Once upon a time in technology, many years ago, Microsoft previewed server software to great fanfare at a meeting of IT pros. The company demonstrated how easy it was to use the software, which would automatically install the server, email server, and Sharepoint server — all in less than 30 minutes.
There was one problem: every time Microsoft went to demonstrate the server software, it would fail with an unclear error message.
Back then, I would sometimes post and answer questions in a Microsoft newsgroup. Just before Thanksgiving, I started seeing consultants trying to install the software see the same failure.
