“For the opening piece in our series on Gates leaving daily life at Microsoft, one goal was to give a clear picture of the Microsoft co-founder’s role inside the company, as a gauge of the impact his departure will have,” Todd Bishop writes for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Microsoft Blog. “As part of that, I went back through the internal e-mails turned over in the antitrust suits against the company, looking for new insights into his personality.”
Bishop found a doozy, which also happens to illustrate perfectly why Mac users have such disdain for the “Windows experience.” If you’ve ever been subject to Windows, you’ll recognize just how typical an example the following email provides. In his full article, Bishop reports what Gates said last week when he asked him about the following message:
—- Original Message —-
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame
I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
It wasn’t in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.
These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.
They are not filtered by the system … and so many of the things are strange.
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying – where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?
So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.
Doesn’t Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?
Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.
This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.
So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn’t use it for anything else during this time.
What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.
Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?
So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.
So I got back up and running and went to Windows Updale again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.
So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.
What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.
So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.
At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.
So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like “Open” or “Save”. No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.
The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.
It is not there.
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
Moviemaker is just not there at all.
So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.
I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.
I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.
I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don’t you just love that root certificate message?)
When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.
Full article, in which Bishop reports what Gates said last week when he asked him about the email, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Tomek" and "Anthony" for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Here are some of the words that Bill Gates used to describe his “Windows experience” in a single email: disappointed, backwards, unusable, totally confusing, strange, pathetic, completely odd, weird, scary, crazy, slow, garbage, not usable, crapped up, crap, absolute mess, craziness, terrible, and lack of attention. That sums it all up nicely, doesn’t it? And this was XP, the ancient OS that the unenlightened today want to inflict upon themselves for years more in order to avoid the Vista morass! For Windows-only users who’ve stumbled here via Google News and other points. Welcome! The moral of the story: Get a Mac.
Its funny watching the windows users defend a crappy product. If there is at all a hint of truth to the aforementioned email by BG then holy crap they go into attack mode. They won’t even entertain the idea that it maybe legit which is sad. As stated earlier their are allot of switchers – but not only from Windows but also from Linux which I am (used both windows / linux). In my opinion Think Different means investigating all avenues without personal subjectiveness and coming up with an objective conclusion. I doubt very highly that any of those who are commenting right now have done that…all they care about is playing video games…
I’ve seen “Crash” comment on this article far more than anyone else. Why don’t you make some friends and do something besides comment on a website where nobody likes you.
By the way….I’m sorry that you’re resentful over the fact that you own a PC. Yes, there are fanboys that are way too obsessed with Apple, but statistics and research have proven the Mac to be far more reliable than Windows. That goes the same for customer service and customer satisfaction. Apple constantly sets the standard and is highest in the industry. SO WAKE UP LOSER! Mac customers have a reason to tout how much better the Mac is…..they actually have evidence to prove it. Your whole rant about market share was worthless as well. Only a small percentage of a people are fortunate enough to own a Mac. Only a small percentage of people are fortunate enough to own a BMW. The rest drive Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc. The rest use a PC…..but many are realizing it’s worth paying a little extra upfront to purchase a Mac rather than spending that money over time with repairs for a Windows computer.
The founder of the personal computer is writing about how much of a mess Windows is and here you are on some Mac news site trying to defend it…..
@”Crash” Needs to GET A LIFE —- amen brother….the only i would add is that apple have now made it affordable to the masses…its no longer as large as a disparity as it used to be…but..
I love when PC fanboys hypocritically throw out the “Kool-Aid” comments.
But I guess I’ll take it as a compliment if by “Kool-Aid” you mean “facts and evidence”—-because that’s something that Mac enthusiasts have on their side!
This is getting more insane by the post…. a 5 year old email that may or may not have been part of a court action in 2004, that may or may not have been written by Bill Gates illicits over a 100 responses…. man you Mac fanbois are reaching deep,
Why are you so paranoid about your failings that you must spew garbage like this???
Your weewee to small??? or is it your Mommy didnt breast feed you??? Or maybe you were picked on in school???
Look out the skies falling… run and hide!!!!
@”Crash” Needs to GET A LIFE – First because they lost the argument – they have nothing to say so they will start stereotyping. Secondly they have never used a mac – specifically OSX or any Linux variant. They play video games on their machine and thats about it. The next argument you will hear is how much better a PC is at playing video games, grant it they will ignore the fact that a PC configured correctly for playing video games is a hell of allot more expensive then a mac…..Its allot cheaper to get a PS3 then to buy a high end PC to play games on….
Is this the best ya got??? Come on….. youre the the elite… the best of the best… you eat silk and shit gold…
What a bunch of winners you are….
Steve is so proud of you….
keep puching….
keep missing….
THINK DIFFERENT
friends and do something besides comment on a website where nobody likes you.
Ahhh now im crushed…. I thought you loved me…. What a dick
My life is right here friend…. pisses on your parade…. and dman I do love a parade.
keep punching……….
keep missing……….
THINK DIFFERENT
Typical. I provided an honest answer to your question, and you return with childish insults and rants. With every post on this board you more vehemently confirm your lack of intelligence, maturity, and absenteeism from your high school English classes.
Microsoft does not design for the typical end user.
They use committees to design stuff for engineers or power users.
20 different committees-one assigned to design the start button, one to design the icon for ie, one to designate colors- can never come up with a simple to use anything.
@AAPLguy
Oh boy im going to helll now….. Cant do dictation, pronunciation, punctuation, cant spell….
Man you wound me..
Chump, youre not even close
keep punching
keep missing
THINK DIFFERENT
How could the TOP GUY AT MS have absolutely no idea of his own company’s products or user experience?!?
Imagine the CEO of a major automaker having to test-drive a car himself to know what he’s putting on the street, then commenting “We make this?”. Yikes.
From: Jim Allchin
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 8:38 AM
To: Bill Gates; Steve Ballmer
Subject: losing our way…
This is a rant. I’m sorry.
I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems [our] customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn’t translate onto great products.
I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. If you run the equivalent of VPC on a MAC you get access to basically all Windows application software (although not the hardware). Apple did not lose their way. You must watch this new video below. I know this doesn’t show anything for businesses, but my point is about the philosophy that Apple uses. They think scenario. They think simple. They think fast. I know there is nothing hugely deep in this.
I must tell you everything in my soul tells me that we should do what I called plan (b) yesterday We need a simple fast storage system. LH is a pig and I don’t see any solution to this problem. If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux and Apple, we need to start taking the lessons of “scenario, simple, fast” to heart.
As part of one of Microsoft’s on-going lawsuits, a piece of email that I sent to Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates recently became public. It was a rant encouraging a change to the way we were building Windows at the time. In the email, I made a comment for effect about buying a Mac if I was not working at Microsoft. Taken out of context, this comment could be confusing. Let me set the record straight:
This email is nearly 3 years old, and I was being purposefully dramatic in order to drive home a point. The point being that we needed to change and change quickly. We did: We changed dramatically the development process that was being used and we reset the Windows Vista development project in mid-2004, essentially starting over.
2-and-½ years later, Windows Vista has turned into a phenomenal product, better than any other OS we’ve ever built and far, far better than any other software available today, in my opinion. It’s going to be available to customers on Jan 30, and I suggest everyone go out and get it as soon as you can. It’s that good.
The spirit of being self-critical continues to flourish at Microsoft. Within Microsoft everyone considers it their duty to always put their convictions and our product quality ahead of everything else. That was the intent of my mail to Bill and Steve, and I consider it a great example of how this company can focus and do what’s right for customers.
We did: We changed dramatically the development process that was being used and we reset the Windows Vista development project in mid-2004, essentially starting over.
Well, that worked out well – how much of what Vista originally promised was thrown out in that project re-boot.
2-and-½ years later, Windows Vista has turned into a phenomenal product, better than any other OS we’ve ever built
Hmmm, that’s not actually setting the bar that high – that said Windows 2000 was possibly MSFT’s best OS.
…and far, far better than any other software available today…
Hmmm…there simply isn’t enough time in the rest of my life to explain how deluded Jim must have been when he wrote that.
Can anyone remember the URL of that blog where about 300-400 people concurred with the blogger’s opinion of the hell that was installing Vista.
I suggest everyone go out and get it as soon as you can. It’s that good.
Than why are Intel allegedly skipping Vista altogether.
MCCFR
Aahhh now you know my mother is dead, You remember, right after you dropped your diaper, she started laughing and couldnt quit….. Damn you, she couldnt really tell if you were just cold or a girl.
Youre a cunt…. try some original material.
keep punching
keep missing
THINK DIFFERENT
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
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