad I brought an extra set of clothes. Oh, yeah, I got dunked. And I did some dunking.

I feel good.