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Seattle P-I reporter Todd Bishop is running a series on Bill Gates, in the lead-up to Gates’s “transition” (ahem, “retirement?”) away from daily work at Microsoft. Bishop has turned up a series of amusing emails Gates sent, now made public as the result of various legal actions against the company. The first email shows Gates complaining about how hard it is to install Microsoft Movie Maker on Windows XP. Gates sends his tale of woe to Jim Allchin, the VP in charge of Windows releases at the time (2003). Here are some choice bits (emphasis added):
I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues. …
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.
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!). …
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.
Read the rest for a great first-person account of how confusing it can be to install software on a modern computer — even for the second-richest man in the world.
(Via Daring Fireball.)
Comments (11)
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this seems like a joke. sorry but it looks like a fake story to me
posted by katherine on 6-26-2008 at 4:09 pm
Bill Gates can’t figure out how to install Moviemaker off the Windows website… okay, *I* can do that, and I’m not a computer whiz. Either this story is fake, or Bill Gates is actually really stupid.
posted by Case on 6-26-2008 at 4:19 pm
Looks pretty real to me — published by a well-known columnist in a major paper. The original evidence email is in this PDF:
blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/2003Jangatesmoviemaker.pdf
posted by Chris Higgins on 6-26-2008 at 5:02 pm
Case — it is easy now because Bill Gates was on it. He tried to use something five years ago that one of his underlings created and it was unusable — so he chewed some ass.
He is actually smart — if he cannot do it; then Regular Guy cannot do it — this is what makes the PC/Windows the greatest advancement of our time!
Thanks for this peak into how Bill Gates runs a multi-multi Billion dollar enterprise!
posted by Jeff on 6-26-2008 at 5:16 pm
Being on the receiving end of one of these types of emails from a high ranking official at a company (and a board member), I can believe it came from him. The bottom line of the email was..Fix It! That email probably picked up a strong head of steam as it rolled down hill.
posted by Don on 6-26-2008 at 6:46 pm
“garbage” is, by far, my most favorite word with which to describe something that sucks.
Obviously Gates was complaining from the viewpoint of an average customer to point out the fact that their system won’t fly.
P.S. I am eating pistachios now.
posted by Kelli on 6-26-2008 at 7:10 pm
Yeah, he’s a genius – at copying other people’s ideas. Have you seen the preview video of the next version of Windows? It looks like a giant iPhone, wonder where he got that idea? Oh, right, the same place he got most of “his” other ones.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 6-26-2008 at 8:13 pm
Way to go Bill! I’d like to see what sort of e-mails he has floating around about Vista- I’ll bet they’re a hoot-and-a-half!
posted by Beth on 6-26-2008 at 10:57 pm
This is what I find the most interesting…. “I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ”
He owns the frigging company and he’s “buying” the Digital Plus pack.
posted by BeansandCornbread on 6-27-2008 at 10:35 am
Why wouldn’t he pay for it? He’s clearly an everyman, despite his position and money, and has decided to make sure that everything he makes is usable from the buyer’s standpoint.
posted by NerdFury on 7-2-2008 at 9:36 pm
So where’s the rants about Movie Maker with Vista?! Stupid thing won’t accept my AVI files. I downloaded a codec, it worked on my XP computer, only plays the sound on my Vista computer. I e-mailed Microsoft and explained my problem and got an e-mail saying I should contact Customer Service…FROM Customer Service!
Makes me feel better knowing that the founder of the company gets just as frustrated as I do.
posted by Kate on 7-13-2008 at 9:17 pm