Bill Gates' 2003 flame email about Moviemaker
From: Bill GatesBill Gates flame email
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 flameI 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.
the latest
latest episodes
I've got to sympathize with Bill. Regardless of his politics or business practices, he did put in a lot of years of hard work, and to see it come down to this must be downright soul-crushing.
OK, Two Minutes Empathy is up, back to work.
It looks like just about everyone on the internet could do Bill Gates' job...
Bizarre, he sounds suspiciously like the bulk of my users. "I pushed the button for the thing that does that stuff and it won't do nothing". Wow, he really has lost touch with his take-it-apart hacker ethic roots.
Bill, just hit a bittorrent search site and I guarantee it'll be the first result and install without a hitch, as long as you don't get hit with SmitFraud from the pr0n banners. Ha!
BDewhirst:
No, most folks can't do his job. Sure we can, and do, write pissed off emails to tech support as well as consumer blogs.
What most of use can't do is be Bill Gates. The name on the email header gets the email read, and reported on.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Everyday frustrations get us all.
But Mr.Gates is a badass coder.
aiya! you have a grocer's apostrophe in your headline :(
I don't think I would call it a "flame". It was factual and not an attack. It's cool that someone in his position would try out a product in the same way an everyday user might, and he had every right to be upset.
I thought that it was extraordinarily restrained, but then I have a short temper and a foul mouth.
I'm still not buying that this is legit.
I would imagine that Bill is the type to pick up the phone and yell at the head of the department and demand it be fixed immediately.
And also, since it appears to still be operating the same way, I can't imagine him putting up with it after he'd ordered it fixed.
Lastly, I also can't imagine that Bill's computer isn't maxed out with all the available software all the time. I would think there's some MS Toady that does nothing all day but update BG's machines.
No, it isn't a flame. That may be the problem. Also, nowhere do we read what the leader of the largest corporation in the world would like to see as the user experience in question.
Microsoft, no vision means you suffer.
this email screams computer illiteracy.
Yes, Gates is putting himself in the role of a computer illiterate person, because that's the target consumer of most Microsoft products.
I can sympathize with Bill on this one, the MS download center is notoriously obtuse. Same with their general support search. Here's a good example of why:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/117552
Keywords? I'm supposed to learn your keywords if I want to effectively search for support? C'mon guys, plunk down the money and buy a few google boxes to index your stuff.
And that explains why Vista blows so hard.
I think I would have lost it if Bill just said, "WTF guys?, really?"
At that point, my hope in Microsoft and Bill Gates would have been restored, or at least it would make up for the fubar of Vista.
Whoever wrote that email couldn't code the "Hello World" program.
I'm with the people who aren't quite buying it. It just hits a sour note all around.
Karengeier,
That's not the grocers' apostrophe. "Bill Gates'" is the possessive form of the man's name, indicating that it's his email. A grocers' apostrophe is an apostrophe erroneously used in forming a plural, e.g."carrot's, $1.50/lb."
I don't doubt for a minute that Bill Gates cares about the products Microsoft publishes. I find it a little strange though that he didn't already know about these problems he encountered. He writes as if this were the first time he had ever heard of Windows need to restart after a program installation. Also, he complains about the slowness of his own computer while the installation is taking place. Computer too slow Bill? Just go buy a faster one, jeez!
If it's real, I have a lot more respect for him after reading it. He was clearly trying to put himself in his customers' shoes, asking the basic question "If I follow the instructions I see on screen, will I get what I want?"
If not, there is indeed a major usability problem, given that the majority of users are, in fact, fairly computer illiterate.
Thank you Blueandriod!
I f&king love when people who
correct grammar get it wrong.
Your the best!
Ermm . . seems a little too perfect. Smells a bit hoax-y to me.
StratoJoe, I'm afraid you've just run into a little-known curse...people who correct others usually make a mistake in the process.
That should be "You're the best."
BlueAndroid is correct, btw. The apostrophe in the OP is correct.
Now I'm going to read the above over and over and probably STILL miss a mistake!
As for Gates...if he was really surprised that he had to reboot after an installation, he's Marie fucking Antoinette and should meet the same fate. We've all had to deal with that for a decade thanks to him!
There is no way that Bill Gates actually wrote that. The actual author was clearly barely computer literate and in addition refers to Microsoft at least once as 'they'.
A little critical thinking goes a long way here guys. I'm shocked that it even made it up on BoingBoing in the first place, given how transparently false it is.
I've made fun of Bill Gates over and over, but now that he's winding down the Windows love and we see more and more of his philanthropical efforts, he seems more like a guy I could get along with.
Mechalith,
I'm confused. Is your comment meant to be performance art? Bill Gates has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail. Did you read the article?
The sad thing is, I tried to download Movie Maker just last night, and had similar difficulty finding it on Microsoft's site. Same crap with Windows Update too. Five years later and nothing has changed.
Well it could be phony, but here is the source, a Blog on Seattle's Post Intellegencer:
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp
The email came from a lawsuit discovery.
Yes. That's the link in the post.
Please don't make me use the bold tag again. It's undignified.
If this is truly written by Bill Gates, it tells a huge part of the story of Microsoft's downfall. And the fact that nothing appears to have improved on MS's site tells the rest.
I'd like to see the email he wrote two days after installing MovieMaker and finding how unstable and inadequate it is. MS seems to have done next to nothing to improve moviemaker since dropping that turd.
I am also unconvinced this is email real. The author sounds like they've just started using the internet.
I just like that BILL FREAKIN GATES is running XP on his personal computer. If that doesn't tell you what a piece of crap Vista is, nothing will.
Subtle Turtle, the email is from five years ago.
All I have to say is the same thing that I always say to people like this:
You reap what you sow.
This is just so fascinating: in the PDF of the actual email, a bunch of responses by upper management are included. It's a really interesting glimpse into the specifics of an ineffectual beaurocracy. As expected they're each deciding who's problem it is (not theirs) and who's going to "own" it. In the end of course we know no one ever does.
Most of Microsoft's applications are pretty good. Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.
But Windows? Pile of crap. There's just no excuse for the absurd level of complexity. Not even their own programmers can handle it.
@Antinous:
Wow. I'm simultaneously chagrined by my own idiot moment (somehow didn't see the link, hence didn't read the article) and shocked that Mr. Gates has such amazingly poor communications skills.
Please consider me to have retracted my previous post, and have learned to double check for additional links from now on...
*slinks off to hide in the Shadows of Shame*
It amazes me, the number of comments here that imply "Ha ha! Gates is a moron! He can't use a computer! What a loon!"
Haven't any of you guys tried to imagine the scenario in which Bill wrote this? Whatever he may do in his spare time, his full time job (was) not being a coder, but to lead a company. When something is going wrong in your company, you don't pull out your VS Debug tools and go to work, you admonish the team leads/subheads responsible and by doing so LEAD them in a better direction.
The whole unwritten, and apparently needing to be spelled out, message behind the email is "Imagine I'm an Average Windows User(tm), this is my experience. Doesn't it suck?" He reinforces his summary that the usability is crap indirectly by using example after example showing how the usability is crap.
It's a very long email for someone who likely has 200 other needs begging for his attention that second. While the MS "borg" has suffered tremendously from bloat and poor project management, it's impressive to see the level of involvement and care that BG put into his company from his position.
@16, 21
That which belongs to Bill Gates is Bill Gates's. You may wish it wasn't so, but that's the way it is.
@38
Actually that's a bit of a gray area. Technically, when making a name that ends in "s" possessive, one should pay attention to how the name will sound with the additional "s". For instance, "Chris's" is okay, as it, well, sounds okay. "Gates's" is, as I said, a bit of a gray area: it's easily pronounceable, but still a little awkward. So basically, either one works, but I'd probably go with "Gates'".
I've always thought it looked stupid to put "'s" after an s. I think it's elided in speaking too. I think this is an idiolectal free variant.
And MikeP, English does have rules, but they're not natural laws. Things change all the time. It's not like the speed of light or something. You can't really claim factual data on it.
Gateses like eggses, my precious, my precious Vista
Miscorrections abound!
Mikep,
Both "Bill Gates's" and "Bill Gates'" are acceptable forms for the possessive. Some style guides have a preference for one or the other, but both forms are valid, and neither is a grocers' apostrophe.
See, idiolectal free variant, like I said!