At least I'm not the only one ...
were released on Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:45:39 -0400 bearing the
following fruit:
Quote:
>> Did I miss a memo? Why is everone posting links to an
>> article about a 5 year old e-mail?
>> I just don't get it.....
> I guess you could start by Googling "sense of humor".
>Why are you being such a stickler?
Because I've seen the same link posted over and over and I
just don't get what the big deal is. Really, I don't.
Quote:
> It was interesting to me on two counts. One is just
>the irony and comic relief. Mr. Gates goes through a
>long list of some of the most famous complaints about
>MS and Windows. They're the things that drive people
>crazy, and here's Bill Gates complaining about them.
>That's from a company that typically explains away
>even distasteful things like WGA and Product Activation
>by saying that they're "providing what their customers
>have asked for".
> It's also interesting to me as someone who uses Windows,
>writes for Windows, and is frustrated with the direction
>that MS has taken over the past few years. Imagine that
>you bought a lemon of some kind and then saw that *the
>president of the company* had the same complaints that
>you have! You wouldn't even need a sense of humor
>to find that at least interesting.
> I read somewhere recently that MS is divided between the
>geeks and the salesmen, and that outcomes often depend on
>who has the upper hand. I don't know whether that's true,
>but the memo makes me think about that quote. Whenever
>I've seen quotes or footage of Bill Gates he sounds like a
>used car salesman -- always an angle. But he's generally,
>at least, talking about tech. product. Steve Ballmer is now
>taking over, presumably, and whenever I see quotes from him
>it's about business strategy. Now here is Bill Gates, in a
>mysteriously "leaked" memo, complaining that Windows is
>out of touch with end-user needs. Interesting developments, no?
The e-mail could have come from any MD at any software
company; these issues are not unique to MS. You mention a
divide between salesmen and 'geeks' - I'd say this is
probably true in any software company too.
Much like the discussion we're having re the Intel comments,
it seems to be being used to bash Microsoft, when in reality
there really is nothing unusal about the e-mail and surely
it's actually a good thing that Bill would write such an
e-mail.
Interesting Developments? Well, yes I guess so. Beause this
e-mail is five years old. Since then MS put a lot of effort
in the 'user experience' hence, Office 2007 and Vista.
Time will tell if they got that right.
I think they did with Office and to some extent with Vista
(offset by making some things harder)
--
Jan Hyde
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Jan.Hyde