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Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

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Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#11

Post by kasabali »

MadnessASAP wrote: post #8
langsoul-com wrote: post #3

Was it really that bad back in 2003?

Pretty much yeah, by service pack 2 they'd sorted most of it. SP3 was almost good. As far as I was concerned Windows 2000 was the superior choice till well into the XP life cycle. And XP was definitely the better choice till 7. There isn't a dumpster rotten enough for ME, Vista, or 8.

> There isn't a dumpster rotten enough for ME, Vista, or 8.

Vista was pretty good after SP2, so was Windows 8.1. In fact I find 8.1 (with StartIsBack installed) much better than the adware mess that's Windows 10.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#12

Post by marcus_holmes »

smcnally wrote: post #9
smcnally wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bought a Dell with blank-slate Windows 10 install. Windows Update came up on first boot. Most of the things billg said in this 2003 email remain true. e.g. > This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff. (But it was GB of stuff.) > 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.…

… and once that was done, it started harassing me to install Windows 11. “Harassing” like full screen takeovers with buried “no thanks” buttons and secondary “ARE YOU SURE?” screens once I found and clicked the close buttons. That hasn’t stopped.

I had this with the added bonus that it deemed my machine not good enough to install W11 on. So it would scream at me to "upgrade" Windows and then reject any attempt to do so.

I installed Linux, now that Proton means all my games work anyway.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#13

Post by rsolva »

smcnally wrote: post #9
smcnally wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bought a Dell with blank-slate Windows 10 install. Windows Update came up on first boot. Most of the things billg said in this 2003 email remain true. e.g. > This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff. (But it was GB of stuff.) > 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.…

… and once that was done, it started harassing me to install Windows 11. “Harassing” like full screen takeovers with buried “no thanks” buttons and secondary “ARE YOU SURE?” screens once I found and clicked the close buttons. That hasn’t stopped.

This is why I go with Fedora Silverblue for my elderly family. When they had Windows installed, most support calls was about crazy and confusing full screen pop ups and forced upgrades.

With a stable disto, everything just works and keeps up to date without bothering the user.

Why anyone uses Windows today is a mystery to me. My guess is force of habit and lock-inn effects.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#14

Post by serpix »

OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #4

I always thought Gates was feared by his employees. Unless I'm missing something, all the following emails passed the buck with no one saying, "The boss is pissed and we had better fix the mess."

I found it hilarious one of the execs did not know what owning a product means:

> I don't know what it means to "own website issues"

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#15

Post by wtcactus »

serpix wrote: post #14
OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #4

I always thought Gates was feared by his employees. Unless I'm missing something, all the following emails passed the buck with no one saying, "The boss is pissed and we had better fix the mess."

I found it hilarious one of the execs did not know what owning a product means: > I don't know what it means to "own website issues"

I didn’t interpret that sentence like you did.

I think he was wary of what it actually meant to the product. For instance, imagine we have a problem with the authentication on an internal component, and then, someone from quality control states “don’t worry, I’ll own the authentication issues”. What does that even mean? Is QA going to solve the issue? How? Are you going to oversee the way other team(s) solve the issue?

That’s how I interpreted it.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#16

Post by Neikius »

kasabali wrote: post #11
MadnessASAP wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much yeah, by service pack 2 they'd sorted most of it. SP3 was almost good. As far as I was concerned Windows 2000 was the superior choice till well into the XP life cycle. And XP was definitely the better choice till 7. There isn't a dumpster rotten enough for ME, Vista, or 8.

> There isn't a dumpster rotten enough for ME, Vista, or 8. Vista was pretty good after SP2, so was Windows 8.1. In fact I find 8.1 (with StartIsBack installed) much better than the adware mess that's Windows 10.

What most people don't know is that vista was not all that different from 7. As you mention after SP fixed the bugs. The main issue was hardware requirements were quite hefty with all the new stuff and people put it on 2gb ram laptops with 5400rpm disks.

In any case the issues got much worse with 10 and now even worse with 11. The os itself is not good but it is what it is. Now the invasive trash happening lately is truly bad and should be enough to move people away. Seems there is not much of an effect so they will keep pushing.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#18

Post by stevage »

bjoli wrote: post #10

I still wish I had pirated software several times a year. Last it was Garmin stuff. I will never buy anything Garmin ever again. It was a Kafkaesque experience. The list of banned companies is starting to get prohibitively long.

Oh yeah Garmin software was absolutely amongst the worst I have ever tried to use. Complete trash. Awful software for the simplest of tasks like loading maps onto your GPS.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#19

Post by stevage »

anonzzzies wrote: post #6
langsoul-com wrote: post #3

Was it really that bad back in 2003?

Did it improve? Honest question as I haven't touched Windows since the late 90s because it was terrible (I went from Basic booting home computers to DOS to Unix to Linux and Mac OS X; I use mostly Linux still).

It's weird, because for me XP was really the high point. I don't think I ever used the site they're discussing, but XP itself had a nice consistent UX that I was happy to use. A couple of years I ago I tried out windows for my main Dev environment for nearly 2 years and completely regretted it. What a disaster it is.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker

#20

Post by LilBytes »

bobbyi wrote: post #5
OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #4

I always thought Gates was feared by his employees. Unless I'm missing something, all the following emails passed the buck with no one saying, "The boss is pissed and we had better fix the mess."

He's not the boss anymore at this point (2003). Ballmer took over as CEO in 2000.

I don't take the term boss literally here.

His position and influence still has enough weight to make a poor interaction with him a career limiting event.

I think that's what OP was referring to, he's still the guy that founded Microsoft. He's as figurative and influential as any boss I'd ever hope to meet.

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