Oh, this mail exchange is golden. Note in particular one of the responses to Bill's concerns:

"One of the biggest issues today is that WU provides no way to promote a download to an end-user. We want to promote MM2 and WMP98 to end-users as something new and cool that they can get for Windows. Three lines of text describing it buried under "Windows XP" in a page thal the user has to purposeful~/go find just isn’t good enough. Why can’t the WU client-s~de piece proactively display a bubble "Look! Cool, new features for Windows XP" and the option to display a much richer "advertisement" for the feature if the user wants to read more"

(WU is Windows Update)

This is how we end up with so much crap in software. It's like there are people in important positions who live in alternate reality where those ideas don't immediately sound fucking insane.

Thank you for posting this rare opportunity to look into the minds of people that are responsible for all this mess we have to deal with.

I'm so happy I'm not the only one who reacted when reading that.. That guy is clearly insane

Say what you will about the email exchange, I think that is the most excellent problem report you'll ever see out of a C-level exec. It's the steps-to-repro/expected/observed report pattern that even seasoned testers too often can't be bothered with. Gates even goes so far as to give timings instead of estimates: "...six minutes" vs. "after a long time". We can all learn something, especially you, Little Ms. "I've been a tester for ten years and know how to write a bug report".

The replies are horribly disappointing, however. A bunch of managers chiming in without providing actionable, useful solutions so as to raise their "visibility". Nothing in that exchange (and granted, that's just the one we're privy to) encourages me to think the problem will get fixed.

Thank you, this made me regain all my respect for Bill Gates and imagine that the messy shit that is Windows today was not his intended or approved creation.

I really appreciate how even-keeled he is despite being utterly frustrated with the experience. I think the worst he said was "crap," which I find refreshing.

That's something I hope I bring to every team I'm on.

Bill mellowed out as he got older. He used to be infamous for cursing during meetings. Joel Spolsky has an amusing story about it:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html

Fantastic read. I needed that, thanks for sharing.

Yeah, although it feels good in the moment to let loose whatever salty vocabulary you have, it definitely distracts from the substance of your point in most instances.

I got inexplicably angry just reading that

This bit from Ian Mercer made my blood boil:

>>"One of the biggest issues today is that WU provides no way to promote a download to an end-user. We want to promote MM2 and WMP98 to end-users as something new and cool that they can get for Windows. Three lines of text describing it buried under "Windows XP" in a page that the user has to purposefully go find just isn’t good enough. Why can’t the WU client-side piece proactively display a bubble "Look! Cool, new features for Windows XP" and the option to display a much richer "advertisement" for the feature if the user wants to read more?"

If Windows Update did these types of pop-up promotions I would throw my computer out the window.

Because its a bunch of overpaid managers measuring dicks and talking about small design choices that will inevitably trickle down to the average programming intern to implement.

I am amazed--positively--by this email exchange.

Scroll to the bottom, and read Bill Gates giving a Steve Jobs-ian second-by-second critique of user experience. I remember software sucking in 2003 just as Gates describes. I have new respect for him. I especially love his line

> These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

Ha! I always thought Documents and Settings\me\My Documents was weird.

He also says:

> 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.

Wow. I mean I found Linux's pieces made ten times more sense than their Windows equivalents. And Bill Gates in 2003 shared my sentiment (not relative to Linux of course)!

Another person in the email chain lists problems with Windows Update: > Critical updates that aren’t really critical--if you're machine is behind a firewall many just aren’t critical.

I'm glad somebody identified that issue. The computer "lying" to people causes a lot of computer-ennui. The computer says to someone, "Install this critical security update" but husband/partner/IT guy says, "Eh, don't worry about." In the aggregate I think this hurts people's desire to learn more about computing.

He is like he was asleep for last 10 years and only at the time he woke up and suddenly Microsoft sucks

Lol... the email is more than 10 years old.

well they sure fixed that it's now a snap to install.