I flew the A330 DTW-AMS-DTW a couple of weeks ago (see trip report) -- two different tail numbers (N801US and N802US), and the IFE worked flawlessly on both flights. SO I guess it is not all gloom and doom as the article suggests. However, as Wiirachay says, I am not surprised that there are some bugs that need to be ironed out, given that it is such a new system.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Wiirachay:
As a person who majored in computer science, it's called release 1. 
I bet that after a year, a bunch of patches will have been applied and the system will operate wonderfully. 
- Pat</font>