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Could there be a better Get a Mac ad premise than this? Bill Gates can't use Windows and oh, by the way, he uses XP not Vista.

If only the rest of the windows world would read this. Everyone I talk to who owns a PC has mentioned that once their computer reaches end of life they will be switching to a mac. Hopefully that time will come sooner then later....

Jun 25, 08 - 08:18 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

OMFG.
It's worse than I thought.

If it wasn't Bill Gates, I'd feel sorry for him.

@moitey "uses XP not Vista."
Read the date "Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM" 4 years before Vista was released. Boy dont you feel embarrassed!!!
What numbnuts you are....If your going to flame get the date timeline right.

Jun 25, 08 - 08:25 am Comment from: Forrest, Forrest Gump

This is a jewel, really!

Jun 25, 08 - 08:27 am Comment from: Cubert

"so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there."

He doesn't even know what Microsoft.com looks like or how it works?!?!? Pathetic! It just shows how out of touch he is as........whatever his title is these days.

This smells of a anti-Microsoft writer. I highly doubt Gates actually wrote it, and would suspect someone is sitting back laughing out loud about how stupid this publication (and this site) is for falling for the farce.
This isn't the style of Gates to email information like this. Consider it a waste of space on your screen.

The message is dated "Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM," that's pre-vista release date.

Jun 25, 08 - 08:29 am Comment from: ron

Billy Goats - Sorry - Billy Gates tells it like it is.

Jun 25, 08 - 08:32 am Comment from: MrScrith

It sounds like things got a bit out of control even for him, I wonder if in the last few years he was secretly disgusted with the current condition of Windows. Probably why he's getting out, more then the family and charity, he knows windows is out of control and he wants out before it bombs...

Funny thing is the guy must have made several million dollars while fighting his computer....

Jun 25, 08 - 08:34 am Comment from: DanielM

I would bet the farm that there is nobody that is more dedicated to the Mac than I.

However, I do appreciate Microsoft's achievements and efforts although I just know that Apple will do it better.

But please, before we jump all over MS, Gates and partners take into account that this article centers around an email that was generated nearly 5 and a half years ago.

If only I could take back some of the things that I did yesterday, never mind over half a decade ago.

ha couldn't have happened to a better person, i see it's effected him so much that in 6 years it's actually improved… not

Jun 25, 08 - 08:37 am Comment from: Think

That right there says it all.

If Steve had to deal with that, it would only happen once and there would be so many people fired.

You guys really outta stay away from the KOOLAID!!!! To reach this far back for something to throw out and believe this is real is plain hateful. Be careful... you just might wake up and realize that this is who you really are.

Jun 25, 08 - 08:39 am Comment from: CYxodus

That is EXACTLY how the Windows experience is. I've had to use it for the past 8 years and it's a frustrating experience. Everything is complex and confusing. It's like banging you head up against a wall.

I recall reading a story involving one of Ballmer's close friends wrestling with his Windows PC. Ballmer took a crack at it (right, the "sales guy" is going to fix it?). No luck. Ballmer called in one of his crack engineers. He couldn't fix it either.

A former colleague of mine, who frequently mocked my subtle suggestion he check out the Mac, suffered a series of "authentication" errors on his Windows PC. After four hours with tech support (in India) his PC wouldn't boot at all. Fed up, he went to the Apple Store. He's now running a 24" iMac.

Not that I ever download anything from Microsoft except office updates, but to be fair, this email is dated April 2003.
Things might be better over on the Windows side in 2008?

Office updates seem to go fine........

Is this guy the visionary...it sounds as if he is someone using it for the first time...or, is Windows really just that bad that the CEO can't get around on something he envisioned. Personally, would have fire the whole team after the second sentence.
This is really crazy and really sums it all up...now it's life in Ballmerland.

Jun 25, 08 - 08:46 am Comment from: TowerTone

This was hard for me to read.
At first, it was like a whiff from the dumpster caught while eating.
Then, it was my stomach tightening, as beads of sweat began to form
And my heart rate went up.
But I kept reading.

The tightening in my head....make it stop!
Breathing was increasing, shallow but rapid.
this was all to familiar, the darkness, the emptiness
The helplessness....

It was all coming back.
My Windows experiences, like a trance that I couldn't snap out of.

Is it a coincidence that I quit smoking and drinking since I switched?
I used to think so.
Not anymore.

I understand why Windows sucks....and that's why I use a Mac. But is it really our responsibility to convert every Windows user? Is it our job to persuade them? Frankly, I don't think it is. I don't want everybody to switch. If everyone is using a Mac, don't we loose that nice, tight knit community that originally brought us to the Mac? Don't we lose the excellent service? Don't we expose the platform to more of Microsoft's problems, problems that stem from having more than a few millions? What I am wondering is, if Windows goes away completely, how does that benefit us Mac users? Perhaps more important is, how will the hurt us? Apple is doing tremendously with a single digit market share. Apple is on a smaller scale than Microsoft. What I am trying to ask is, how does Photoshopping lame images of Bill Gates as a way of mocking hundreds of millions of people benefit us? How does acting like a bunch of snobby, complaining Mac users help us rid ourselves of our image of being snobby, complaining Mac users?

I apologize for writing in all questions, but I'm really interested in what you guys think. Please reply with your opinions, I'd really appreciate it.

Jun 25, 08 - 08:49 am Comment from: shen

"Crash
@moitey "uses XP not Vista."
Read the date "Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM" 4 years before Vista was released. Boy dont you feel embarrassed!!!
What numbnuts you are....If your going to flame get the date timeline right."

really? after all that from Billy G all you have is that a poster didn't read the date? seriously? that is your defense? omg that is funny....

"You guys really outta stay away from the KOOLAID!!!! To reach this far back for something to throw out and believe this is real is plain hateful. Be careful... you just might wake up and realize that this is who you really are."

this far back? you mean all the way back to the OS that most windows users are *still* running? even though 5 years have passed they are *still* running xp and we are the ones drinking koolaid?!?

ok, before this i thought you were just a troll, but now i *know* you are a fake. not even a windows uber-fanboy is that stupid. good game till now, you had me going!

This one example that MDN provides of some poor sap's frustration with Microsoft is easily matched with one of numerous complaints at Apple forums. A quick perusal of Apple consumer complaints reveal many Mac users insisting that Apple is failing in product design. manufacturing, or customer service.

Here are three unanswered and unsolved complaints of Mac users:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1558322&tstart=0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1563077&tstart=0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1346290&tstart=0

In fact, it is well known that Apple has closed several forums where criticism has been too embarrassing to the company. Here is one example of Apple failing to take responsibility for its misdeeds owing to its embarrassingly public debacle.

If you think about it, using MDN fanboi logic, Microsoft could easily say that Microsoft is only slightly, minimally, marginally, barely worse than Apple. So much for the myth of Apple superiority.

Jun 25, 08 - 08:55 am Comment from: lurker

Bad part is, he knows the quality of his product, but he still keeps selling it. I think his philanthropy should start with the people who made him rich and he should take direct and immediate action to unscrew their lives. Gates should give a new Mac mini to every current user of Vista or XP. MS could probably get a deal from Apple for around $400 per machine. Talk about alleviating suffering in the world.

Another amazing thing, to me at least, is that MS employees do this stuff knowing that their geeky boss just might try to use the crap they are producing and they still expect to remain employed. And apparently do. It may be that MS is so large and convoluted organizationally that they can't figure out who to fire. Or it may be their corporate position is that "Everybody is responsible for the user experience", which, unfortunately, means that no one is authorized to figure out how high to set the bar, so it just lays on the ground.

Wouldn't it be funny if Gates just decided to fix his own life and started bringing a MacBook to work? We should feel sympathy for him. It's the one thing in the world he can't do!

Jun 25, 08 - 08:58 am Comment from: MaLvado

"So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated."

LMAO! Millions NOT using their OS will not be anticipated by them in due time...

Jun 25, 08 - 09:03 am Comment from: critic

"If it wasn't Bill Gates, I'd feel sorry for him"

As Bill is supposedly a very nice guy, I will feel sorry for him.

However, now that he's retiring, he can use that $40 billion to pay someone to do his software downloads for him. Or, he could just switch to Mac.

shen
Little man you still here? Dont you have some cartoons to watch?
Keep punching.....
Keep missing.....

Jun 25, 08 - 09:13 am Comment from: jjjj

oh he, he he - go and be a spoil sport. This is the big cheese at MSFT we are talking about, not the little guy, like Ballmer or your dad or my friends with their Windows computer issues.

No machine or software is perfect. Hopefully AAPL and MSFT will address their issues and make things right. Coding happens.

"As Bill is supposedly a very nice guy, I will feel sorry for him."

Tell it to any of the people he robbed.

-jcr

Where is Zune Tang when we need him??? (lol)

There is no way that the email was Bill Gate's personal experience. It is written in a context that refers to products in ways that Bill would never refer to them as. No matter how BAD a product is, Bill would never call it crap. No matter how obscure updates to Windows or Movie Maker or whatever, to think that he actually dislikes the naming and would reveal that in an email is giving him way too much credit in terms of actually expecting him to point out what ordinary people say everyday. If Bill really thought any of the things listed in this email, you can bet your bottom dollar that the behaviors would have changed. The only conclusion you can draw is that if this was an email from a customer, that they must have purposely ignored what was written, because Vista isn't any better.

This e-mail from Bill Gates would be a great Mac PC TV advertisement.

If they broke the facts of the e-mail into mini advertisements/story and put them in sequence, it would be real funny and informative. And it is in Bill Gates 's own words.

Are they going to get a dancing monkey for their TV ads soon. The PC guy could crank a music box that looks like a Zune and the monkey could dance around while they talk.

Jun 25, 08 - 09:28 am Comment from: JadisOne

They better be thankful for abusing their monopoly to force users and businesses into unreasonable and pricey license agreements, otherwise they would've been out of business ages ago.

And this proves what?? My friends, a few weeks ago, a coworker ordered a scanner for his iMac from a well known retailer who specializes in Mac hardware and software. AFTER 2
HOURS we finally got the thing to work on his iMac!! Two hours of goofy messges and spinning beach balls and, most of all, the scanner doing nothing.

Now this is not a typical experience with the iMac. In fact it is very untypical or I would not have an iMac myself. Just as is Mr. Gates experience. Most of the people I know with Windows computers, and that includes VISTA, have no significant problems and they computers work well for them.

Time to come back to reality

Why do so many Apple users think they have to build up Apple by putting down Microsoft? This reminds me of Jr. High jerks.

Jun 25, 08 - 09:34 am Comment from: BDecker

Bills problems are just beginning. Moviemaker is a total waste of time.

Has anything gotten better? Well, Movie Maker download comes up as the number 2 choice when doing a search on their site. Of course, they still have 90,100 other results. Apparently, if they can't amaze you with quality they'll overwhelm you with quantity.

Jun 25, 08 - 09:37 am Comment from: MrMcLargeHuge

"So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated."

Greatest. Line. Ever.

Jun 25, 08 - 09:37 am Comment from: Andy

Well, it's entirely possible that Bill DID send that email, considering he doesn't even deny it in the article - heck, he even says writing those emails was his 'job' at MS.

It would seem to me that MS simply lacks the spirit to improve itself, because its corporate nature prefers being static and 'good enough' as opposed to Apple/Steve's zealous drive to improve the computing experience.

This email sums up perfectly the reasons why I switched to a 15" G4 PowerBook in 2005, heh.

Jun 25, 08 - 09:37 am Comment from: TowerTone

Josh
next time try Vuescan.
Maybe you shouldn't have to, but it still usually works with most scanners.
plus, it is great software.

Sounded about average for my experience of Windows...

(And to the poster who doubted its real, don't doubt, it was provided to the courts as evidence).

I love this part,

"Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?"

He REBOOTS every night! Why? I never reboot OS X except at major software updates, typically months apart.

Sad. Just sad.

Jun 25, 08 - 09:46 am Comment from: Predrag

to Richie:

The e-mail is quite genuine. Bill Gates has confirmed as much in different places, and this has also been corroborated by many Microsoft developers. Creative CEOs (i.e. those who don't live their corporate life in ivory towers, pulling strings and directing their minions to do everything that's beneath them) tend to often dig deep into the product itself, test it themselves, put it through its paces from consumer's perspective. Steve Jobs does it, Bill Gates does it, as do many others.

The most important point of this message wasn't what Gates found out about microsoft.com, Windows Update, 'Add/Remove Programmes', etc. It is the fact that five years after he found out about it, and fumed at his developers (and seniour management), essentially nothing got done. This is the true measure of Microsoft.

Jun 25, 08 - 09:48 am Comment from: John

Ya know, on reading this email it's obvious Bill G has _no_ idea how a computer (or the internet) works: he is befuddled by downloading files; he is confused as to what a machine does while installing software; he is outraged that he has to restart a machine and has no idea why that might have to happen after software install....
Obviously Windows is not making any of this easier, but God, come on: I mean, I know why these things happen and he's in charge of the biggest software company on earth and doesn't?! He sounds about as tech literate as my mother--in fact maybe less so!!
That's just sad....

JoshtheMacGuy:

"Why do so many Apple users think they have to build up Apple by putting down Microsoft?"

Because they are:

1. stupid
2. ignorant
3. insecure
4. biased
5. hypocritical
6. illogical
7. fearful
8. unimaginative
9. any combination of the above
10. all of the above (i.e Ampar, MCCFR, Jubei - my apologies to the remaining fanbois that I choose not to include in this list of Mac morons - you know who you are so get over it.]

Jun 25, 08 - 10:00 am Comment from: Predrag

And to all those conspiracy guys (who believe this is fake), the e-mail was subpeonaed by the prosecution during the anti-trust trials and is on public record of the case (check the list of 'Government Exhibits', i.e. evidence as presented by the prosecution, here. You'll have to sift through them in order to find this particular one, though, as the titles are sequential numbers). For people with a lot of free time, you'll learn fascinating things about Microsoft by reading through some of this eveidence.

Jun 25, 08 - 10:01 am Comment from: HMCIV

It's comforting to know the captain of the ship has noticed these problems as well. For a while, I thought everything was working "normally" for him!


Why could I possibly think that? "...they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated."

That's why!

Jun 25, 08 - 10:11 am Comment from: Andy

I think the most staggering fact of all - out of this - is that even the CEO's complaints get lost in the bureaucratic morass. MS is really a company that moves BACKWARDS.

Instead of evolving, MS devolves with every iteration.

Plus, I'm not surprised Bill rebooted every night, as leaving Windows chugging along indefinitely would irreversibly damage it.

There is a point when you get bored of re-installing the ENTIRE OS every four/six months, afterall.

OS X was Apple's 'clean slate'. Vista is MS's decent into oblivion.

Man oh man. No matter how bad the Microsoft user experience is, the apologists still come out and defend it. It's amazing. There is no way in hell that an Apple user would have this much difficulty in downloading a piece of software....NO WAY IN HELL!!! Of course, the Windows fan boys wouldn't know because they don't use Mac OS X. In the finder's Apple menu, there are 2 options you can select:

Software Update
Mac OS X Software

Both take you the exact place you need to be to download the software you need or are looking for. Friggin simple. Windows sufferers have to spend hours just to find the right piece of software. This is demonstrated in the experience the supposed genius Bill Gates had. Still, Windows apologists (sufferers) still come out to defend their beloved OS.

Stockholm Syndrome indeed!!!

Jun 25, 08 - 10:18 am Comment from: shen

"Little man you still here? Dont you have some cartoons to watch?
Keep punching.....
Keep missing....."

sorry didn't mean to give away the new cover for "zune tang"

keep up the good work!

Jun 25, 08 - 10:23 am Comment from: AAPLguy

@Ho, ho, ho

"You're once, twice, three times a Ho"