For Bill Gates, only the hyper-critical survive

It's nice to see that Microsoft's Bill Gates experiences the same frustration with Microsoft's software that many of us do. In a fascinating email that Gates sent back in 2003 (which came to life through the antitrust proceedings), he takes his executive team to task for making it amazingly hard to buy and use Microsoft's Moviemaker software.

After weathering a storm of pain to download the product, feeling like he's finally on the cusp of getting his software but discovering instead that he was being asked to download garbage, Gates writes:

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 an absolute mess.

I don't cite this to criticize Bill Gates. If anything, this candor is wonderful and indicative of what any software executive should be saying about his company's software in an effort to make it better. Intel's Andy Grove used to suggest that "only the paranoid survive." In Bill Gates' case, he might insist that "only the hyper-critical survive."

Microsoft has its problems. It's good to see that the company may well see those problems more acutely than its customers do.

It's also interesting to peer behind the Microsoft firewall to see that there may not always be some grand, nefarious plan behind the things Microsoft does.

I might normally see the near-infinite requirement to download ever more software to get existing bits to work as a secret plan of Microsoft's to tie together products to the detriment of competition.

Bill Gates just thought it was a matter of crappy execution.

Is Steve Ballmer the same? To the outside world he appears to think Microsoft can do no wrong. For example, while Microsoft releases duds like the Zune, he criticizes products like the iPod and iPhone. It seems to me that Microsoft needs more Gates, and less Ballmer. It is getting the opposite, however.

[Willie Winkie]

Is there ANYONE in the technology landscape who could be less of a replacement for Bill Gates than Steve Balmer? Seriously, does ANYONE care what he has to say? Would you go to a keynote where he gave an address? Would you bother to talk to him if he was sitting on a bar stool NEXT to you? Steve Balmer is about as relevant in today's tech world as CP/M. Surely he is not the best that Microsoft can do for a CEO.

[Willie Winkie]

Is there ANYONE in the technology landscape who could be less of a replacement for Bill Gates than Steve Balmer? Seriously, does ANYONE care what he has to say? Would you go to a keynote where he gave an address? Would you bother to talk to him if he was sitting on a bar stool NEXT to you? Steve Balmer is about as relevant in today's tech world as CP/M. Surely he is not the best that Microsoft can do for a CEO.

[MSSlayer]

How are the shills going to spin this? The only part of Windows that was usable no longer is. Good stuff!

[zephyrnoid]

Oh My! That Bill Gates e-mail is a revelation for sure. For years I've been bad mouthing Microsoft as the world's most overvalued software developer so there you have it- proof positive from the Pooh Bah himself

[bwvla]

Unfortunately as the weakest link among the Microsoft founders, Steve Balmer is the most likely to stick around far past his welcome. Balmer's would like to leave Microsoft as iconic as his co founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Allen has transcended Microsoft leaving early and using his wealth to fund new ventures and play a unique community role in Seattle, Wa. Bill Gates accomplishments and wealth are well known and his transformation into a philanthropist adds to his creed. This leaves Balmer, an operational executive with Microsoft since the beginning, however one that's never shown himself to be a visionary.

[The_Decider]

Ballmer is not a founder of MS. He came to MS in 2000. He doesn't have the first clue about computing and it shows.

[The_happy_switcher]

I laughed my asss off when I read that. Windows misery does not escape anyone no matter how rich. LOL

[drpawansharma]

your comments would have carried more weight if only most of you had not been using microsoft products whole your life. people like you will start panning apple and supporting microsoft once the market position is reversed. you go where the cool is....
heck you would even need microsoft to wipe you a@#$.
i will never use apple as it does not give me either choice or flexibility, have tried linux and always run into trouble....
microsoft is what gave a computer into my hands and i shall stick with it.
bill gates in an honest guy, he is supposed to safegaurd his company and he does it at any cost and thats not necessarily wrong.
i like him and only reason i do not mourn his departure is that i know he is not going far away..

[The_Decider]

LOL, fine accept mediocrity, that is your choice. What is more funny is that you want to believe that the founder of a company that has been found in violation of many laws and have paid out billions because of their theft is an "honest guy". No one becomes a billionaire being honest. Microsoft has never and will never be cool. They are always behind the curve.

[The_Decider]

Steve Ballmer is not a founder of Microsoft. He is a know nothing executive(redundant) that has made MS even more inept then they were in the 90's.