It's funny and sad. MS got so big he has to complain by email to his people. If I was him, I would be storming down the hall/road/state to wherever that team is and reaming them a new one.
They didn't expect you to download from the download center?
Microsoft has always been full of functionality, it's usability they can't seem to find.
This was hilarious! I wish this article went more in depth, and showed that Bill didnt check the "view installed updates" or "show windows components" feature of Add/Remove Progs. Then, this would TRULY be priceless.
What's really funny is that he actually had to buy the Digital Plus pack. Imagine Bill Gates fumbling around for his wallet and having to enter the security key from the back of his credit card.
Pretty funny. Of course, after Gates kicked MS's arse with that e-mail - amongst other things - they did produce SP2 in August 2004 which pretty much sorted a lot of the problems making XP the dominant OS that it is today.
After reading the email I have more respect for Bill and less respect for Microsoft. It shows his own frustration at the usability of the product. So its not like Bill has blinders on, he gets it. After 5 years Microsoft hasn't made big strides in fixing the usability. That is just a bad sign for Microsoft as a whole.
It's funny how Bill Gates was frustrated by XP, but sang the Vista tune in front of cameras. I'm looking forward to his comments after he's not making money on Microsoft (although he'll probably own stocks, so that won't be for quite a while).
primetime, obviously he didn't *have* to buy it, he was just doing it to check up on what the people working under him were doing with their projects and seeing if it was up to spec. If you read the e-mail most of his frustrations are obviously from the perspective of your average computer user. I'm pretty sure Bill Gates himself knows whether to open or save a file-he was just pointing out the inanity of the process.
And damn, it's kinda good to see that even Bill Gates hates the stupid ass list of patches that show up in add/remove programs...I *HATE* how the stupid patches clutter up the list of programs with like 20 f'ing entries that all say see Q390299493 or something similarly obnoxious.
@mark anderson Yeah, since XP service pack 2 fIxed the usability problems of Windows.. ARE YOU KIDDING??
The domination of Windows is a result of their having been ZERO effective competitors for a consumer OS. For the past 10+ years, Linux was way too fragmented and Mac OS was only available on Apple hardware. I don't think I even need to bring up OS/2, BeOS, etc.
Also, this domination continues to happen only out of the momentum provided by the tendency of most humans to resist change, the use of legacy software, hardware compatibility/drivers, etc.
Linux (Ubuntu, etc) is in a much better position than before, but many legacy software applications and hardware drivers are not available for the platform. I think Ubuntu needs to lean heavily on (consumer) hardware manufacturers and (consumer) software developers to embrace the platform and create more competition for windows, else they will continue to be slaves of Redmond..
Apple's Mac OSX is also in a much better position and is experiencing incredibly rapid market growth, but is still limited by exclusive availability on Apple hardware.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
buttermilksquash @ Jun 25th 2008 2:42PM
This was pretty funny.
CUBSWILLWIN @ Jun 25th 2008 2:44PM
Yes it was.
coffee @ Jun 25th 2008 2:50PM
It's funny and sad. MS got so big he has to complain by email to his people. If I was him, I would be storming down the hall/road/state to wherever that team is and reaming them a new one.
They didn't expect you to download from the download center?
Microsoft has always been full of functionality, it's usability they can't seem to find.
buttermilksquash @ Jun 25th 2008 2:52PM
Yeah, it is kinda sad too.
buttermilksquash @ Jun 25th 2008 2:52PM
Yeah, it is kinda sad too.
rock99rock @ Jun 25th 2008 3:06PM
This was hilarious! I wish this article went more in depth, and showed that Bill didnt check the "view installed updates" or "show windows components" feature of Add/Remove Progs. Then, this would TRULY be priceless.
primetime4 @ Jun 25th 2008 3:42PM
What's really funny is that he actually had to buy the Digital Plus pack. Imagine Bill Gates fumbling around for his wallet and having to enter the security key from the back of his credit card.
Mark Anderson @ Jun 25th 2008 3:55PM
Pretty funny. Of course, after Gates kicked MS's arse with that e-mail - amongst other things - they did produce SP2 in August 2004 which pretty much sorted a lot of the problems making XP the dominant OS that it is today.
Krush @ Jun 25th 2008 4:25PM
Funnyiest part to me :
"So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download?"
Billy G - its Amir - what else did you expect?
Rob @ Jun 25th 2008 5:44PM
Well, I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't like Windoze.
Joe @ Jun 25th 2008 6:32PM
After reading the email I have more respect for Bill and less respect for Microsoft. It shows his own frustration at the usability of the product. So its not like Bill has blinders on, he gets it. After 5 years Microsoft hasn't made big strides in fixing the usability. That is just a bad sign for Microsoft as a whole.
Greg @ Jun 26th 2008 1:20AM
It's funny how Bill Gates was frustrated by XP, but sang the Vista tune in front of cameras.
I'm looking forward to his comments after he's not making money on Microsoft (although he'll probably own stocks, so that won't be for quite a while).
tekdemon @ Jun 26th 2008 1:35AM
primetime, obviously he didn't *have* to buy it, he was just doing it to check up on what the people working under him were doing with their projects and seeing if it was up to spec. If you read the e-mail most of his frustrations are obviously from the perspective of your average computer user. I'm pretty sure Bill Gates himself knows whether to open or save a file-he was just pointing out the inanity of the process.
And damn, it's kinda good to see that even Bill Gates hates the stupid ass list of patches that show up in add/remove programs...I *HATE* how the stupid patches clutter up the list of programs with like 20 f'ing entries that all say see Q390299493 or something similarly obnoxious.
loosely_coupled @ Jun 26th 2008 5:45AM
@mark anderson
Yeah, since XP service pack 2 fIxed the usability problems of Windows.. ARE YOU KIDDING??
The domination of Windows is a result of their having been ZERO effective competitors for a consumer OS. For the past 10+ years, Linux was way too fragmented and Mac OS was only available on Apple hardware. I don't think I even need to bring up OS/2, BeOS, etc.
Also, this domination continues to happen only out of the momentum provided by the tendency of most humans to resist change, the use of legacy software, hardware compatibility/drivers, etc.
Linux (Ubuntu, etc) is in a much better position than before, but many legacy software applications and hardware drivers are not available for the platform. I think Ubuntu needs to lean heavily on (consumer) hardware manufacturers and (consumer) software developers to embrace the platform and create more competition for windows, else they will continue to be slaves of Redmond..
Apple's Mac OSX is also in a much better position and is experiencing incredibly rapid market growth, but is still limited by exclusive availability on Apple hardware.