Bill Gates Chews Out Microsoft 836
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."
Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly enough, Gates could have really improved his image during his tenure at Microsoft if he let emails like that "leak" out prior to stepping down. Instead, he gives keynotes about Microsoft and its "innovation."
First, I am not sure that email is really by Gates -- from reading his writing or listening to him in the past, it really does not sound like his style. Also, "I reboot my computer ... why should I have to reboot my computer?" I find it hard to realize that he wouldn't know the technical difficulties in replacing a dll while the system is running, and possible ways around this, and the current state of affairs. However, maybe I'm giving too much credit here.
Secondly, *if you can't do anything about this crap, then stop releasing it on time and FIX THE ISSUES* instead of releasing it to the world for millions of users to suffer under your monopoly. If your software sucks, fix the problems instead of using oppressive business practices to make *everybody* suffer.
Next, people complain about Linux usability? apt-get install mplayer k3b, etc? It is not harder, just different. In fact, having all of the software most people need in one place makes Linux easier for most people in many ways, specifically the way that possible-Bill rants about here.
Whenever I have listen to Gates talk or talked to him (many, many years ago now, in the late 90's) he seems more than aware of problems with his product, and I always get this vibe "I'm doing it because I can and it is really, really, really good for business and nobody is stopping me." If any of you were following the USDOJ against Microsoft way back before the Bush-era forgiveness, Microsoft was going to be split into three companies. When Bill was on the stand, he basically went "I don't remember" to every possibly incriminating statement, but was clearly aware of the bad ethics of what he was doing -- again, reading between the lines I always got the vibe of the triumphant geek saying "I'm not going to stop until you guys get your act together and make me stop."
He's not a stupid guy that way, and anybody that respects billionaires must ask themselves if they would do the same things with a company to maintain market share... Personally, I like to think I wouldn't, but that's why I am not a CEO.
The scary part (Score:5, Interesting)
At the end of the piece, it says,
Maybe the competent MS employees have long ago committed harakiri in shame, and whoever's left Just Don't Care...
Its real. Here are the links (Score:5, Interesting)
The originial article: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp [nwsource.com]
Here are the responses from within Microsoft: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/2003Jangatesmoviemaker.pdf [nwsource.com]
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:4, Interesting)
I think you're right. This "article" screams fake! Notice this part: "I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there." Gates wouldn't have said "they", he would have said "we". And the subject says "flame". It is indeed a rant. Most executives would never write such a thing in a permanent medium. In the end, nobody can ever prove or disprove a "leaked" memo, unless the appropriate party fesses up, but this looks fake.
Way ahead of you!
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:5, Interesting)
but try installing an app that plays podcasts WITHOUT KNOWING that democracyplayer and VLC play podcasts.
I went to add/remove and typed podcast in the search.
When sorted by popularity:
1) rythmbox music player, play and orginize your music collection. I bet this works for audio podcasts
2) Miro Internet TV, Watch online videa.
details:
Miro (previously known as Democracy Player) is a platform for Internet television and video. It allows you to download and watch videos from RSS feeds (including podcasts, video blogs, and BitTorrent feeds).
This application is provided by the Ubuntu community.
I bet that's what I would pick.
Of course gpodder 2 further down may have been my choice (it mentions audio and video podcasts in the brief description).
I would never have used vlc though, I use it daily, and didn't realize it did podcasts.
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:100% fake (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure looks like a DoJ-entered piece of evidence.
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:5, Interesting)
How do you "know what you're looking for" without searching the web exactly?
It's worth noting that Microsoft would love nothing more than to bundle as many free utilities as they could, but their hands are tied thanks to those who whined to the DOJ.
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:2, Interesting)
I consider myself a relatively experienced admin. I run several networks, and I have been using linux forever as my main desktop. I was there for the Slackware jump to 7.
I've set up multi-auth systems, I have set up linux vpn gateways that authenticate to Microsoft servers, designed full network installations that span several geographic locations. I'm in the scene. My mailbox is full of lists and groups about all aspects of computers. I am not a n00b.
That being said, when I decided to put a webcam on my desk, I really was at a loss as to what software to use to do some very basic things. Sure it works fine in Kopete, but it wouldn't let me grab a snapshot in it. At least nowhere I could find.
Would this problem be resolved if the cam manufacturer had included linux support? possibly. Long story short, it took me forever to figure out how to simply save a picture from my webcam, and I'm neither a grandpa, nor a luddite.
Re:100% fake (Score:3, Interesting)
Easy there, there's no need to attack my English because I interpret the incomplete statement differently to you. Fake or not, it was used as empiric evidence in a trial, which really suggests I'm not the only one who thinks that, yes, it really could be real.
Thank you, whomever you are, for Synaptic and apt! (Score:2, Interesting)
Reading this reminds me of how AWESOME using Synaptic and apt-get really can be. In a single place you can find updates, new packages, and alternatives to the packages you already have. It resolves dependencies and deletes unused stuff.
Compared to Mr Gates's experience, this really is a marvelous thing.
I haven't done the Googling to determine who should get this praise, but thank you anyway, whomever you are!
Don't nitpick words spoken in anger (Score:2, Interesting)
As far as Gates referring to the microsoft.com web site team as "they" is concerned: I work for a large company (100,000+ employees) and nobody uses "we" vs. "they" consistently. "We" can mean "our team", "our division", "the company" -- but at the same time "they" can refer to any subset of those people as well: "our servers are really slow today... I wish the admins would figure it out already. They need to get their act together."
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:3, Interesting)
What does hardware that doesn't support Linux have to do with installing software that is supported?
Or finding the program for a function.
If the device worked, 2 programs that look easy enough are "cheese" and "camorama", top two that come up when searching webcam in add/remove programs.
Of course if your device doesn't show up at all it is a completely different situation. My only point was that finding the right program is not as hard as advertised, getting hardware that doesn't "just work" is different (for example I still can't get my shuttle PN-15 to work, I just gave up and ran a cable, even though it should work).
Names. (Score:2, Interesting)
Most GNU/Linux distributions solved this problem years ago and they did it much better than Windows ever will.
GNU/Linux distribution menus are arranged by function and task. The KDE menu, for example, has "Science and Math", "Office", "Internet" and other things any computer user would recognize. The sub menus have a name and description, KWord is a Word Processor, so is OO.org Writer.
You can compare that to the hodge podge of Vendor solutions and permutate those through the mindless changes M$ made to their defaults over several versions of Windoze. What you see is menus arranged by Vendor. The user is supposed to just know what Adobe, Correl, Novel and others can do for them. Programs that do the same thing never end up in the same place where the user might - gasp - compare them or find them easily. The only thing worse is DRM. When you combine that with all of the different default locations for finding programs or saving files, you end up what Bill Gates described.
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:4, Interesting)
Last week I had a client with an XP pro box that crashed hard. (The HDD physically broke and the needle scratched the crap out of the platters). He had an extra SATA drive and said, "I'm not married to XP, let's install Linux".
Their wifi access system was already running linux and *iux would make the final step of deploying the online ordering system I built for them a bit easier implement. I was up for it. It had been a while since I had dealt with installing Linux for a desktop. I figured things had improved.
Here is how that went: downloaded Fedora 9. Would not install, Kernel panic on boot from DVD. Apparently Fedora and the Intel 945GC chipset hate each other. Saw this "well known issue with DVD install and 945GC". May be an issue, but bottom line: it didn't work out of the box. STRIKE 1
OpenSuSE 11: Would install, but would freeze on hardware probe. Could boot up, but got an error that kernel modules were unable to load and thus the ethernet card would not work, etc.. STRIKE 2
Ubuntu: Owner downloaded and tried installing. Kept pressing enter at the install screen, but it did nothing. We could view the other menus, but try to do an install and it wouldn't let us for some reason. (This may have been a bad burn on the CD) He had read about how great Ubuntu was and decided to see if he could install it. STRIKE 3.
After that, I was thinking there was something else wrong hardware wise with the box. So I took out a FreeBSD 7-0 release disc and it installed, no problems, no hardware errors reported.
It was now the end of the day and the evening shift was getting ready to come in. They needed a box that worked so they could grant wifi access to customers (this is a coffee shop). We had wasted and afternoon, nothing accomplished.
XP Pro went back on the box. It worked. Linux lost a client on the desktop side. And if someone asks about it at the local chamber meeting, guess what he's going to say. "Well we tried 3 different versions of linux, none of them worked. They wouldn't even install."
Yesterday was Round 2. The owner decided to purchase an AMD barebones kit to replace the Intel machine. (He was going to take the XP box home for his kids).
OpenSuSE 11: Would boot, select install, then just a black screen. RESULT: Intentional Pass on Linux, went straight to BSD. This time PC-BSD. The owner had been reluctant on BSD because he had never heard of it and the text base installer scared him a bit with vanilla FBSD.
PC-BSD installed flawlessly and he liked the GUI installer. So easy even he could do it. Flash worked out of the box (a bit choppy on playback), but it works. Only problem was the NV driver would only allow 800x600 screen resolution, so had to use VESA. Not that important since all they are doing is using FireFox and Google Docs. So technically that is a failure as we are unable to use higher resolutions than 1024x768. Even on a wide screen monitor. But it works well enough.
Hell, I was able even able to load their label printer via CUPS and get it to work. In fact, I was really impressed with PC-BSD. It's 2 CD's to download and burn, had everything I needed to get up and running in less than 20 minutes. They have their PBI installer system or you can use the traditional BSD ports system.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like every time I give Linux another shot I am reminded to why I switched to BSD in 2000 and Mac in 2002 for the desktop.
As far as the memo it's self. It may not have been written by Gates hands, but by someone on his staff and then signed off on. But it can be hard to dictate things to a large development team. I now run a company that does custom development work. A lot of the developers are kids right out of college with CS degrees with technical leads having graduate degrees in CS. Technically, they know their stuff, but left to their own devices can come back with some of the worst stuff from a user stand point you've
Re:The bundle without a key (Score:2, Interesting)
Now, you can say it's unfair that they bundled their own apps with Windows, but that makes them no different that any other OS (including IBM, Apple, and pretty much every Linux distro).
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:4, Interesting)
The software repositories are nice in Linux, but I'd wonder how many people would realize they were there, assuming they were new, inexperienced users. I've always thought it would be great idea for Windows to provide something comparable. Might help limit the amount malware people get.
Lastly, you make the argument that Linux comes with those programs out of the box. Actually, you said Ubuntu comes with those programs. It seems to me, most Linux distro's only come with the bare necessities (Browser, Productivity Software, Media Player, Etc.). Windows typically has all of these, PLUS a bunch of crap you'll never need, use, or want.
Re:The bundle without a key (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The bundle without a key (Score:3, Interesting)
OK, personally I believe your post deserves a reply (as opposed to the negative mod you got).
1) Any application which you have to learn to use has a degree of lock-in, which is the cost of learning to use a different application to gain the same functionality. This point holds in varying degrees for 3 out of the 4 applications which you list: wmplayer, iexplore, and winword. Mostly for winword, but as you correctly point out, it doesn't come bundled free with Windows. So I will stop worrying about winword...
2) Any application which manipulates or displays documents in proprietary formats has a degree of lock-in; either in your information getting stuck in those formats, or in your not being able to access information sent to you in those formats. Again, this point holds in varying degrees for 2 out of the 3 free applications which you list: wmplayer and iexplore.
3) As you astutely point out, many companies, not just MS, generate income indirectly from free products. It doesn't bother me that MS does this, my reply was more to set things straight than to complain. The poster I replied to implied that MS was dying, out of the goodness of their hearts, to supply these "free utilities" and the evil DOJ was preventing them from being so altruistically helpful. My post was attempting to put that in a more realistic light.
Re:Then STOP releasing the product! (Score:2, Interesting)
I generally find apps that work well that are freeware which require no upgrade, no cracks or other "nags" and I generally drop a few dollars their way if I find it valuable.
A virus scan is completed in the background when the file is downloaded so I'm not nagged with that.
The final part about the spyware and popups is generally the result of a person going to a crack site and downloading everything but the crack, WHICH isn't needed because it's freeware.
I'd say by most of your message that while you've closely followed Linux you've not taken the time to update your knowledge of Windows and are comparing from about the time Windows 95/98 was on most desktops.