Flame from Bill Gates Re: Windows Usability

Bill actually mentioned this in in another interview (can't find that now, I think it was around the time of his retirement from MSFT - it could have been at an internal event).

He basically said something like - I don't know why people think that the email is something weird or unique. This is my job and I do it all the time.

My personal take - I actually blame Bill for this. The real cause of the situation is how things had been allowed to drift to this stage over several years and Windows versions. I'd put the responsibility on Bill, as CSA and ex-CEO, to have stopped this, rather than send flame mail one late night. Also, if you see the follow-up email threads, none of the VPs or GMs were empowered to make end to end changes either

Re: Flame from Bill Gates Re: Windows Usability

#7

Post by tzs » Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 5:30 AM UTC

Is there a better link for that document? Slated.org blocks large swathes of the internet from accessing them. If they think your ISP uses something called "phorm" you get blocked and told to find a better ISP. Unfortunately, their block is not well done. For instance, Sprint the ISP apparently used "phorm" and was blocked. However, the block also caught anyone whose packets ended up getting routed over Sprint the major backbone.

(I can get to slated so don't need an alternate link. Just suggesting one for people who may be blocked).

edit: there's a copy of Gates' message in this thread: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=119340

edit2: and here's the same file as at slated.org, but without the blocks: http://edge-op.org/iowa/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/7000... and if you go up one level, you can get the rest of the "comes" files.

Re: Flame from Bill Gates Re: Windows Usability

#8

Post by drivebyacct2 » Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 5:31 AM UTC

Things are better, but yes, Windows would benefit (and possibly will with rumors regarding Windows 8) from real package management.

Re: Flame from Bill Gates Re: Windows Usability

#9

Post by nhebb » Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 5:32 AM UTC

Dear Bing,

I went to microsoft.com and entered "moviemaker" (one word, just like Gates) in the search box. The top site search result - powered by Bing - is an XP downloads page, which of course didn't have a Movie Maker download. I tried a Google site search with "site:microsoft.com moviemaker", and and the top result was the (correct) Movie Maker 2011 page.

I also searched google.com for "moviemaker", and again the top result was the Movie Maker 2011 page. Doing the same on bing.com, the page is the 3rd result. That, is why Google is eating your lunch (but I do like your pictures).

Re: Flame from Bill Gates Re: Windows Usability

#10

Post by fraserharris » Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 5:32 AM UTC

sriramk wrote: post #6

Bill actually mentioned this in in another interview (can't find that now, I think it was around the time of his retirement from MSFT - it could have been at an internal event). He basically said something like - I don't know why people think that the email is something weird or unique. This is my job and I do it all the time. My personal take - I actually blame Bill for this. The real cause of the situation is how t…

Usability is hard. This superficially simple example crosses many products / teams (being Microsoft, we are talking about 100s of people involved). A small startup has the same challenges because your engineers build features, not user experiences. It takes a great product manager to advocate effectively for the user.