Good to know Gates is personally checking windoze and M$.com are working well, taking measures to improve its usability and caring about end users.
-Sunjith On Tuesday 01 July 2008, vikhrakula at asianetindia.com wrote: > Following is a leaked transcript of Bill Gates to his employees > regarding his personal experience with windows moviemaker download. and > > here is the response when journalist confronted him with the > transcript > > /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./ > > and he refers this encounter during his farewell > > During his farewell event at Microsoft this morning, Gates referred > to this, and poked a little fun at us/: "One of the newspapers had > some e-mail that I sent about how maybe Windows could have been better > at something, and they said, 'This is a shocking e-mail. Shocking!' > And I said, 'What do you think I do all day? Sending an e-mail like > that, that is my job. That's what it's all about. We're here to make > things better."/ > > Check this out.. > > ---- Original Message ---- > > FROM: Bill Gates > SENT: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM > TO: Jim Allchin > Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; > Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH) > SUBJECT: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame > > I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going > backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability > issues. > > Let me give you my experience from yesterday. > > 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. > > The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to > bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to > come up. > > This site is so slow it is unusable. > > It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45. > > These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: > C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear. > > They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things > are strange. > > I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in > movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing. > > So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this > Moviemaker download? Does it exist? > > So they told me that using the download page to download something > was not something they anticipated. > > They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie > maker (not moviemaker!). > > I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of > waiting up it came. > > I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the > download. > > In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me > to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations. > > This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere > else and do a scan to download moviemaker? > > So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to > download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where > I get to see weird dialog boxes. > > Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows? > > Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it > was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff. > > This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but > instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible > way I had to download 17meg. > > So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an > install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't > use it for anything else during this time. > > What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. > This is after the download was finished. > > Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I > reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time? > > So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant > completely getting rid of all my Outlook state. > > So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I > forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to > get Moviemaker. > > So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I > have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? > Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP. > > What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch > of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker. > > So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes > many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is. > > At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to > download. > > So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying > things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to > do. I have no clue which to do. > > The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing. > > So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove > programs place to make sure it is there. > > It is not there. > > What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate > Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, > Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, > Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3. > > Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? > The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This > program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up. > > But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things > like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is > Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the > patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for > more information. > > What an absolute mess. > > Moviemaker is just not there at all. > > So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus > Package. > > I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself. > > I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something > I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed. > > I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps > clearing things out for me to type them in again. > > So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list > garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible > website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package. > > The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences > blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network > places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just > love that root certificate message?) > > When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more > feedback. > > > http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/2003Jangatesmoviem >aker.pdf[1] > > This shows how the proprietary? software makers treat their > users..like low-life scum.. > > > > Links: > ------ > [1] > http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/2003Jangatesmoviem >aker.pdf
