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Bill Gates Chews Out Microsoft

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-wouldn't-like-him-when-he's-angry dept.

s31523 writes "All of us have one time or another been completely frustrated by certain Windows usability issues, and in many cases our experiences have driven us over to Linux, or kept us there. For anyone that has ever been frustrated, you will be happy to know you aren't the only one. After reading this leaked Microsoft memo from Bill Gates back in 2003, you will surely have more insight into why Vista is a complete disaster due to Microsoft not learning anything from their experiences from XP."

9 of 836 comments (clear)

  1. I thought this was a joke until I read this part.. by Valtor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wow! I thought this was a joke until I read this part

    When Seattle Pi recently asked Gates about the email, he replied, "There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job."
    --
    "Sockets are the standard networking API, also useful for stopping your eyes from falling onto your cheeks" zeromq.org
  2. Re:100% fake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    That is NOT Gate's writing style and there are several mistakes as well that point to someone other than gates wrote the letter.

    "I go to microsoft.com they have a download center" HUH? Cince when does the Head executive of the company refer to the company as "they" instead of "we"? I have never seen it even down to the grunt level.

    This "secret memo" is bunk. it is in no way Bill Gates' writing.

    Except this was entered as evidence in the DoJ trial. It's real and on the books.
  3. Re:100% fake by stevied · · Score: 5, Informative

    I didn't think it sounded much like him, either, but googling the subject turned up this (google cache version), which seems to make it more plausible ..

  4. Re:100% fake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The email is real. It's in the court documents from the Comes vs Microsoft case. You can find it in PX07199.pdf from http://edge-op.org/iowa/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/7000/

  5. Re:Then STOP releasing the product! by hrieke · · Score: 5, Informative

    The letter is from the antitrust files, so it's certified.

    The very interesting thing is that there is no single person at Microsoft who has the final say on how all of there stuff interacts together. Not even Bill has that clout (and if he did, he sucked at his job).

    --
    III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIIIV IIVIIIIIIVIII...
  6. Re:It's a FAAAAAAAAKE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't you feel silly now after that pointless rant that it turns out to be real and part of the released court documents from the Comes vs Microsoft case?

  7. Re:Its real. Here are the links by xtracto · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here, Knock yourself out

    The specific exhibit (7199) is found near here

    And if you doubt me (after all, who is this xtracto guy), the page is linked from groklaw. Maybe they are more thrustworthy than myself?

    --
    Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
  8. Re:Then STOP releasing the product! by wezeldog · · Score: 5, Informative

    Depending on you situation, you don't have to search the web. Open Adept Manager in KDE and you can drag and drop key words to narrow down the list. You can search as well. Synaptic is similar. If I recall correctly, SUSE had a nifty hierarchical organization.

  9. Re:The bundle without a key by Rary · · Score: 5, Informative

    There was a saying that "DOS isn't done until Lotus won't run". Back when Lotus 1-2-3 was MS' biggest software competitor, every new version of DOS would have some "feature" that would cause Lotus 1-2-3 to "break".

    A cute phrase and an oft-repeated anecdote, but according to people at Lotus, it's completely false.

    --

    "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein