“Are Apple computers better than Windows PCs? The guy who led development of Microsoft’s new versions of Windows apparently once thought so,” Daniel Lyons reports for Forbes.
Lyons reports, “In a January 2004 e-mail to Microsoft chiefs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Vista boss Jim Allchin said he would buy a Mac if he wasn’t working at Microsoft.”
Lyons reports, “Allchin, who is now a co-president of Microsoft, was complaining to Gates and Ballmer that Microsoft had lost its way in developing Vista and lost sight of what customers wanted. The e-mail has become public since it was cited by attorneys in Iowa who are pursuing an antitrust case against Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.”
“Allchin has announced plans to retire from Microsoft after the commercial version of Vista ships at the end of January. Note to employees of Apple retail stores in Bellevue, Wash., and Seattle: On or around Feb. 1, be on the lookout for a white-haired man wearing a Groucho mask, furtively purchasing an iMac,” Lyons writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re not even close to being tired of this one, yet.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Windows chief Allchin 2004 email: I’d buy a Mac if I didn’t work for Microsoft – December 11, 2006
Cringely: ‘I confidently predict that Microsoft is going down’ in Iowa anti-trust action – April 03, 2006
What’s the difference between Mac OS X and Vista? Microsoft employees are excited about Mac OS X – March 22, 2006
MDN take made me LOL, even though it was yesterday’s headline.
That’s like his Steveness buying a Zune.
Apple should send him a nice 17″ MBP retirement gift
for giving us this insight at MS.
Why don’t they also say that J Allard, head of Zune uses Macs too? A fat lot of good it did him. Even a Mac can’t give you good taste.
Funny take.
So why can’t he use a Mac? They run Windows now too. I guess running Windows on a Mac wouldn’t exactly solve his problems though.
Apparently Ballmer is trying to find out what kind of chairs and towels they have in Cupertino. He would rather use those than the ones at MS.
I can at least give Jim Allchin the utmost respect in making a comment that at least opens the eyes of upper management that Microsoft is not the be all end all solution of the IT industry and that Microsoft has some flaws it needs to deal with internally. Apple makes a great product overall, though has its own flaws to sort out in other areas beyond product innovation and design.
Emil…
NO. If Steve Jobs bought a Zune it would be proof that he had gone insane.
Allchin buying a Mac proves that there is hope after all.
Actually, I believe S.Jobs may have bought a Zune. Whenever he is stressed or down he can pull it out for a laugh… The problem would be to stop laughing and get back to work.
I was just about to send this one in, but refreshed the browser and MDN already had it. Hee hee, Apple is getting great publicity on this incident, probably good for a few thousand switchers.
I think he looks more like Harpo.
And I’ll bet that during MS staff meetings, Jimmy made dozens of secret, cute, little doodles in a cursive scribble of “WindOS X” with a heart around it and Cupid’s arrow through it. And next to it in the same style, “J.A. & S.J. 4 EVER!”
“He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”
– Groucho Marx
And that was 3 years ago. OSX has only gotten better and better since then.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re not even close to being tired of this one, yet.
That one is easily in the Hall of Fame of MacDailyNew Takes!
d:”Actually, I believe S.Jobs may have bought a Zune. Whenever he is stressed or down he can pull it out for a laugh… The problem would be to stop laughing and get back to work.”
Next MDN’s take, this is pretty funny too. Made me LOL.
Where’s Zune Tang when we need him? LOL!!!
funny take.
but what does an antitrust case have to do with this guy wanting a mac?
WWJD?
HMMMM…
I think this e-mail should work it’s way into an “I’m a Mac” commercial.
Apple has not had a good design idea in years. One day they might actually come up with something new, or picka new freakin color, but until then the masses of Apple fanboys will continue to spend thousands for small internal hardware upgrades wrapped in the same old shells.
Apple Blah
In the post above I think he or she has confused Apple with Dell
Apple design, now that’s funny!,
You’re quite right! Man, those red Dells make me drool! And the Alienware labtops just warm me up to the core. Why can’t Apple design an all-in-one design as large an ungainly as HP? Now there’s a design to lust over!
I can’t believe Apple used socketed CPUs in their new Macs. I mean now those Apple fanbois can just plop a new processor in there without having drop tens of thousands on new hardware.
Give me neon bulbs, fins, and gills anyday…
Vista boss Jim Allchin said he would buy a Mac if he wasn’t working at Microsoft.
Microsoft had lost its way in developing Vista and lost sight of what customers wanted.
A statement like that, from the guy leading Vista, is absolutely remarkable. Allchin should’ve been dismissed on the spot, instead he got promoted!
What next, Lee Iacocca admits he wouldv’e bought a Honda if he wasn’t at Chrysler? Or Lee Scott says he’d rather shop Target if he wasn’t CEO of Wal-Mart?
MS is a very sick company, living only off entrenchment. With that kind of morale at the top, we can only imagine the decay through rest of the empire.
Clearly, MS=the past and Apple=the future. The next few years should be very interesting!
Apple has not had a good design idea in years. One day they might actually come up with something new, or picka new freakin color, but until then the masses of Apple fanboys will continue to spend thousands for small internal hardware upgrades wrapped in the same old shells.
LOL. What’s your idea of good design? DELL??
If you have something better, send your resume to Cupertino. Otherwise STFU.
Any company that calls their own customers dinosaurs are destined to become one themself.
– John Gee