Your Chance to Meet Bill Gates

tcak writes "From the CNET article: "You could meet the chairman of Microsoft, but you'll have to profess a passion for Windows first. Microsoft is looking for true stories about people using Windows computers to pursue a passion or hobby. The company plans to use them in a marketing blitz tied to the 20th anniversary of Windows' debut. ""

Comments

Wonderful

[mfh]

You could meet the chairman of Microsoft, but you'll have to profess a passion for Windows first.

How many of us will pretend to love windows just to get a chance to relive some fond memories?

Microsoft is looking for true stories about people using Windows computers to pursue a passion or hobby.

So now they have to bribe Windows users for positive reviews, eh? Seems about right.

Re:Wonderful

[DoraLives]

How many of us will pretend to love windows just to get a chance to relive some fond memories?

How many of us want to see OUR names splashed around the world by the marketeers as somebody delirously in love with windows?

Re:Wonderful

[DS_User]

Dear Bill; I have idolized you ever sinec I was a child. Now I plan to start my own computer business that will be based on things that already exist. However I will give everything a bloated gui to brainwash noobs into buying. Afterwards our software will turn to OS and then become so huge and bloated that it devours your own. Then I will be the master and you will be no more. Afterwards I will buy the senate and have them force my software to every government facility known to man. I will also send ultra buggy beta versions to Iraq which will destory everything with pure explosions from poor code. Then the US will love me, Britian will knight me, and then, and then. I shall be the emperor of the world. (Your master Sedious would be proud)Such is the way of the Sith.

Re:Wonderful

[space_dude_27]

Me. I'll tell them how much fun I have using ace windows software like Firefox and Open Office. And Cygwin ;-)

Re:Wonderful

[Zog The Undeniable]

MASTER STALLMAN: Not if anything to do with it I have!

A protracted light saber fight ensues, at the end of which the defeated MASTER STALLMAN escapes DARTH GEEKIOUS by crawling through a Unix pipe and going into self-imposed exile in the GNU system. There he waits until the New Hope, LINUS PENGUINSTALKER is ready to begin his training in the arts of the VI KNIGHTS.

Re:Wonderful

[pintomp3]

I love using windows. i have the double paned ones that fold in for easy cleaning. i love to look through them to check the weather, see who's knocking, and bird watching. Windows provide me tons of information and couldn't be easier to use. They are great for security and I never worry about getting bugs inside. They illuminate my otherwise dreary life. I even love using windows in the car. I will never buy a car without windows. Using windows is such a pleasure, more than I can say for my computer running XP.

Re:Wonderful

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

You have the names mixed up. It's Emperor Bilgatine and Darth Mcbride.

RMS is the wookie (mostly because he won't need a costume).

my only question is...

[whoisshe]

...will they pat me down first before i meet him?

Re:Apple's Switch

[Golias]

Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be like Apple's Switch ads?

That's the whole idea.

Another Microsoft innovation!

I use Windows at work!

[Boone^]

When I'm at work, I use a Dell PC running Windows XP to open my VNC sessions on the linux grid to write new simulators as well as check on the progress of currently executing ones, as well as pulling up my VNC terminal from my iMacG5 at home to peruse personal email.

Do I get to meet Bill now?

Passion

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of people seem to be passionate about Macs, Linux and some Unix variants. But I've never known anyone who is really passionate about windows, some people prefer it to other operating systems but nobody really seems to love it. I could understand apple doing this, but I think Microsoft might have difficulty finding people who really love windows.

Re:Passion

[xtracto]

Oh man, that is because you did not worked in this place where I used to work, they are trying to be Microsoft Gold partners or something like that and the Chief is certainly a Microsoft Windows Fanboy (tm).

So yup, I have had the chance to work with two or three MS and Windows fanboys/zealots, whatever

Re:Passion

[maxwell demon]

I've never known anyone who is really passionate about windows

You don't know any passionate Windows hater?

Re:Passion

[jellomizer]

Unix/Linux Zealots push technical superiority.

Mac Xealots push design superiority.

Windows Zelots push the fact that they put in a lot of time and effort into it, and they just can't turn back now.

Re:Passion

[bheer]

Not to be trollish, but -- IMHO -- Macs and Linux are loved because they're used mostly by committed users who have made an active choice to use what they do.

But I've never known anyone who is really passionate about windows, some people prefer it to other operating systems but nobody really seems to love it.

You make a very interesting point: most non-corporate buyers today will not be able to tell you why they chose Windows, beyond a "It's what I'm familiar with" or "Everyone else uses it" or "My bottle-carving program runs on it". Windows is an externally enforced choice for most people. So far so good, and by now the slashbots would be frothing about how great it'd be if only the evil M$ was broken up so that people could finally Choose(tm).

Problem: if MS were to go away, something else would take its place, say Linux. When that happens, when Linux is mandated across broad swathes of business, you can be quite sure that the crowd of lusers that you now have would bring the inevitable kvetching about how The Computer Ate My Work(tm). No amount of telling them '..but Linux is stable!' will help: they'd sooner believe that the computer is a piece of shit than admit a mistake.

And oh: this is already happening today: We have a CRM app that runs crossplatform on Moz and IE, and quite a few of our customers (call centers who want their IT as lean-and-mean as possible) have standardized on Linux/OO.o because their users don't need much more. I've been to a few of these places, and FWIW the IT staff at at these places are happy as clams but user satisfaction has not gone up (it has actually dipped in a couple of places but I'm willing to pin that on poor retraining). Of course, none of this means anything except anecdotally but your post made me wonder how passionate a user in these companies would be about Linux.

Re:Passion

[bmajik]

That's entirely false for me.

I like windows because i have _no_ time invested in it, and i dont need to invest time in it.

When i come home from work, the last thing i want to do is spend more time screwing with cantankerous computers. I wave the mouse, the screen lights up, and i am doing whatever i want to be doing with the computer. The web browser renders every page correctly. The email program is perfectly fast even though i have thousands of messages. My terminal emulator running a text-mode irc client hasn't spun out of control consuming all my ram. Visual Studio has been minimized for days and i breifly restore it to see what i was last "working on" at home in my hobbyist coding hours.

This is windows xp for me. I spent about 2 hours assembling this machine from parts that newegg sent me and about another 2 hours getting xp, office 2003, and a few other apps installed on it. I haven't had to do a single thing to it sense.

I'd say my time investment is pretty low. That's precisely how i like it.

I've spent much more time trying to get an Aironet 352 working smoothly on OS X. I've spent a bunch more time trying to help my wife troubleshoot her ibook G4's sleep-of-death problem. (her powerbook G3 had it also, and i've spent a bunch of time on _that_ thing)

I suppose thta i haven't spent much time on my OpenBSD machine.. i put in "the time" on that thing a few years ago and i mostly forget i even have it apart from every few months wanting to do something or other with it. Which requires 2-4 hours of reading and mucking.

Of course, im not a "zealot" for any of these platforms. I use all of them at home, but the machine with me physically sitting at it the most is windows, yet it requires the least "effort" by far.

Suddenly I feel like David Carradine...

[TripMaster Monkey]

...Microsoft is offering a number of prizes, including the chance to meet Gates in Seattle...

Anyone here old enought to remember Death Race 2000? Remember why Frankenstein (David Carradine) wanted so badly to win the race?

^_^

That was awesome!

[Nytewynd]

I want to win just to pull the old Chris Farley interview from SNL.

Me: Remember that time you released windows?
Bill: Yeah
Me: That was awesome!

pursue a passion or hobby

[bushboy]

Hi There Bill, please consider me !

I use Windows to persue my hobbies, which include :-

phishing, spamming, cracking and distributing illegal files via p2p !

I have a real passion for windows !

If a story could ever be marked as Flamebait...

[Enoch Root]

...this would be it.

Seriously, what is the point of posting this to Slashdot? No, REALLY? Is this some kind of group anger management therapy?

Re:If a story could ever be marked as Flamebait...

[metricmusic]

STFU u.

You mean *this* was awesome...

[Nick Driver]

Balmer hawking Windows when it was first released.

Don't forget to bring

[DrXym]

your stake, mallet and holy water.

Re:Apple's Switch

[linuxci]

It's good to see Microsoft are worried on all fronts at the moment, they must be spending more than they ever have on improving products and advertising. You can't visit a tech site (even slashdot) without seeing ads that are saying that Windows is cheaper than Linux (unless you block ads*). Now they're doing an Apple style campaign to respond to people switching to Mac or maybe Linux on the desktop. They've revived the IE team and spending a fortune trying to patch the security holes in their swiss chesse products.

*I'd never block Microsoft's ads, sometimes I even click them in order to give the site some free money from Microsoft.

Passion FOR Microsoft's products?!

[Anita Coney]

The thing that really bugs me about Microsoft's products is how they'll fuck over paying customers.

Here's an old by great example. Back when Win95 was released you could not natively use long file names with 16-bit apps. However, there was a product called "Name-It!" which did allow that function. In other words it was possible, but Microsoft chose NOT to implement it. Why? Because long file names was a great feature and it would give incentive to users to upgrade to new 32-bit programs.

Another great example is Messenger, the chat program not the service. Microsoft has made it nearly impossible to get rid of. Even if you edit your sysoc.inf file and uninstall Messenger, it'll suddenly come back. Even if you delete the subfolder under Program Files, it'll mysteriously come back. Obviously Microsoft considers its chat war against AOL more important than ease of use for users.

And of course there's product activation. We were told it was to stop piracy, but that was bull-shit. You can easy obtain pirated copies of XP. Let's face it, if it product activation really worked, then why is Microsoft implementing its anti-piracy feature for people downloading software? And even more importantly, if piracy has been decreased, then why is XP Microsoft's most expensive OS? Why aren't they passing the savings back to use? Once again, the real purpose of product activation is to screw over the paying customer who wants to install XP on both of his systems.

And lets not forget out Microsoft's Office products are constantly screwing with file formats to make the later versions incompatible with earlier versions. Once again, this is NOT done to make it easier for paying customers. It's merely leverage to get those customer paying again and again.

It'd be really hard to be passionate FOR Microsoft's products. It's hard to be passionate for anything that nickel and dimes you at every turn. That treats you like a criminal. And sees you merely as a cash cow to be milked at every chance.

Passion = yes, gratefull = yes, Annoyed = HELL YES

[B5_geek]

A lot of us got our start with non-MS OS's, but we all owe Billy a thank-you for making PC's available to non-business's.

If it wasn't for MS, IBM would prolly still be stong-arming the MainFrame Only sales pitch. Yes Apple was first, but it just didn't catch on the way that Windows did.

I don't like his products (although Outlook2003 is damn spiffy), I don't like his embrace/engulf style, but I do love the fact that without him I wouldn't have the career that I do today. I owe him thanks.

C64 -> WFWG 3.11 -> OS/2 v3 & v4 -> Linux

I believe that MS-DOS 6.22 was the best OS that Microsoft has ever made.

Without the millions of home PC's running Windows, we would still be using 486's running at 100MHz.

Thank-you Bill. Now please just go away.

Re:Passion - Gizoogle style

[tomhudson]

Yo chance ta meet bizzy gates

you could meet tha chairman of microsoft, but youll have ta profess a passion fo` windows first . Fo'-fo' desert eagle to your motherfuckin' dome. microsoft is look'n fo` true stories `bout thugz using windows baller ta pursue a passion or hobby motha fucka. tha company plans ta use tizzy in a market'n blitz tied ta tha 20th anniversary of windows debut. ta entice essay submissions, microsoft is offer'n a poser of prizes, includ'n tha chance ta mizzle gates in seattle n appear in tha ad campaign. otha prizes include an overseas T-R-to-tha-izzip wit national geographic expedition, vip access ta a major movie premiere n a home makeova wittan hgtv designa.

Essays mizzle be 300 words or less. Extra points is given ta essays tizzle demonstrate tha positive impact Windows has made on someones life like a tru playa'. Microsoft will select winna in fizzle categizzles ridin' in mah double R: culture n communizzle music, memories, home n lifestizzle n sports n games aww nah. To win, you must be at least 13 years old, live in tha United States, n enta by Siznept puttin tha smack down. 30. Microsoft plans ta select shot calla in Wanna Be Gangsta.

My deep abiding love for Windows

[FunWithHeadlines]

I have a passion for the color blue. I see it and I swoon in ecstasy. How beautiful it is to my eyes! How evocative of the sky and the sea and everything life-giving!

I find screens fascinating. Just by looking at a screen, you can learn anything in the realm of human knowledge. There is no limit to the things one can learn by applying yourself to screens.

When writing, I find the word "of" to be a significant help in stringing together words into coherent sentences. I am so grateful to my elementary school teachers for introducing me to this wonderful word.

I cannot get the idea of death out of my mind. It haunts me, it consumes me, it puzzles me. I think about it endlessly.

Is there any wonder why I have a deep and abiding love for Windows?

Sounds similar to GWB's town hall events

[Aqua OS X]

Sounds similar to GWB's town hall events.
You have a shot at talking to the president, but first you have to pledge support. :/

First Prize, a meeting with Bill Gates...

[jpellino]

Second Prize: Two meetings with Bill Gates.